So I was riding my bike the other day, all was good until I got back to the garage and hung it up. When up the back wheel I noticed that the back brake was rubbing. I’ve pushed the pistons back, adjusted the alignment of the calliper, changed pads, all have done bugger all, it still rubbed. In the end I let out some brake fluid from the calliper port and that has done the trick brilliantly. How can it be that the brakes can be fine for ages and then need fluid letting out? How can more fluid get into the system?

It’s either that water gets absorbed in the dot fluid, or it’s air.

I had it with some old avids, as did my next door neighbour. bought hopes, problem solved. Try a full bleed and new fluid.

If OPs brakes are Avid, can also heartily recommend binning them and getting cheap Shimano or nice Hope. I lost loads of riding time trying to fettle em for things like this.

They are indeed Avids. Elixir R. Have contemplated some SLX brakes in the past. Maybe I need to do that sooner rather than later…

Hayes Brake pad alignment tool.. makes for perfect alignment

god hates you………….and/or aliens.

So I just did a bleed on the rear brake and I must have got about 5ml of air out of the calliper and almost the same from the lever. What I don’t understand is why the levers didn’t feel spongy if they had so much air in… Any ideas?

BTW your rotor is slightly bent, hence the rubbing when the pads are close to the disc, silenced by spacing them further away.

Are you absolutely certain the last bleed/pad change was carried out with a bleed block/pistons pushed all the way in and/or the lever stroke adjuster reset.

IME hydraulic brakes are faffy and need precise set up to be bang on. Avids can be alright 😆 but are definitely more faffy than others. I’ve been running a set of Elxir 3’s for over 4 years without a single problem, several bleeds and sets of pads later. In fact they have needed less bleeds than the Shimano M615’s I’ve got. I appreciate other peeps have been to hell and back with them though!

Had the excess thing with a set of Formula CR1s last week, new pads in, but the pistons wouldn’t retract fully into the caliper. Had to attach a syringe and open the lever end to bleed out some fluid to get the pistons all the way back in.

I have also used Avid Elixir CR for many years on my Remedy with no problems. My Avic Codes on my DH bike have also been trouble free in the UK and bigger Alpine trips. Its a shame the Avids arent better thought of.

All pad changes and bleeds have been done with the pistons pushed all the way back.

I’ve been using these for 7 years and never really had an issue with them. Probably not bled them as often as I should, how often do other people bleed their Avid brakes?

air in the system.

heated up when you used it causing it to rub. Bleed and then bleed again.

ME hydraulic brakes are faffy and need precise set up to be bang on

I have hydraulic disc brakes on my commuter, apart from one pad change front and rear they have needed zero maintenance over the last year/6000 miles – I would call that faff free.

@ Gary M – Yeah they tend to need less maintenance on commuter bikes. Everything seems to last for years because they don’t get the same kind of hammer per miles. Don’t have flying rocks smacking into the rotors, wheels being taken on and off like a fiddlers elbow, oh and sandy water/grinding paste clogging the pistons, getting past the calliper seals and generally wearing out any moving parts twice as quick.

People do loads of pad changes and don’t notice the degraded performance over time. The pistons being unevenly set and the rotors warped causing faster pad wear. The fluid full of containments, only noticing when the lever goes spongy because of an air void. Every time I bleed any of my off road bikes the fluid at the calliper end has grit in it, with both Shimano and Avid.