[Closed] Bleeding SLX Brakes

When I bleed my xt or deore, I remove the caliper, pump the pads out a bit until nearly touching, then bleed, caliper upwards to funnel.
Prise apart just enough to fit the disc and usually it's rock solid, powerful with a swift bite.

For the hamfisted, clumsy and messy that lack the dexterity to safely do this with pads in, how far out are the pistons, if you're able to say? I have the same problem as the OP, so I'm wondering about trimming a little off my bleed block, or using something thinner.

Got any old pads? Use them.
If you put too much fluid in, when you prise them back apart, any excess will purge from the breather hole in the lever reservoir.
It's not ideal to do this but practise and you'll get a feel for it without over filling...

Yes I do, I'll try that.

I also find that when you do the 'open bleed nipple, squeeze lever, close bleed nipple, release lever' bit if you actively push the lever out a bit more it draws in some more fluid and sharpens up the result. I can't complain about SLX brakes, the bleed is pretty easy, the pads are easy to come by and they work well even when they have been neglected a bit. The mixture of filth and air that come out of my rear brake the last time I bled it made me wonder how the brake was even slightly working!

To be honest, while I've found the process pretty straightforward, I've never quite got the results others seem to, either with my old SLX or current XT. There's almost too many guides, tips and tricks to know which to follow!

Cheers Kayak23 I'll try that, my SLX are only bout 2 months old but been doing loads of rides recently and its been plastered in mud so i've even stripped the calipers apart and cleaned anything.

Even when they have been re bled the rear lever is still coming back to the bars so i'll try your method

Thanks

I found a great tutorial when I did mine and then later realised the vid was identical to the Shimano paper instructions so don't chuck them away 😀

The key for me with the rear was a zen-like patience and tapping the hose for about 5 minutes solid- it seemed to harbour 150,000,000 bubbles despite me straightening out all the bends before hand.

Yeah crosshair I'll remove the caliper and move it around next time as there must be more air trapped in it somewhere and its bugging the hell out of me

Do you think unbolting the calipers and letting them hang down for a good while before would help with that?

I bleed mine from the top down. Take the brake from the bike and hang it from the a bike stand. Fill up the cup thingy and attach a piece of hose to the caliper nipple and put that in something to collect the oil. After I close the caliper and remove the cup I top up the reservoir with a few drops of oil.

And do you bother with the twisting the lever stuff, and squeezing the Pistons out a bit, and the lever squeezing and so on?

Yeah I've rotated the lever 30" degrees each way and tapped the line and squeezed the lever repeatedly ...

Thats one method I've not tried yet is what you've done mudmonster and just remove the whole brake complete and bled it from there.

And if it doesn't work after that then it could be buggered and I'll see if I can send it back to CRC as the brake is fairly new.

I also followed the Epic (open syringe) method bottom up then top down, all the tapping and turning and worked a treat. In the past I made a block out of washers which was a bit thinner than the yellow one which helps too (same principle o posts earlier re squeezing pads in a bit)

It's the caliper up bit that always goes badly for me, hose popping off (even when zip tied on), epic syringe good for one bleed only then knackered and so stiff. Can it be done spot on just using top down?

Yeah, I had to remove the caliper and let it all hang loose to get it done. It must just be the length / routing of the hose that complicates things as I too did the front first time in about five seconds.

Thanks lads for all your input I'll give it another go in the morning again and hopefully get it sorted

See the thing folk do when they tie the levers back to the bars overnight. Is that to get any air up to the lever?

Probably, but if you've got the caliper dangling anyway, just tap it for a bit all over (hose and caliper) with a spanner to dislodge any bubbles.

Ok

And with the dangly top-down method, and plenty of tapping, you should be fine with the bleed block as it is.

I shall try that then, cheers

Just done mine using the nipple open, squeeze lever, close nipple method and it was fine. one thing I did notice though was that it takes a couple of seconds for the master cylinder to refill when the lever is returned, the level in the reservoir takes a while to drop so give it time.

In addition to the stuff above about tapping the hose etc, make sure the reach adjust on the lever is out as far as it can go and if there's a free stroke adjust screw make sure it's wound out significantly.

Sorted ! I took the caliper off and let it hang and plenty of air bubbles went straight into the top reservoir then left it to run thru then locked off the lower bleed nipple now its very sharp and I did pump the pistons out slightly as kayak23 described

Bookmark