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Hi chaps,
I bought some new Hope Tech3 E4 brakes this week, on the second ride the front started to return a little slower than normal. On inspection there was fluid leaking into the braid, from the hose. Not loads, just enough that you could see it discolouring the hose outer.
When squeezing the lever hard you can see it slowly moving down the braid.
I cut the hose, and fitted new olives and inserts when I got them - I didn't want to reuse the original fittings - as it was just easier to use new ones.
I did think that maybe the compression fitting wasn't as tight as it should be, so cut the hose again, and refitted and torqued up again. Still the same problem.
So I grabbed the original fittings, and cut the hose, and tried again - still the same problem, fluid leaking into the outer.
The copper washer is on, as is the insert and olive.
I have no idea what's wrong, I've shortened loads of brakes, including hope - but not braided - and never had a problem before.
Is there anything obvious I could have done wrong?
I'm going to give Hope a call tomorrow to find out what's going on.
Cheers
Ricks
Did you trim a little of the outer plastic that covers the braid? Using a sharp knife, take off about 5mm of the outer., the olive fits over this bit.
"Hope" this helps
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Yep, trimmed the outer of the hose so that the olive fits over.
I did have to squeeze the middle part of the olive with some needle nose pliers to get the shroud to fit over.
I followed the video, it's been a while since I've shortened Hope brakes - so that was my first port of call.
Looks like it's not a common problem, so I'll definitely give Hope a call and see what they think. I can't see any obvious gaps on the olive/insert interface.
Given them a quick bleed, to make sure they're not going to suck air in via the master cylinder and will ride them tomorrow. I've got a witness mark on the hose, so after another cut and refit I'll see if that drops again.
Not sure how to help you and it should not be happening so early on in your brakes life but hoses with olives will do this over time anyway. It's only visible with braided hose as opposed to standard plastic, since you see it bleeding up the wieve.
Goodridge connectors are far better since they screw in to the inside of the hose with no olive. I thik Goodrige make Hopes braided hose anyway IMO it's not the hose that makes the long term difference but the connectors.
I've had this with my aftermarket braided hoses- it hasn't been a problem performance-wise but has made me wonder why it has occurred.
Given Hope a quick bell, they're not too sure what's going on without seeing them - which is fair enough. It's at least reassuring to know that I'm not just being a moron.
I've put a witness mark on the hose, and will see if the fluid migrates further after a ride today. If it does, I'll cut the hose, file it down so the end is smooth, and fit some new fittings.
What I don't want is the hose to go white with the dot fluid discolouring the hose.