Question about bleeding SRAM brakes without the fancy kit

I spent 2 years using a turkey baster and a ziptie to bleed my Guide R brakes. Worked fine till I swapped to DOT 5.1 from 4.0 and got this nasty spongy feel. Buddy at the Tucson shop said the internal stack height changes between fluids. Anybody else run into this with mixed DOT specs?

2 comments

2 Comments

paul_thompson6725d ago

Funny enough I had almost the same problem with my old Guide RS brakes after switching fluids, ended up chasing air bubbles for weeks. The internal seals actually swell different amounts between DOT 4 and 5.1 which changes how the pistons move (learned that the hard way after three bleeds). Proper kit might save you the headache but a turkey baster can still work if you go back to straight DOT 4.

beth_hart6825d ago

Yeah I used to think fluid type didn't matter that much. But this makes total sense, seals are way more picky than I gave them credit for.