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Bleeding Disc Brakes With Water Good Or Bad


zoonick

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hi

I know you can bleed maggies with water but i have never heard if its possible to bleed disc brakes with water. At the moment im using a hope mono trial disc brake. so im wondering if i'll be able to bleed this the same way as you bleed maggies. Fill a bath with water add anti freeze put the brake under water (after removing the 3mm and 5mm bolts) then pull the lever 200 times. So is this safe to do with my hope or am i going to break it.

thanks alot zoonick

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Nooooo way.

Magura's have plastic internals, meaning they don't really need oiling up that much.

From what I understand, Hope's have metal internals, meaning they really need oiling up that much. - Water+Hope=bad.

Bad= seized pistons+wasted money.

:turned:

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You don't need a bleed kit for hopes, just an ice-cream tub, a length of hose that pushes on the bleed nipple, some dot 5.1 fluid, and the guide to bleeding on the hope website. (Y)

NEVER EVER BLEED DISCS WITH WATER!!! It's not a matter of it damaging them from the fluid it's self, it's just that discs get hot, often very hot, so the water will boil the first time you go down a hill, this will force steam through your seals, probably shagging them, and definitely requiring a bleed. The last guy I know to think, 'meh, it'll be ok for a little bit,' boiled his break the 1st time he got on the bike.

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You don't need a bleed kit for hopes, just an ice-cream tub, a length of hose that pushes on the bleed nipple, some dot 5.1 fluid, and the guide to bleeding on the hope website. (Y)

NEVER EVER BLEED DISCS WITH WATER!!! It's not a matter of it damaging them from the fluid it's self, it's just that discs get hot, often very hot, so the water will boil the first time you go down a hill, this will force steam through your seals, probably shagging them, and definitely requiring a bleed. The last guy I know to think, 'meh, it'll be ok for a little bit,' boiled his break the 1st time he got on the bike.

yeah, they also take DOT 4

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The last guy I know to think, 'meh, it'll be ok for a little bit,' boiled his break the 1st time he got on the bike.

Yeah he had to buy a new brake afterwards, the brake is now on my desk requiring all new seels in the lever.

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I have never used water in my magura's and I can't see the point. A well bled set that are done with magura blood are going to perform way better in the long run than some that are filled with water.

1. If your brakes get hot (like if you leave them in the sun) then you will get steam building up in the brake meaning that they will go spongey.

2. Not only is magura blood not water and therefore not prone to boiling until at much higher temperatures, it is also much cleaner than water. Water contains limescale which could deposit itself on parts of the cylinder and piston scratching them and causing leaks as well as containing loads of bacteria and micro organisms so its quite likely that you will have a load of green gunk floating around in your brake too!

I don't see how any of the above can be good. The only time that I would ever use water is if I needed to urgently bleed my brake for a ride and I didn't have the proper bleed kit. I would then flush out the whole system and pump it full of fresh magura blood as soon as I had the chance.

I ran a set of magura's for 5 years with magura blood and I never bled them once! They never became spongey and they never leaked. They are in fact still going strong on my friends bike having had a bleed (with Magura blood) when I fitted them to his bike. In my opinion the only time a bleed is necassary is when you tear a hose out, change the length of a hose or if they do for whatever reason become spongey.

As for using water in a disc brake though, DO NOT USE WATER. You will have major issues with boiling as mentioned above!

Edited by Peaky
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Right okay, ruption... no it doesn't... end of!

Peaky, it feels so much nicer and once you've had water oil feels horrible. I've had mine bled with water for over 2 years now and not had a problem apart from having one of the pad nipples snap off, but then thats not anything to do with water. It won't wreck your seals, it wont boil in a hs33 and it doesn't "go spongey in the warm weather". If you live in a hard water area using de-ionised water is your best bet, if not you'll be fine. The bacteria and micro organisms don't do anything except die off in your brake from multiple concusions after being bashed against the hosing.

however, in a disc brake... using water will most certainly boil. It might be alright BRIEFLY in a magura brake, but not a chance in a hope one. The discs i've had always get hot enough to boil water on the rotor after applying the brakes for a short amount of time, so one stoppie and your brake wouldn't work.

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