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When brakes start to go bad...?

haromtnbiker

Turbo Monkey
Oct 3, 2004
1,461
0
Cary, NC
When hydraulic brakes need to be bleed, how soon do they totally stop working after they start to feel bad?

I am asking because I was riding one morning, and I was pulling in my lever on my hayes mags twice as far as the rear brake (which works fine) I get home, put it in the garage, and the next morning I come out and the brake lever just gets pulled to the bar with no force, and the brake does not stop at all.
Now I know it needs to be bleed, but does a brake go bad this fast? I dont see any oil leaking any where.




:confused:
 

mack

Turbo Monkey
Feb 26, 2003
3,674
0
Colorado
haromtnbiker said:
I dont see any oil leaking any where.




:confused:

You wont see any oil, they are Hayes. :stosh:

Are the brakes new? I had this problem happen to me once and it has happened to my Shop's rental fleet. I believe it was because air gets traped in the master cylinder at the factory. (not entirely sure) Be carefull though. I bled them and they worked fine, but right as i was getting on the bike, i grabed the rear brake lever as i sat on it...POP! Hisssss, the rear hose exploded in the middle. I have never bought another set of Hayes.
 

SXtrailrider

Turbo Monkey
Aug 27, 2005
1,189
0
it might be the pads in the brakes you need to get new ones after a lot of intense braking they do were out and every tw oyears get your brakes bleed
 

haromtnbiker

Turbo Monkey
Oct 3, 2004
1,461
0
Cary, NC
Brian HCM#1 said:
It could also be the brake line.

Would that have something to do with the fact that I just learned xups a day before this happened? I did them like 500 times.
Maybe my brake line is getting pinched somewhere when the bars are all the way turned.

And no, these brakes are not new. They are an old model, I bought them from Profro!
 

Brian HCM#1

MMMMMMMMM BEER!!!!!!!!!!
Sep 7, 2001
32,119
378
Bay Area, California
haromtnbiker said:
Would that have something to do with the fact that I just learned xups a day before this happened? I did them like 500 times.
Maybe my brake line is getting pinched somewhere when the bars are all the way turned.

And no, these brakes are not new. They are an old model, I bought them from Profro!
It's possible, there is an inner sleave that holds the brake fluid, if that develops a crack/tear etc it will leak fluid and you'll never know it.
 

snoopz666

Monkey
Dec 24, 2004
248
0
now residing in kamloops
its the seals in the lever for the internals, exact same thing happend to me(HFX-9 front). my shop somehow :rolleyes: rigged mag internals for mine since they were out of HFX 9 internals, so was ever othere shop here(hmmmm.. i wonder what this means) . works prety good now, but my new hope is much better. if its the internals then its gunna be about 35$ but it could just need a good bleed.
 

bballe336

Turbo Monkey
Mar 3, 2005
1,757
0
MA
i have had lots of problems with my hayes this season too. when they work they are great, but they dont seem to want to work very often which is too bad because they feel really good and stop very well when they work.
 

ohio

The Fresno Kid
Nov 26, 2001
6,649
23
SF, CA
It's probably a tear in the bladder in your master cylinder. I did the same thing to my HFX-9s. Hayes sent me a new bladder, no questions asked. First check the hose like Brian suggested... fluid CAN leak into the outr sleeve. Then bleed the brakes. If you still pull to the bar, it's that bladder. Easy fix.

By the way, problems of ANY kind are super rare on Mags, so I wouldn't give up on those brakes yet.
 

ChrisRobin

Turbo Monkey
Jan 30, 2002
3,346
190
Vancouver
I believe that 'oil in the hose liner' bit.

My rear brake feels a little sluggish compared to the front and I'm pretty sure it's because of a kink in the back. I can sometimes here a slight hissing sound...must be air getting into the part of the hose that holds the oil.
 

haromtnbiker

Turbo Monkey
Oct 3, 2004
1,461
0
Cary, NC
So, should I just take the bike to my lbs and see what they can do? Or should I just try bleeding the brakes first, which sounds like a better idea?
 

zmtber

Turbo Monkey
Aug 13, 2005
2,435
0
yeah i think it is the brake line or maybe you just don'thave the levers far enough out, i not sure but i know my hayes go almost to the bar before working somedays and someday they activate right away