Does anyone have any experience with the dreaded air in the clutch lines? 2012 1199 factory master with aftermarket slave cylinder. Carrol SRX brake fluid. Clutch gets spongy after 6-8 hot laps. Gets to the point that it stops working altogether. Constant bleeding is apparently the “fix” but there has to be a better solution. Ideas or solutions? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Oberon slave and fancy brake fluid helped me... I can’t remember what it was but it’s like $90 a bottle. I think I haven’t bled my clutch all summer.
Pretty sure that "Carrol SRX" actually means "Castrol SRF" and yes that is the expensive, good stuff. They have been calling it "React" for several years now though.
Does the fluid line run very close to an exhaust header, cylinder head, or some other very hot spot? If so perhaps a custom line that routes away from the heat would fix the issue. I'm not familiar with the bike, just wondering what is happening.
Could be, Ducs run really hot. I'm wondering about heat transfer from the slave cylinder to the fluid? Is that possible? I'll try a reroute, I know a local guy that builds custom lines.
When you figure it out let me know. This was 1 of 3 reasons I got rid of my Panigale. The others being brake bleeds every week or 2 due to spongy levers (air bubbles always came out, apparently common from all my research) and the water pump issue (another common issue, which actually has a recall about it).
Being a Ducati, I would start with your slave cylinder is leaking...cause Ducati. Pull it off, see if there's some fluid on the inside where the pushrod goes. Plainly though, the design sucks, and the aftermarket cylinders I've tried/seen don't solve the problem. They'll fail the same as the stock one. Actually, they make clutch dis-enagement worse by changing the piston size often, but that's a different thing than air in the line. Anyways,Its either the slave or the master allowing air in, if you're confident it's been well bled. If you can't find a leak on one or the other...I would start with the slave replacement if you're ready to start swapping parts. On the topic of fluids/heat. The fluid gets warm for sure, but it's not boiling the brake fluid unless it's somehow routed through an exhaust pipe. The boiling point on brake fluid is meant to handle the heat of braking, much higher than a clutch (or general engine heat). Regular Motul RBF600 is perfectly capable of handling it, no need for super special fluid. There's my thoughts. My Panigale never had clutch issues though, but my Hyper has been a PITA for sure.
