I definitely will be getting a pressure bleeder soon, as I don't feel like replacing another M/C or slave for a while! From Roy's descrption, he believes the M/C piston may have extended beyond its normal ROM when I replaced the slave, and that might have accelerated its demise (not verbatim). Seems that's why the recommendation is to replace both the M/C and the slave together. I was being lazy and ended up paying for it. Moral of the story is "there are no shortcuts in MB life". Thanks for all your help Stevo.