Check your brake lines

As part of my Big Weekend o' Brakes, I replaced the flex lines on my mid-80's Westfalia. It turns out FM's brake line supplier makes lines for my Vanagon, so I figured I'd throw in a set. The pedal felt good, but what the heck, right?

Here's what I found when I cleaned all the road grime off the old lines

I know there are a lot of guys rolling around in older cars here. Take a moment and check your lines carefully.

there is a reason some manufactorers specify 2 years for brake lines. What you can't see is how badly corroded the inside is

And the metal lines need love too! I had to splice out 2 sections of the brake lines under my Grand Caravan. 15 feet of line was perfect, except right in the middle there is a cheap plastic retainer, which was apparently perfectly designed to hold wet road crap around the lines, and rust them completely apart in 2 tiny areas.

I blew a line off my 99 Passat about 2 years ago. The pedal went to the floor, as it dumped every drop of brake fluid from the car. With my kids in the back seat! Luckily, I was on my own street about 0.5 km from home. I limped it home with the e-brake.

I was about to drive down the road and head down a hill that is about a 450 ft. drop (I live on an escarpment). I am glad it went when it did.

Good advice Keith!

I also had a fortunately-timed brake failure. An aftermarket braided stainless line installed by a guy who I know to be very competent (i.e. it's inconceivable to me that he would have twisted or otherwise abused the lines), blew right out of its swage.

Luckily, I was at an autocross, and the only damage was cone scatterage and a DNF.

We're going to be heading to Pike's Peak in a couple of weeks. Descending that big hill in a a camper not known for being over-endowed with brakes would have been a bad time to lose a line. On the highway, the combination of engine braking and aerodynamic drag means brakes don't get used hard.

I've seen a braided line blow out after it was installed poorly on a Jeep - it was chafing on the tire and the braid wore off. The teflon core ruptured and there was a catastrophic loss in brakes thanks to some poorly selected modifications. Two people got a helicopter ride to the hospital.

Glad you caught it before heading up Pike's Peak. The brake fluid in my 87 Cressida boiled coming down from Devil's Playground once. Not at all fun to have your foot hit the floor when coming down from 13,000 ft!

With all the road salt around here it's the hardlines you have to watch, its almost a normal thing to blow one now and then if you aren't super anal about taking care of your car.

Remember, in the event of a blowout, do not let off the pedal, bury it in the carpet, there should be some brakes left.

Too many people take a "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" view of their car, but catching something like that before it breaks can save your life. Thank you for the reminder, Keith; I've added this to my checklist before I get my Golf on the road.

hehehehe...

what I had been rolling around until I got new ones....

my s10's lines look far better than that... but they'll be replaced when I get to working on the suspension... $20 for all 3 lines is so cheap for knowing things aren't going to go bad

When in the parts biz, I had an old dude come in wanting 6" of 1/8" copper tubing and 2 small fuel line clamps. During the conversation, it appeared he had blown a brake hose on his Chevy pickup and was planning to repair it.

Rubber hoses will break down internally and swell, This will cause the brakes to not release! I also had something similar happen once on an MGB clutch system, it just would not bleed. Turned out when the pedal was pushed the hose would swell and seal (thus no visible leak), when you let up the hose would shrink and suck air at the crimp. Weird.

When I drove the BMW home after purchasing it, the throttle was sticking at about 5k and after ten minutes of a forty minute drive the right front caliper froze boiling the fliud. You should have seen me pumping the brakes, pumping the throttle, jabbing the clutch and yanking on the e-brake trying to get this thing home. I should have just had it towed.

Curmudgeon wrote: When in the parts biz, I had an old dude come in wanting 6" of 1/8" copper tubing and 2 small fuel line clamps. During the conversation, it appeared he had blown a brake hose on his Chevy pickup and was planning to repair it.

The sad part is someone who doesn't know that that's a bad idea can get drive safely like that forever but if I tried to do that to limp home I'd probably plow through a crowded schoolyard.

Curmudgeon wrote: When in the parts biz, I had an old dude come in wanting 6" of 1/8" copper tubing and 2 small fuel line clamps. During the conversation, it appeared he had blown a brake hose on his Chevy pickup and was planning to repair it. Rubber hoses will break down internally and swell, This will cause the brakes to not release! I also had something similar happen once on an MGB clutch system, it just would not bleed. Turned out when the pedal was pushed the hose would swell and seal (thus no visible leak), when you let up the hose would shrink and suck air at the crimp. Weird.

An old mechanic I used to go to for inspections told me about a time he used a soft copper to replace a long section of steel that rotted out. It worked fine but he had to keep adding fluid. But he could never find a leak. He eventually realized that the copper had stretched and gotten larger.

It's pictures like that that make me question why braided brake lines take you out of stock with a 22 year old Miata

In reply to car39:

1: performance upgrade 2. braided lines need to be replaced on a regular basis since you can't see the deterioration.

Thanks I'll stick with rubber lines myself. At least I can see when they start to go bad.

Brett_Murphy wrote: Too many people take a "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" view of their car, but catching something like that before it breaks can save your life.

Brake parts are relatively cheap, tools too. Can be a little labor intensive, depending... but well worth it.