H2 Brake Lines. Really GM???

So they put the ABS control motor up on the frame under the drivers seat. Making getting at it impossible.

So what did I do? Measured twice and cut once and now I have an access hatch in the floor under the drivers seat. Yes you have to take the drivers seat out but that us 10x easier than getting at it from below.

I will be changing all the hard lines in the truck with stainless steel (I got a complete set) so I will be going back in there as there are a total of six lines that all attach to the ABS unit there.

I will take photos and post the later for the future if someone else ever has to deal with this.

I must say it is a bit un nerving cutting a six inch square hole in a perfectly good floor.

In my Suburban 2500 when I replaced all of the brake lines, I undid the body mounts and jacked up the body a few inches off of the frame, which gave much better access to the brake junction as you are describing. I have also heard of people cutting holes in the floors of these to replace fuel pumps instead of dripping the huge tank.

Ugh, what a pain in the A.

This just reinforces my building an older motorcycle.

The real wtf to me is that gm was still using the same E36 M3ty rust prone brake lines in these late model vehicles. It's shameful. Such a major safety item should not rust. I replaced the fuel lines (same E36 M3ty steel tube) on my old 1996 c2500 only to find they had been replaced before! Meanwhile my same age Volvo had beautiful completely rust free original fuel and brake lines. Get your act together!

GM doesn't want you working on their cars, They want you to scrap it and buy another

I always just cut the lines off at the ABS unit, remove the nuts with a socket, then install them from the bottom up.

If it's anything at all like the pickups (and it probably is), remove the front inner fender. Makes threading the R/F line in and setting the master-ABS lines a breeze. Well, relatively, anyway. I hate to say it, but it's actually fairly easy as line racks go. Just annoying.

(have done way more of these than I can count... making them out of 1/4" and 3/16" roll, duplicating the old ones bend-for-bend on the floor...)

In reply to Knurled:

With all the built I lift in this thing that is not an issue. It I just the ABS motor/control unit. It is up on the side of the frame directly under the drivers seat. There is virtually no access from below due to the exhaust. Also the frame in these things seems bigger than a 2500. I don't know if that is true or not.

On a side note the stainless steel lines I got seems to have been bent perfectly. The two lines fit virtually perfect. Only minor adjustment was needed and that was mostly due to them getting bent a little while I snaked them in over the top of the frame. If the rest of the lines ate this good the purchase of this kit was an excellent deal.

I got every hard line in the truck pre bent out out of stainless and shipped for less then $250. I usually make my own using the nickle copper line bit figured I would give this a try and I am completely sold on these.

I will have to dig up the company. They make lines for customers and hot rods but also make lines for a large selection of regular cars. I assume they make to order as I took a see to get them. But the quality was almost like art. The fact that they make these for show cars shows. There is not a mark on any of the lines there they bent them. Top quality stuff. Almost to nice to be hidden under the truck.

That's a great deal! Please, do dig up the company. A lot of our pickup customers would be very interested in a "permanent" line solution. Time with the truck in the shop is time not making money, you see. Also curious if any of the lines they make are discontinued lines by the OEMs.

Making lines is easy, but there's labor-hours involved, and at some point it is cheaper to buy than make. And if the lines are stainless instead of mild, that is also a plus. (Don't believe the plastic-clad or copper-clad hype, those rust out the same as anything else, just slower)

Cant be classic tube, those guys are $$$. Wonder if they make them for Miatae?

Inline tube, classic tube, or right stuff?

I bought a whole pre-bent set of hard lines for my Suburban for $66 shipped from Amazon, GM part number 22932582. Fit perfectly, and apparently made out of better material than the original, though I doubt I'll still have this truck in another 13 years, how long the originals lasted.

I looked for GM stuff but could not find an OE part for all the lines that was readable money. Like everything on a H2 it costs 2x what the same GMC or Chevrolet part costs.

I replaced the heater control unit. The exact same part for a suburban is half the price.

Same set up on my 99 silverado and of course the rear line is buried back against the frame rail. Was a real good time fixing it in a field. Reinforced my hatred for gm products.

See if this works

The white stickers are where they have to bend the lines to fit in the box. It comes with instructions on how to straighten them. Followed them and it works like a charm. I learned a new skill.

If you can not read the photo. The company is inlinetube.com. Found them on eBay. Excellent rating with thousands if reviews.

NOHOME wrote: Cant be classic tube, those guys are $$$. Wonder if they make them for Miatae?

Don't know but someone should suggest it. Bet they would sell a bunch.

Their catalog seems to be all domestic.

Do Miata lines rust out like the GM ones?

In reply to dean1484:

Everything rusts out.

About 2005-ish, I did a restoration on a 1990 Miata. Most of the brake lines were still available from Mazda. Toyota, Honda, GM, everyone else ships lines with just a packing slip taped to the line. Mazda shipped the lines in boxes. One of the boxes was 8'x4'x1', contents one (1) line.

Incidentally, OEM doesn't mean correct. Twice now I have recieved mirror-image lines. One was a P/S hardline for a Mitsubishi that I chalked up to getting a RHD line by mistake. This summer I was stringing new brake and fuel lines in an Insight and one of the fuel lines was a perfect mirror image of what it was supposed to be. Of course it was the first line to go into the car, and getting to the lines required a shocking amount of disassembly like fuel tank removal, and another line was a week away...

dculberson wrote: The real wtf to me is that gm was still using the same E36 M3ty rust prone brake lines in these late model vehicles. It's shameful. Such a major safety item should not rust. I replaced the fuel lines (same E36 M3ty steel tube) on my old 1996 c2500 only to find they had been replaced before! Meanwhile my same age Volvo had beautiful completely rust free original fuel and brake lines. Get your act together!

Yeah, My grandfather's '06 (!) went in for a routine inspection last year and he came out with a $1200 estimate to replace all brake lines. I thought he was getting milked by a crappy dealer so I crawled underneath to assess myself one day.

Sure as crap... brake lines were holding on with wishes and hopes. Looked at one wrong and it snapped right through. One of the worst R&R jobs I've done on a vehicle to date. A full weekend, 3 trips to the auto parts store, 2 to home depot, and 2 hands full of busted knuckles, and rusty tears for a week afterward.

Edited to say I was a stubborn jerk and bent my own lines... I'm sure OEM or aftermarket pre-bent lines would have been much faster and better for my sanity.

Every time I am at my buddy's shop in Columbus Oh they have at least two line jobs underway.... Simply amazed at how badly they all rust.