Brake Pipe Replacement

Phil W

Phil W

Phil W

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
9,972
Location
Jupiter
Hi all,

I dare say this would get an accurate response from Lashout, Lopez etc etc.

A brake pipe has perished (corrosion as far as i can tell) on the Mondeo.

I've looked on the Mondeo Forums and it seems its a common area for them to corrode (above the fuel tank).

I've only ever had one brake pipe go, and that was to a caliper so i'm not really that clued up on the brake lines themselves. A friend seems to think that the pipe can be cut and then joined with unions?

Does this mean that the particular section thats corroded can be cut out and replaced, rather than the whole pipe?

Is this a 'safe' way to do it, or more like a temp-fix?

Its going to be sat on the drive over the weekend but its in the garage next week to have the pipe done and then MOT straight after, so i'll need to tell them which method i want doing!

Cheers,

Phil :)
 
just fix it properly. I shall probably need to do rear brake lines in my vectra becuase of the same thing soon enough. Not gonna be fun but meh - just need to do it. One thiing I wouldn't half-arse would be brakes...
 
Had to have mine done last year, just got the garage to go it. They just cut half way and re attached new for the rear, I think that the garage re routed so it didnt go over the fuel tank to help reduce the corrosion rate again - dont quote me on that though.

All in all it cost me £100 to get that, MOT and a few niggles sorted out.
 
Agreed, you can buy a roll of brake pipe and new nuts for about £20, so just run new ones from the front. Again rerouting will probably be best, mainly just so you dont have to drop the fuel tank! If you know of anyone with a brake pipe tool get a loan of it, it's actually a really easy job to do, just takes a while if you are doing it on axel stands in your driveway.
Just make sure the pipes are secured to something, cable ties are great for this, and dont worry about getting the old pipe out from behind the tank, just cut it close as u can and leave it there.
 
Cheers for the replies.

It's in for the MOT next week so i'll probably get them both done whilst at the garage.

For some reason i haven't lost any braking power, i was always under the assumption that when you had a leak in the brake system, you lost the pressure and therefore lost braking power?

Anyway, will see what the garage quote me next week :)
 
Well, its just been through the MOT.

Good new is it only has a couple of fails which i was aware of anyway, bad news is i've got to have 2 pipes replaced now because both are corroded.

1x Headlight Alignment
2x Brake Lines Corroded

Advisories

1x Brake Disk "Pitted"
1x ARB Link "Play"

Not bad really :)
 
You can never get a decent flare on the standard steel brake lines from my experience. Best practice is to replace the whole section with the corrosion in it, there should be a couple of unions already in the line, I don't seem to remember it being one complete piece from the master cylinder to the caliper. It's not all that hard to do TBH, often the worst part of doing brake lines is routing the new pipe.
 
Phil W said:
For some reason i haven't lost any braking power, i was always under the assumption that when you had a leak in the brake system, you lost the pressure and therefore lost braking power?
Click to expand...

This is correct, if you have a leak then on a modern car with a split braking system you will lose braking on two wheels, usually a diagonal pair. when this happens you get much longer travel on the brake pedal as well.

However, in this case your car failed on a corroded brake pipe rather than a leaking one. Brake pipes are obviously weakened by corrosion, and can fail some time later, often under emergency situations when you are braking hard and the pipe has to contain a high pressure.
 
neil-ste said:
You can never get a decent flare on the standard steel brake lines from my experience. Best practice is to replace the whole section with the corrosion in it, there should be a couple of unions already in the line, I don't seem to remember it being one complete piece from the master cylinder to the caliper. It's not all that hard to do TBH, often the worst part of doing brake lines is routing the new pipe.
Click to expand...

A job i'm glad i'm not doing to be honest :)

I've left it with the garage now, luckily its my friends uncle that runs it so hopefully the price won't sting me *too* much :)

I'll have to find out if its 1 piece from the master cylinder back, they needed to get the car back in the air to have a look at it as it was off the ramps!
 
I seem to remember there being a union just below the fuel filler cap, before the pipe heads over the top of the tank:) shouldn't be too expensive a job.
 
GinG said:
Had to have mine done last year, just got the garage to go it. They just cut half way and re attached new for the rear, I think that the garage re routed so it didnt go over the fuel tank to help reduce the corrosion rate again - dont quote me on that though.

All in all it cost me £100 to get that, MOT and a few niggles sorted out.
Click to expand...
Pretty much the same thing happend to me, brake pipe burst during the MOT, I just paid the garage to fix it, it came to less than a ton so I was happy. :)
 
Well, total price has come back now.

Need new numberplates because the ones i have, although BSAU marked, are too short and don't have the manufacturers postcode on.

Both pipes are going to be re-done from the front of the car, so 2x brand new pipes. They've estimated a time of around 3-4hours total work.

All in, including the MOT, new plates, minor adjustments - £250.

I *should* be putting a sad face up now, but i'm reasonably happy..ish. I've read up on the owners forums and for one pipe guys have been paying £90 or so to get single pipes replaced (whole pipe not just sections) so i've not done too badly out of it really, and i'll know that its been done properly!
 
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