Mid9 - Why You Should Check Your Brake Lines (Pictures)

[Dan in Pasadena]

I thought some might learn from my foolishness.

Here are few pictures of the brake lines just taken off my '76. The car has 127,000 miles on it and I believe these are the original brake lines. I don't claim to be an expert but those lines look swollen down to pin holes to me. Bill Verbug can chime in here. As for the outsides? Nothing to say. Freakin chunks are missing!
These should have been changed the day I took ownership almost 2 years ago.
I found all this two weeks ago when I was cleaning/painting my wheelwells. Perhaps having functional brakes is a LITTLE more important than clean wheelwells? Whaddya think? I'm an idiot, I know.

Nevertheless, I found out my driver's front outboard piston was frozen in the bore. So, since 2/3 to 3/4 of braking is done with the front brakes and I only had one of the front brakes working....you do the math! I was operating on perhaps a third or less of the proper braking action. I'm lucky I hadn't totaled the car. Calipers were replaced with rebuilt, new rotors, new rubber brake - lines...yes, I searched. I opted for NOT going with braided steel. You could never have seen this damage for example.

[Gene Wilkes]

good thing you caught that!

[Quicksilver]

I had a brake line burst on a '63 Chevy pickup when I was in high school. This truck was from before when they started using dual brake circuits. All 5,250lbs of it was headed towards a 4-way stop on a 2 lane road...
And there were lots of cars sitting there...

Stupid lucky, I dropped it into the ditch and used the ditch like a banked corner before rolling to a stop. (Can you say, "A bad case of the puckers"?)

I have been focused on braking ever since. This works out well because you always do your passing under braking anyway and that whole dying thing kinda sucks.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally posted by Quicksilver
I have been focused on braking ever since. This works out well because you always do your passing under braking anyway and that whole dying thing kinda sucks.

Yeah, I've thought the whole thing over and on careful reconsideration, dying doesn't seem like a real good option!
I think I'll be more focused on things like brakes, replacing old fuel lines, etc. YMMV

[pookie]

Is the only reason you opted for the rubber ones that you couldn't see the damage with stainless ones? I ask because I am ready to change mine out too. I assumed the stainless would be stronger and keep the lines from expanding/bursting, is that correct?

[Adam Reed]

Lemme tell you about SS brake lines. I had them on my '66. One day I was nearly home after a 50 mile freeway trip, stopped at the freeway offramp stop sign OK, made it into town OK, at the second light the brake pedal went to the floor and I wasn't fast enough with the handbrake. The front end buried itself under the rear of a big Chevy at maybe 10MPH. Crushed the hood and both headlight buckets.

What happened? The stainless jacket frayed on one front line (no dual-circuit setup on my '66 needless to say), the inside teflon lininng won't hold pressure by itself! The lines were DOT, and were from a reputable place. Maybe 10 years old.

I told Bruce Anderson this story once, he told me this happens A LOT and is why he does not use stainless brake lines on street cars.

Tell ya the truth, I can't feel a lot of difference between stock rubber and stainless lines.

There you have it.

Adam912.Out.

[azasadny]

Dan,
I'm glad you caugt that and shared your experience with us. I'll be replacing all of my brake lines, etc... this spring.

[cbeers]

The lines were DOT, and were from a reputable place. Maybe 10 years old.

Perhaps this is a good time to point out that brake lines can and should be replaced more often. I know I know, the OEM ones go forever right? Maybe, maybe not.

I read all about SS vs rubber and went with D.O.T. SS.

I will just change them out after 'X' amount of time. I think the 'X' factor will depend on my use and amount of track time. That's one good thing about track time, I inspect as much of my car as possible and during that should see anything externally wrong with my SS lines. Internally? That's another story and why I'd just replace them sooner than later. They are cheap and easy to do and since I will be flushing the sytem once a year (or more) anyway, why not?

Just my $0.02

-Chris

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally posted by pookie
Is the only reason you opted for the rubber ones that you couldn't see the damage with stainless ones? I ask because I am ready to change mine out too. I assumed the stainless would be stronger and keep the lines from expanding/bursting, is that correct?

Pookie, Adam's story is like a lot of stories I read here in searching. At one time I thought stainless would be the way to go too. I consider Bill Verbug one of the gurus here especially on brakes and I believe Bill doesn't go for steel lines either. Some will disagree strongly, but really...how many times have you heard of someone hitting road debris big enough or hard enough to tear a brake line? And if you did, wouldn't one torn brake line be the smaller of your problems? The car would be screwed up and you'd likely be off the road in a ditch. I went with DOT approved rubber lines. My personal opinion for everyone would be to do the same.

[bigchillcar]

must explain why the brakes on my 964 put my head through the windshield, dan. jim has already replaced my old lines..bet they were same as yours.

[Early_S_Man]

Just to add to what Adam experienced ...

I had three stainless hoses fail at 8, 9, and 10.5 years on my long-term test vehicle, a Datsun 620 pickup truck! None were because of fraying or damage to the stainless braid ... the Teflon liner simply cracked and failed after years of use!

I believe the stainless hoses should be changed after 7 years ... because you may not be able to see any damage! My suggestion is to leave the DOT approval tag ON the lines, and mark it with an expiration date, just like a prescription!

[cbeers]

Good advice Warren. I might cut that to 5 years just to be safe......

-Chris