Detecting brake line wear?

[John Larson]

On this we agree 100%.  The most common failure of rubber hoses is internal
swelling, and that only after years of nasty nuchanged fluid and neglect.
Lots of years.  John
----- Original Message -----
From: "Iain Mannix" <mannix at rmsolo.org>
To: "John Larson" <j.d.larson at verizon.net>
Cc: <brett at cloud9.net>; <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2001 1:35 PM
Subject: Re: Detecting brake line wear?


> SS hoses - IME, they're less reliable than OEM.
>
> I always get a couple of dozen "but mine are fine!" comments
> when I post this to lists, but whatever:).  YMMV, .02c, etc.
>
> I've personally not seen one rubber hose fail without some sort
> of physical interference - coming unclipped from the strut
> and rubbing on the tire, for example.
>
> I'm sure they CAN and DO fail, but in my experience as a car
> junkie, I've not seen it.
>
> OTOH, I've been autocrossing for 6ish years, and in that
> time, I've seen 4 stainless steel hoses fail prematurely.
> They seem to rupture on the inside, resulting in poor
> braking and a kinda-neat looking spray of brake fluid through
> the braid when the pedal is pressed.
>
> We're currently using some braided lines on our EP autocross
> car with a nifty clear rubber coating over the braid - it
> is my theory that dirt gets into the braid & grinds away
> at the lining until a leak springs.  Hopefully, this will
> not be an issue on our car, hopefully the rubber coating
> will keep them good for a while.
>
> Dunno.  They do provide good pedal feel, but I'd personally
> not use stainless lines on my street car - IME, they have a
> dramatically higher failure rate than rubber.
>
> YMMV, my opinion is worth what you paid for it, all that
> great stuff, but to me, braided steel is not really worthwhile
> on a street car.  Rubber works fine for me:).  Maybe the
> DOT lines (I think ours are DOT, not sure who makes
> them, sorry) have the rubber coating to address this
> problem - don't know - all I do know is that I've seen
> enough uncoated SS line failures that I'd not consider
> them for a street car.
>
>
> Iain Mannix
>
>
>