[urq] Re: Stainless Steel Braided Brake Lines

[AUDIJIM at aol.com]

As Brett suggests, I am not professional driver, nor do I pretend to be one 
on TV or the Internet. I do not have a crew, and I do not race my car for 
money. I can afford to replace my brake lines regularly/annually. I inspect and 
pressure test stainless steel flexible lines every day as part of my normal 
maintenance routine for Northwest Airlines aircraft such as on the Airbus A319/320, 
McDonald Douglas DC-9, Boeing 757 fleets. Because of my (full time) 
occupation, I tend to inspect my vehicles (Audi's) a lot closer than average. A rubber 
brake line is much cheaper to make compared to a stainless steel one. It keeps 
the price of the car down. Of all places I have seen a stainless steel line 
replaced on an Airbus, it was on the water supply line for the lavatory sink. 
They were made out of stainless steel and they were replaced by a Teflon/Kevlar 
hose. This was an engineering modification from Airbus. All new aircraft 
(from Airbus) come with this modification already done. This is very normal for 
aircraft manufactureres to do. My problem is this. When I installed SS brake 
lines on my type 44, I thought I was adding an extra safely feature to my car. 
About a year after that, I upgraded my type 44 to the vented rear rotors (from 
the 91 200 20valve) and S4/S6 rear calipers. When I removed my SS brake line 
from one of my original rear calipers, the SS brake line broke off in the 
caliper. After I year of use, I thought this was a very premature failure. I believe 
I bought my SS brake lines from GPR. I am now shopping around for new brake 
lines. This list(s) is a wealth of information and opinions. I enjoy all of it. 
I might try Paragon, as one lister has suggested or I can get the OEM rubber 
lines (ATE) very cheap and I might go that route. Either way, thank you for 
all the replies.


Jim Furdyn
1983 UrQuattro #170 
1987 4000cs Q
1987 5000cs TQ 276,000 miles
1993 100cs Q Avant (parting out)
1996 A6 Quattro Avant 
1987 Mercedes Benz Truck 1219