So, I've made a bit of money recently and one thing I've wanted to do is have all the calipers on the Coupé powdercoated and refitted with all slotted disks and EBC redstuff pads, DOT5.1 fluid and stainless steel hoses (Hel do a set for the 20VT).

One thing I did want to do though was replace the small brake pipes on the rear and the ones going to the calipers on the front. I wanted to replace these with custome made stainless steel ones and stainless steel nuts.

My problem is that I cant find stainless steel brake pipe anywhere! Or even the stinless steel tubing nuts.

Yes I know that stainless steel nuts going into a alloy caliper will sieze and that's probably why they're not sold or made, but I would have expected to find some pipe at least.

Has anyone replaced their brake lines themselves before? If so can you recomend a good flaring tool and somewhere to buy the nuts and pipe please? I will jsut go with normal steel pipe if stainless is not available and the same with the nuts.

Any experiance, knowledge or opinions welcome!
Thank you in advance
Carl

Just buy the Hel kit. You get 6 pipes, 2 for the front and 4 for the rear.

I doubt you'll find steel, let alone stainless for the solid pipes.

Just use the copper coloured pipe you get on eBay / local motor factors. It will last for ages and tbh the unions you get aftermarket tend to also be better for resisting corrosion.

And for what it's worth, I found redstuff pads shockingly bad when cold.

I didnt know you got the solid pipes with the Hel kit, can I ask where you got yours from? I know where I can get a hel kit for a coupé but i'd like to make sure it's the same one.



I have copper pipes on some parts of the car at the moment and they're so soft I'm scared they'll snap or kink.

I have no problem with EBC redstuff, infact I've used the EBC yellow stuff, they are worse when cold but I like that, stops me being too overconfident.

You can fully replace all the pipes with the kits race and rally do.There not cheap and take a lifetime to fit right.

Copper is the best thing for pipes.Just make sure you coat them if there exposed.

The Pipe diamiter is 5mm right? I've been measuring one of them with a dicital calliper and 4.88 seems like an odd size to me, half way btween 3/16ths and 5mm.

Unless you have an absolute need for braided hoses i would stick to the normal copper pipes.

There have been many many stories on this forum of the braided hoses failing. All from different manufacturers.

I had a set of HEL on mine, the first set failed luckily it was noticed on a ramp before things got nasty on the road.
The second set showed sign of ware after a year of ownership. Im now changing them back to standards as i have no faith in them. The issue isnt so much with the rear hoses its the fronts.

there must be a reason, could they be catching on non standard part like oversized wheels? the fiat coupé is the only car i've ever heard of braides hoses failing on.

If i do go for it maybe I'll try and protect them with something, coat them in polyurethane or soemthing.

Has anyone got any pictures of the failed or failing hoses?
might give some indication to why.

They rub on the arches or the shock as there isnt a proper mounting for them.

I protected mine as well and they were not rubbing. However they still showed signs of wear. My first set failed because the thread on the actual hoses were poorly made and came loose.

I'm sure I can fix that, can make a propper mount, cover them with spiral wrap and thread them through some rubber gromets so the gromets ware not the hose. These are all methods i've seen used as standard on other cars.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h48/solouko/DansScoobySTDI/P4081333.jpg

Like this goodridge hose I fitted yesterday, the standard one had spiral wrap round it to protect it.

I belive Goodridge were the worst offeneders of fit to failure rate. I also belive they no longer manufacture them for the coop for just this reason, Goodridge that is

Seen a few issues with the HEL ones too. I believe proccys were hel hoses when they exploded so to speak leaving JBT in need of a new pair of pants

Hmmmm, was very close to buying a set of hel hoses. On second thoughts..

For everyday driving and light track use they really make little or no difference to your braking in all fairness mate.

Whenever someone on the forum tells me not to do somethign because "It cant be done" I jsut take that as a challenege... you just wait, I'll get round to the LED dash conversion too you know

But in all seriousness, thank you for the advice, It has all been taken on board.

Stainless steel will fracture and work-hardens, you should use copper/nickel pipe as it is not susceptible to corrosion in the same way copper pipes are.

Okay, does anyone know where I can get some 5mm tube from for my brakes?

I dont want standard copper, either stainless steel or plated copper would do, I reannt ned something shiny jsut for those pipes on the brembos that join the two halvs of the calliper together.

I really cant find anythinh anywhere, I'm totally flumexed!

Also, do you think this is sutable for the fiat fittings?
http://www.abbeypowertools.co.uk/car-repair-tools/brake-repair-tools/showitem-13796-49447.aspx

Why dont you just paint the pipes ....
they are coppe for a reason ;-)


Moderator; final warning on text speak; next time you're banned!

Yes that tool is fine, it can however be found for less elsewhere.

Do the pipes need to be shiney for show/display purpose?

If so, you can polish copper so it gleams.

Yeah, I'd really like it to look shiny, but I was hoping for chrome or silver. I'm thinking the only way I'll achieve it is to get some pipes, dip them in a bath of solder, polish them up with a bit of brasso then laquer or varnish them.

You would have thought tined or nickel plated pipe would be easier to come by, all the other fittings I can get in wither stainless steel or nickel coated brass.

I'll have to get onto some of our suppliers at work, see if they know anyone =/

Seems alot of work for something that you can hardly see when the wheels on (spraying the pipes silver would suffice in my opinion)... but good luck and post some pics when its done

Puts fear into my heart just thinking about that incident.

I run stock flexi pipes and copper lines.No probs.

Will these fit the coupe? Fiat brake pipe kit

*clicks link*

"ELECTRONICALLY TESTED"...

...

...FOR WHAT?!?!

Electrical conductivity?

Dont get me wrong, it looks like a nice pack, but that listing is rubish, imperial pipe threads and hydrolic connections are complicated enough without quoating BS numbers. Seems like a load of BS too <_<

And I've jsut realised I was going to phone out hydrolics suppliers in work today to ask for some advice on the matter =/

Best shop name EVER
http://www.thenippleshop.co.uk/acatalog/Steel_Hydraulic_Straight.html

When I first got their catalogue I just walked round the factory with it for a whole day.

I will never go near them stainless steel braided line again. I am talking today because God is great.
I had them fitted to my car about 6 months ago, color code and all, look the part and very racy like.
Coming back from a trip to Strasbourg (FR), i got to London Park lane. As i approched a traffic light doing about 25 MPH, i touched the brake, and the pedal went straight to the floor. when i managed to stop the car, there was brake fluide everywhere.The brake line had bent and cracked on the far side.
When i bought them,i was aware of some horrible stories about them from this forum, but went ahead and got them. However, i made sure i had the upgrade version, with the bent end that goe in the calliper, to avoid the line been caught or damaged by the wheels.
Please stay away from it. if you need to renew your brake lines, get the stock one, and you will be safe at all time. Imagine driving on the motorway at 70 plus MPH, thinking you might not have your brakes available next time you require them.

Update:

Thought I'd update you guys, decided to install HEL braded brake lines, here's some pics.


Now, Having installed this kit myself and being used to fitting things to cars that were never ment to fit, my personal opinion is that these braded brake lines should NOT be fitted to a coop.

I've done a lot of carful modification to all the mounts to get these to fit in such a way that they dont rub and I can believe that if you fitted them without any modification they'd be extremely dangerious.

you might be able to see in on of the pics on the front brake line that there are little yellow things, those are polyeurethane steering bushings that I've fitted over the brake line to stop it rubbing against the car, the standard lines have rubber ones fitted which fell apart when I removed them.

I am now very confident that with these modifications that the brake lines will not fail, however the braking on the car really isn't that much better but I'm woried that it's something I've done during bleeding as I drained the entire system and may still have an air lock in the ABS unit or the brake master cylinder.

Does anyone know if there are any bleed points on these?

No there isn't.
Make sure you bleed the brakes starting from nsr osr osf NSF.
Sometimes the brakes need bleeding 2 or 3 times.

The stress of the pipe on full lock was the main failure of these.
Well done for the impartial comment.
Most people don't like to admit the products not the best if they have spent time and money on it.

I´m pretty confident stating that mine (x2) failed because of the internal rubbing between the wire braiding and the hose itself. Don´t want to start tirade on product qualities, but my modest opinion is it´s all about the look.

Thats one thing i dont like.
The stock hose you can see clearly whereas any degrading of the materials isnt visible through the outer coating.

There's a lot of veriety with brades brake lines, different makes, such as HEL and goodridge and many options within them, such as different materials, diamiters and especially outer sheathings which come in different colours. I went with clear which in theory would alow you to see any brakages, weather that will work in practice is another thing, but I'm willing to try it out... you know... FOR SCIENCE!

I am interested in what combinations have failed though and if anyone has any pics of the damaged hoses so we can see the ware paterns to know what to look out for.


I may try bleeding my brakes again some time, the next time the guys come down and it's relitivly warm and sunny.