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Technical IMPORTANT, BREAK LINES

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Technical IMPORTANT, BREAK LINES

Q TOY

Q TOY

Got My Own Title
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Oct 31, 2003
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I have a R reg Bravo HLX and have just had to pay to get some seriously corroded/leaking break lines replace.
Yesterday i found out that there had been a recall on a mates MK1 Punto's of about that age as there is a problem with road salt corroding thier break lines, i rang Fiat to make sure i hadn';t missed a recall as i assumed they would be using the same break line material on all thier vehicles. I was told there had been no recall.

Has anyone else suffered the same problem with break line corrosion???

I think Fiat will have used the same break line material for all thier cars and just haven't had enought reports of break line faileures on other vehicles than punto's......... yet.

I am well pissed off and will be wrighting to FIat but one voice probs wopn't be heard.[:(!][:(!][:(!]

Q TOY

Quickness Its A State of Mind™
 
Totally agree mate. i work for a fiat dealership and yes there has definatly been a recall on mk1 puntos. apparently puntos have only been recalled because of the number of cases for the premature replacement of the brake pipes that had been reported. there has definately never been a recall on Bravo's for the same problem. in many cases of this recall, the brake pipes on punto's haven't needed changing. alot of the time we just cleaned them up and greased them to protect them. i own a 1999 T reg bravo and my brake pipes are quite corroded but on and r reg which is 6-7 year old car u just have to except they may need renewing as part of the cars maintainance. good luck neway!

bravoboy
 
I have a 1999 (T) Fiat Bravo which has just had a MOT and failed because all of the brake pipes are excessively corroded. Which means I have to have them all replaced :mad: haven't got a clue how much that is going to set me back! So it seems there is a problem there I would say!
 
Just been reading about servicing and it mentions piping checks as part of services on older cars (although I would imagine it's the same for all vehicles), can't say it's a common problem though if only two people have come forward with it in the last few years. Sorry to hear about this Monty, hope it isn't too costly for you.
 
T14086 said:
Brake pipes aint expensive its just the labour,can you not do them yourself?
Click to expand...

No I know I couldn't do it but hopefully someone I know can.
 
My wife complained of spongy brakes on our Fiat Brava 1999 SX 1.4. As per usual it took me a week or so to test drive the car... Well, serves me right, comming up to a x roads I jumped on the brakes and the pedal went to the floor! And I went sailing across the junction doing the longest hand brake skid I have ever done in my life ... :eek: (thats including my yoof Capri days :cool: ) Couple of beeping horns but otherwise okay.

Of course, just told the wife that that pehaps she should not drive the car until, you know, the garage man has had a look at it...

Closer inspection showed that both front to back brake pipes had burst due to corrosion (and me stamping on the brakes hard). Note: do not not try this at home - suggest doing it when car is stationary and NOT doing 60 towards any junction... Good job it was a x roads not a T junction suppose?

Got the whole lot replaced before I would drive the car again... be warned break pipe corrosion is common on Fiats according to the numerous garages who for some reason kept on smiling at me (and they must have had cold hands??!).

Mine only had an MOT six months earlier.
 
TheCROW said:
So basically this is due to road salt?
Click to expand...

Yep. There are versions of anti-icing compound available which does not damage cars but the UK government doesn't seem interested in doing anything to protect our cars.

As for losing all brakes, surely the split diagonal system should have left you with a front and rear brake?

When replacing get some copper pipes made up - they should last for the life of the car.
 
i always get copper brake lines made up at my local motorfactors. a full set for all 4 brakes is about £30 on average. fitting is a pain, especially if you kink the pipe and casuse a split. i tend to remove one as i fit the other so i know the correct path is followed. if you buy copper pipes they will corrode, it happens on all cars and is a favorite MOT failure. i usually grease them up with copper grease, it wont burn off easily, sticks to the pipe well, and you can expect to get a decade out of them if they're well covered. as i always say- do it right first time then forget about it.


or if you're really posh some cars come with plastic coated or painted pipes. you can buy them from the dealer. not worth the extra cash in my opinion but the dealer is often the best place to get better quality piping
 
or if you're really posh some cars come with plastic coated or painted pipes. you can buy them from the dealer. not worth the extra cash in my opinion but the dealer is often the best place to get better quality piping[/QUOTE said:
:idea: well im just wondering if you can get a really tight heat resitant pipe cover for that size put it on your self maby cost upto 50 quid then grease them over just a thought thow
Click to expand...
 
I have a 1996 Bravo GT (1.8 HLX). Only 87,000kms on clock. The car has lived in the north island of NZ and I can almost gaurantee it has never seen any road salt. It just recently had a WOF check (New Zealand version of MOT), and it failed and needed both central sections of brake line replaced. The lines looked either plastic coated or painted, but they were definitely bubbled and corroded.

So I think they were just very poor quality lines from factory. Anyway it was only about $35 (NZD) for 2 new lines and a pretty quick job to replace (labour cost was about $100 NZD).
 
how can you say they are very poor quality? they lasted 11 years, which is longer than they are designed to last. they are a servicable item.
 
Sorry my mistake, they are superb quality! :D

A well looked after car, low mileage, only 11 years old - of course the brake lines should start to dissolve!

My old 91 Subaru Legacy - 300,000kms, pretty hard life, driven on some rough dirt roads - brake lines are fine.
 
jug said:
or if you're really posh some cars come with plastic coated or painted pipes. you can buy them from the dealer. not worth the extra cash in my opinion but the dealer is often the best place to get better quality piping
Click to expand...

Problem with plastic coated ones (like early jap cars) was if water did get inside it would sit there & rot through.I'll agree with best quality pipes as you stated(y)
 
My 1999 Bravo has had advisories in the last two MOT for corroded brake pipes. I've inspected the car myself and all pipes from the engine bay bulkhead back are utterly gubbed (to coin a phrase).

Somehow I've got to find the time to replace them in January, outdoors, in Glasgow ready for the MOT at the end of that month. Not looking forward too it!

Regarding plastic coated steel versus copper pipes, in my time I have rebuilt and restored a 1973 Vauxhall Viva and a late 70's TR7 with copper pipes. Over twenty years old and all that needed replaced was the flexible pipe at each wheel.
 
sure said:
Sorry my mistake, they are superb quality! :D

A well looked after car, low mileage, only 11 years old - of course the brake lines should start to dissolve!

My old 91 Subaru Legacy - 300,000kms, pretty hard life, driven on some rough dirt roads - brake lines are fine.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: well go buy another subaru then

why do ppl do this? "my other car is so much better than my fiat" well fck off and go get another then and quit whining :yuck:

... its been a hard day...
 
Last edited:
Xen said:
:rolleyes: well go buy another subaru then

why do ppl do this? "my other car is so much better than my fiat" well fck off and go get another then and quit whining :yuck:

... its been a hard day...
Click to expand...

...umm....??!!

Thanks for that useful and constructive comment.

I was talking specifically about the relative condition of brake lines not about what car is better than the other (I prefer the Fiat). But if thats too hard for you to handle on your "hard day" then thats your issue not mine.
 
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