Brake pipes - rear to front (or front to rear)

[psilosimon 8]

For my MOT I need to replace the said brake pipes, they fit into the ABS unit and the Haynes warns against getting any air as it will malfunction. Does this mean I can't do this job myself. I'd hoped it was a case of fitting new copper pipe and bleeding as normal.

[Lukey. 381]

I did mine from the ABS unit and had to purge the pump with VCDS to get the brakes functioning properly again

[psilosimon 8]

 Ta-daa - all done, what a day though.

 

Treated myself to a Pipe Flaring tool, pipe bender & pipe cutter, a roll of copper pipe, a litre of DOT4 and a handful of 10mm unions. (I had to drive back to GSF after realising I needed just one 12mm union)

 

NB: Both 10mm and 12mm unions are needed.

 

Had to replace both rear pipes as well as the main F2R pipes.

 

Started at 8am - finished a 4pm.

 

It pissed it down all day

 

The VR was up on chunks of Railway sleepers - so just enough room for me to roll under the car.

[Lukey. 381]

Do you have good pedal feel then?

[psilosimon 8]

 Hmmm - ish, same as before really.

 

Solid when engine off, then softens as servo runs.

 

clutch feels better though - fluid was black that came out.

[PeteVRT 22]

I had a lot of trouble trying to bleed my Vento after doing this, bleeding the traditional way. Didn't help that I did it over the space of a week when I had the spare hour here and there at work so the system was completely drained and left open probably had air in the system everywhere. I was pulling my hair out

[psilosimon 8]

I made up some short blanks - squished and folded over a couple of times, and quickly put these in place while i took the main pipes off. I used an eezi-bleed attatched to my daughters BMX wheel. I followed the bleeding procedure of o/s - n/s rear, o/s - n/s front. No problems at all.

[Surreyvr6 199]

Mine failed all those lines too. Which flaring tool did you buy and did you get all your flares right first time as a mate of mine said he tried making his own but his flares weren't spot on so he got his father in law to do it. Also did you find the job easy enough to do?

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[psilosimon 8]

Initially I went to Toolstation thinking that the £13.75 Flaring tool kit was a bargain. I was very wrong. Almost impossible to do anything with it and then it fell apart after three attempts - so I took it straight back and got a refund.
 
I bought from Amazon a Draper Expert Hand Held Brake Pipe Flaring Tool which is specifically designed for 3/16" pipe. Brilliant! Well worth Forty summat quid. Perfect flare every time and you can use it in situ.
 
Also bought a Laser Brake Pipe Bender and an Am-Teck pipe cutter. spent about £70 altogether.
 
The Tools made the job well easy, wish I'd thought of this years ago, every car I've had has needed new brake pipes.

Edited January 4, 2014 by psilosimon

[Surreyvr6 199]

That's great info cheers, Deffo sounds like it's worth spending the extra money as I'd have probably gone the same sort of route and tried a cheaper flaring kit.

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[Reaperx 181]

I use something similar to the draper flaring tool at work brilliant bit of kit would recommend it.

[PeteVRT 22]

Yep, agree the cheap flaring tools need throwing in the bin, I learned the hard way, thinking I'd got a bargain