Hello everyone, I hope you all can save me again.

So I the car dealership I usually have work done at (fair and reliable) said it would be like 1,000 or a little more to replace the brake lines. (they are pretty damn rusty and went out on me the other day - puddle under the passanger door)

Well, thats pretty pricey for me and I was considering doing it myself.

So, A- Is it something a novice can do? (Ive done other simple repairs like starter, brake pads and stuff)

B- Ayone know of anyplace in the country who would do it cheaper?

C- Is their anything I can do to help lower the price from the dealership like remove them myself or what not, or buy pre bent lines or something from a fiero place.

Please throw out any suggestions.

Thanks,
SK

You can buy pre made lines of many lengths at parts store unless your need really long ones. They bend easily but you have to be careful you don't kink the line. Bending them around a can or some kind of form helps. Bigest headache sometimes is getting them loose from fittings.

You can remove them one at a time and use the old at a pattern to bend the new ones. Some parts store can probably make you longer ones also.
If your going to try it I'd invest in a set of tubing wrenches and WD40 etc. so you don't round off the fittings.
I would not try putting ends on yourself so if you don't want to buy already made get another estimate.

[This message has been edited by Dodgerunner (edited 08-04-2011).]

You can get it done a lot cheaper at an independent shop.....get a recommendation from somebody here on PFF. I would not try to do brake lines if I were you...it does take some practice.

edit: Where are you?

[This message has been edited by Gall757 (edited 08-04-2011).]

Ok, I'm getting the feeling allready that I'm probably better of having it done.

If people generally think this way, does aynone know of a shop that could do this for me at a reasonable price anywhere near Sumter South Carolina?

And, is there anything I can do to help bring down my price of having my usual shop do it?

It's not rock scientist work so any good shop should be able to do the job. I'd ask at a few and see what you find out. Unless you get a recommendation from a member.

Replacing brake lines is definitely not something I'd recommend to the novice mechanic. Because literally, your life will depend on the quality of your work.

Your best bet would be to contact a friend who can do the job, and have him help you.

Also, the Fiero Store sells pre-made brake lines. They're made of stainless steel, so they won't rust anytime soon. The price comes out to just under $200 for the full set, if I remember correctly.

[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 08-04-2011).]

Thanks a ton Blacktree... one of the major concerns for the shop was having to bend all the lines by hand.

Sounds like this kit will certainly help reduce the cost of the repair!

Any other help/suggestions is appreciated.

Yes, The first major thing I did to the 4mula was to replace the whole brake lines.
Called The Fiero Store and ordered the stainless steel kit with the braided hose lines.
Put the car on jack stands and pull all 4 wheels.
Pull off the old and reinstall the new one piece at a time.
Start with the long line that runs front to back.
It takes min. tools just time consuming.

quote Originally posted by Steven_Kreg: Thanks a ton Blacktree... one of the major concerns for the shop was having to bend all the lines by hand. Sounds like this kit will certainly help reduce the cost of the repair! Any other help/suggestions is appreciated.

No problem.

My only other suggestion would be if you still have the old rubber hoses on the calipers, replace them. You have 2 options here: stock replacement hoses (i.e. rubber) or Teflon hoses with stainless steel braiding. The stock replacements and the braided hoses cost about the same, last time I checked. And either one will be an improvement over the old hoses. So it's a judgment call. If you want a firmer brake pedal, or just want cool looking hoses, then you should go for the braided hoses.

Have fun!

[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 08-05-2011).]

Ditto recommendations above. Buy the FS stainless brake lines and hoses and do it yourself. Be prepared to have to cut away some lines if they are as rusty as they sound and it would be foolish not to replace the hoses. Bleeding will take a bit longer than usual so have someone with strong calf muscles help you at the brake pedal.

Id do them myself. Just take your time and work carefully. Either buy prebent lines or a cheap tubing bender, and a flareing tool. Double check you tighten everything as you go. Keep away from distractions (helpers with beer, babysitting kids). Like he said its not rocket science, not much more skill required than changing a fan belt. Biggest problem to me is getting the car off the ground high enough to work easily. Do the whole job at once like above and replace all the flex lines too. Is it worth $800 to spend a day on the job ? Most dont make that in a week.

The Fiero Store kit is well worth the price. Thet are stainless steel (not like parts store ones) and will save a LOT of time bending, measuring and cutting. On doing it yourself, if you have never done anything other than basic I would stay away. The difficult and most frustrating part is removal of rusty parts. If you don't know the tricks you will get into roadblocks very quickly. Now if they are that bad then cutting makes it a little easier. The end lines is another $25 per wheel so I agree should be done at same time. With pre-bent lines I think a non-chain shop should charge no more than $250-$300 to replace them. Good luck!

My recommendation on this because so many are speaking of replacing rusted parts is to invest in some REALLY good vice grips. Get two if you don't have them. If your lines are so bad that they are rusting then it's likely going to be impossible to remove with normal wrenches (you usually use a flare ended wrench on the brake line nuts to remove them if they are in good shape). Vice grips are a mechanic's best friend when dealing with old brake lines.

You can purchase the Fiero Store's brake line kit and their brake hose sets (they are different. One is the hard line kit, and the other is the flex lines from the hard lines to the brakes) and replace them yourself. The job is very involved however, but the pre-bent lines make it a lot easier. It will essentially come down to your patience in removing the old lines and replacing them with the hard lines. Expect your car to be down for a little bit.

I gotta wonder, if the lines are gone due to rust, how is the rest of the car? How are the pads, rotors and calipers? How are the flex hoses? Frame/unibody?

If you want it done cheaper, but don't want to do it yourself, get the pre bent lines and a 1 quart bottle of brake fluid and take it to an independent shop. They should be able to install them for under $500.

I would not recommend doing this yourself, as there WILL be rusted fittings, bleeders and brackets. Probably a few broken/twisted-off bolts. The problems will crawl out like a can of worms. You will likely start hitting your car with the biggest hammer you can find due to frustration.

Edit: If you replace the lines AND flex hoses at the same time, you don't have to worry about the rusted line fittings not comming apart. You can simply cut them apart because you won't be reusing either of them. BUT, you still need to get the bleeders open. And the caliper slides still need to be free and lubricated. You may end up needing a lot more than just lines.

[This message has been edited by 1fatcat (edited 08-05-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Fiero84Freak: My recommendation on this because so many are speaking of replacing rusted parts is to invest in some REALLY good vice grips. Get two if you don't have them. If your lines are so bad that they are rusting then it's likely going to be impossible to remove with normal wrenches (you usually use a flare ended wrench on the brake line nuts to remove them if they are in good shape). Vice grips are a mechanic's best friend when dealing with old brake lines. You can purchase the Fiero Store's brake line kit and their brake hose sets (they are different. One is the hard line kit, and the other is the flex lines from the hard lines to the brakes) and replace them yourself. The job is very involved however, but the pre-bent lines make it a lot easier. It will essentially come down to your patience in removing the old lines and replacing them with the hard lines. Expect your car to be down for a little bit.

When replacing brake line, just cut the brake line so you can put a 6 point socket on the fitting to remove it.

Also it is a poopy job - but change that word to the real one. Yeah I do them myself but just as others say - expect problems. The cheapest way is always to do it yourself. If you want to learn a bunch about working on your car, and you have the time and a place to do it, it is for sure something you can do yourself. If you don't want to get nasty dirty, don't want to use your full mechanics vocabulary, or don't have the time, this might be best left to others.

[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 08-05-2011).]

1fatcat - The good thing is I did the Calipers and pads about a year ago, so I'm real good there, so its just the lines.

quote Originally posted by phonedawgz: When replacing brake line, just cut the brake line so you can put a 6 point socket on the fitting to remove it.

I didn't want to mention that because it's kinda like the point-of-no-return

quote Originally posted by Fiero84Freak: I didn't want to mention that because it's kinda like the point-of-no-return

A leaking steel line is the point of no return. You can't drive a car if the brakes don't work. Cut em up! Get em fixed!

The 200 bucks, (may even be a little less) pre bent stainless steel lines from The Fiero Store is the ONLY way to go in my opinion. They even come with the rock guard wire wound around the lines just like the factory steel lines had.

I put them on my 84 and I am going to do the same thing on my 87, they don't even need to be replaced, but for peace of mind I'm replacing them!

Do it yourself, get you a shop manual if need be and read on how to bled the system and SAVE that money. It's really not that bad at all. The hardest part is breaking the old rusted flare nuts loose from the Tee's and hose connectors, but by doing as Phondawg suggested will save the frustration. Some KROIL will also help on the flare nuts as well.

Again, just my opinion, John

omg *cry smiley*

The Fiero Store

1984 STAINLESS STEEL METAL BRAKE LINE SET
This item is currently out of stock, ETA late August to early September.


Anyone know of another place to pick these up?

They buy (or used to) them from Inline Tube. It actually costs more to buy them directly from the company, I think Fiero Store must have gotten a discount for buying lots of sets?

http://www.inlinetube.com/P...stings/PE-CAT-02.htm

I bought them from the Fiero Store, and the boxes they came in were marked 'Inline Tube' they fit perfectly on my car, after straightening out the shipping bends, which were marked on the lines with tape.

Here is something interesting...

1984-88 Pontiac Fiero Brake Line
1984-87 Power Disc Line Set 7pc


From the Inline Tube site... but on the Fiero Store they have the 1984 listed seperate from 85-87. I'm assuming there is a difference between the years.

I'll call FieroStore tomorrow, then start working on getting my old lines off then decide where to order from, from there.

Thanks a TON Rwdplz, thats so helpful, at least I know I dont HAVE to keep my fiero up for a month!

Thanks to you all for your help and insight and opinions, I value them all.

-Steven

I'd say you can do them yourself. just like anything else just needs to be done right

you can buy pre-flared brake lines. But the line from the master cylinder to the back of the car, your prolly not going to find that pre-flared. just due to the length

for bubble flares, I highly recommend a hydraulic flaring tool. I can do double flares by hand, but bubble flares take alot more pressure to form.

3/16 brake lines are easy to bend by hand, 1/4" line is alot harder. for 1/4" line I recommend copper-nickel (cunifer). its alot easier to work with

you can order new gravel guard (those coils that go over the brake line) from here:

http://www.classictube.com/...x.cfm?category=59372

make sure you dont kink the lines when bending them, make sure you have no leaks. route lines as close to stock as possible. bleed the system correctly. you should be fine

hope that helps

Do it yourself !! I had never done them before , but at autozone they lend you the flaring tool, and the bender ( they take a deposit,give it back when return tools) . They were quality tools and made the job SO easy. My new son in law got the same quote, and total for parts ( with new check valve bleeders, never heard of before but way cool) was less than $100. That was a whole box of tubing which we had some left over. The hardest part was making the tube straight. Learned that trick too, use hands right as it comes out of box.
Not sure? Go buy a 3 ft, piece and fix the bad spot ( take about 15 minutes) and that will give you an idea if you want to spend the 3 hours to do the whole thing.
Oh, still not sure? watch the videos on you tube. Take that $900 and use it for a job you can't do. If you put a starter in this is a cinch.

Really guys?? Stainless ?? 25 years is not long enough for you?? Harder to work with and cost more!! The softness of the steel is what makes the connections so good

By the way you don't have to remove the old lines everywhere, some places it's better to go next to it with new hardware