brake lines spraying fluid


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15+ Year Member

Joined
Mar 16, 2009
Messages
476
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3,101
Vehicle Year
1996
Transmission
Manual
What am I looking at, price, time and PITA status, to fix the front driver side brake line spraying fluid when applying brakes? Should I go ahead and replace both sides, all four? Should I replace from mastercylinder back?

'96 Ranger, std cab long bed, 120k+ miles
 
<$100 if you can do the work.

Buy a roll of brake line, a flaring tool and a hand bender. Practice with the flaring tool, you'll get the knack quick.

I'd take the old fittings with me to make sure I got the right ones. You should also replace the flex hose, which will tell you which fitting you need on that end while you are at the parts counter.

Heck, for the fun you're gonna have, you might as well throw another $40 at it, replace the rear wheel cylinders and the flex hose to the axle. Then it will all be new except the callipers, which you should disassemble, clean, inspect and grease.

I sure can spend your time and money fast, eh?

Really not that bad of a job. Bleeding may be your biggest PITA.

Seriously, I'd replace both the front flex hoses, replace the bad line. If that line had obvious damage (not rust-through) then simply replace it. If it's rusted through, it's up to you.
I'd do them all.
 
I recently had to replace the p.steering pump and lines cause the lines rusted/pitted thru and leaked. the metal lines coming from the m.cylinder are looking the same way. I was looking to replace all the lines, but a friend of mine that will be helping me said to just replace the bad one and wait cause the others may never go bad. Or they could when I'm doin 60+ down the highway. fortunately I was just driving around in the yard when this one went bad.

thanx for the info
 
I had this happen in my old 95 F150. I ended up having to bend my own lines. Maybe I'm just not very good at it, maybe I don't learn quickly enough, but it was a royal pain in the butt to get the lines bent in the correct dimension.
I found two vendors with preformed lines:
www.inlinetube.com
www.classictube.com
Neither of them were able to help me at the time, but maybe they can help you. Finding the right fittings can also be difficult, so don't throw anything away until the job is complete.
My thoughts were that if the lines rusted through, the other lines probably are not far behind. For something like a brake line, I really don't want to cut corners and do it the cheapest way. The scary part was that the week before this happened I had been hauling a bunch of bags of cement, 4x4 posts, and fence panels to construct a fence at home.
 
Mine rear line that runs along the frame blew up yesterday in the driveway. Dad want o take off the bed of the truck to fix it, says it will be easier.
 
I would replace them all. Last thing you want is to lose your brakes while driving and take yourself out or worse, somebody else. Spending the hundred bucks to do it now may save you from thousands of dollars in the near future if something were to go wrong.
 
dangerranger83 said:
Mine rear line that runs along the frame blew up yesterday in the driveway. Dad want o take off the bed of the truck to fix it, says it will be easier.
Click to expand...

No need to remove the bed, just fish the new line along side the gas tank.
 
I'll give you a huge hint on flaring metal lines:

THE most important thing is learning to put a proper champfer on the
end of the line, both inside and out.

Once you learn how to champfer the line the rest of the flaring operation
will go MUCH more smoothly.

BTW, check, double check and triple check that you put the flare nut
on the line before applying a flare to that line.

sure as sunrise you'll do a PERFECT flare and discover the
nut is NOT on the line...

AD
 
I just redid alll my brake lines when i did my lift,

I bought 30Ft of brake line from napa, the black coated stuff, to prevent rust,
Borrowed a flare tool,
Hand bent it all(the black stuff from napa is real easy and nice to bend)
Replaced the 2 front flex lines,
The Rear Flex Lines
Axle steel lines on rear axle,
and both front line all from the master/abs unit under hood

And it ran me about 100$ for the 30ft of steel line as well as all 3 flex lines, and took me around 3-4 hours of work, and listen to allen, i think i did that on almost ecery flare, forget the nut LOL,

Not too bad a job, this year i put in complete new brake, already did the calipersm wheel cylinders, pads rotors, drums shoes.... so hopefully she is good for another 300 000kms lol.
 
fixed the line, but now the ABS light will come on. It stayed on twice out of bout a half dozen starts, the last time it went out after bout a mile.
 
As simple a solution as this is, and you've probably checked, is the master cylinder full? Before I realized I had to replace my lines, I put fluid in because I was low, and the lights went off.

Of course, 20 mins later, a line started spitting and was rusted through....so I'm fixing that now.
 
yeah its full, triple checked. Im guessing I just need to do more bleeding. The brakes work, so Im not too concerned since this isnt my DD anymore.
 
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