Over due for brake lines - all of them

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My Buick Century needs all new brake lines, probably way over due, they are super rusty crusty and it's probably going to be expensive. I am leaning towards providing my own NiCopp brake lines and having an Indy shop to the work.

One of the local dealerships want $1100 for this job and quoted up to $200 in parts with up to 9 hours labor, ridiculous!

I've called one Indy shop so far, he wants $600-800 without looking at it, that was with his parts, but he uses steel lines.

Anyone have any thoughts on the job or about nicopp?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00A02C9H0...=A2HE3HXB7MNHAF

I'm un sure on the size of line I need and also how many feet, but I'm guessing I'll need two 25 foot rolls.
 
I had a brake line go out on my old acura. The dealer quoted me around $1000! I had a local place do it for around $300 instead. He just left the old line and made a new one and re routed it. I sold the car shortly after so I'm not sure if the steel wouldve lasted long... That nicopp seems like a good idea to me.
 
I not sure that the dealer 9 hours of labor is incorrect. On my old Neon, I had to replace a busted/rusted a brake line, you need to pull the gas tank, for starters. Lot of things break when pulling stuff apart. Then someone has to go and bend the line to follow the car path and then form the ends. Maybe when us DIY's do it, we ok with a little messing bending here and there. When you do it for someone else, they want NASA precision . When you buy the coiled tube, to make perfectly straight run you need tools to straighten the rolled coil. Take a look and an Eastman catalogue as you will see what I mean. Then you need to count on flex hoses coming apart and going back together. Brake cylinders and callipers and brake master cylinders breaking free of the rust. Since you there, should replace any fuel supply lines. Usually made of the same stuff. I think if I was to do it right on my car, in the driveway, it would be a full Saturday. For all brakelines, the labor time seems right. As for the materials, a shop doesn't want to bend entire brake lines from coil.

But there was a shop in MIchigan that made SS brake lines. Maybe for your car??
 
Trav recommended Nicopp in the "wash your vehicle" thread. With his experience and the cars he sees up there...yeah, I'd go with that.

When I worked at Advance, we had a bunch of it, and the shops loved it. Even down here where brake lines don't usually rust out.
 
Nicopp is not only ideal for corrosion resistance, it bends like butter. So much nicer to work with than steel. It's well worth the premium.
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Trade the car in. Thank me later.


I wish I had done that before I put all this very recent money in it . Lots of recent work including the new tires, triple edge 4T65e, suspension work, all new brakes, Hindsight is 20/20 eh?

But I'd rather not stick someone with dangerous brake lines and it doesn't need much else besides the brake lines to probably put a lot more miles on it.

I place a high value on not having a car payment and I may need to have a car payment in the near future so one car payment instead of two is okay by me.
 
How are you liking the transmission? Also, do you have the FelPro intake gaskets? If so it sounds like you're good to go!
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
How are you liking the transmission? Also, do you have the FelPro intake gaskets? If so it sounds like you're good to go!


The transmission is amazing, it shifts beautifully in every scenario. The gaskets I'm un sure of, because the previous owner had them replaced about a year before I got it.
 
Yeah I went through this on a 2000 century, bought it cheap with no brakes. I also did the fuel lines that ran adjacent, used nylon for those.

Lucky for me all my bleeders worked. Went through this on a saturn and the drums had to be cut off to get at the wheel cylinders and I lost a brake backing plate on one side to rust while trying to grind the screw heads off that hold the cylinders in place. So yeah it's a thankless job that gets big when not looking.

I saved a little labor on the Century by splicing/ flaring/ unionizing the brake lines at the firewall; the short stub coming down from the master cylinder wasn't rusty and had lots of bends and clips to the subframe.
 
It is very time consuming to bend all those lines, so that labor rate sounds right.

Without a lift, doing them yourself would be a real neck stainer.
 
I replaced a bunch of hard brake lines on a 1990 Dodge Dakota truck. Pre-bent steel lines were cheap from the dealer, and they had them the next day. This was only a couple of years ago too, so the truck was already pretty old at the time and they still had the parts and got them quickly. They were not that hard to install either.

How are the flex lines on that car?
 
This is an easy car to do lines on. Go with the NiCopp 100%, it much easier to work with.
It bends easy, it flairs easily, seals very well and is corrosion proof, a one time fix. It superior to steel, poly armor and even stainless because of its ease of use.

The easiest way to do this is replace the hoses at the same time, Rock has good prices.
Get the NiCopp online for a better price. Its probably all 3/16 but on some cars with a single line to the rear and from the master cyl may use 1/4 so check if any are thicker that others.

2 x 25ft rolls will do almost any car, SUV or pickup.
Get a flaring tool, you can rent one but they are usually beat or they don't have bubble flair tools, its cheap enough to buy one and keep it around.

This set will take care of any anything you need.

http://www.amazon.com/OTC-6502-Master-Brake-Flaring/dp/B0075XHDHI/ref=pd_cp_hi_1

This will help with tight bends.

http://www.amazon.com/OTC-4403-Tubing-Be...s=tubing+bender

Buy the threaded ends as you take it apart.
Start by soaking the bleeders overnight and make sure they are free, begin with the rear line(s).
Cut the line at the fittings flush at the connection and ABS pump, use a 6pt socket to remove the fittings.

Go fitting to fitting, if it uses a connector going to other lines do not cut all of them.
Un clip the old line and remove it as carefully as possible without bending it too badly. If it goes up over the tank you may need to lower (not drop) the tank to get your hand up in there.
If you need to cut the line off just save the pieces for reconstruction.

Lay it out and role out and straighten the NiCopp, you don't a special roller tool it bends easy enough by hand.
Leave a couple of inches at each end for the fittings and flaring, bend the new line to the shape of the old one.
You can take some liberties with the bends by giving them a little less radius if they are a real tight bend.

Install the new fittings (take the ones you removed and match them at AA, AZ, Napa) then do your flair. You can tell which type of flair you need from the line left in the old fitting. Do not forget to put the fitting on first!

Install the line in the original clips, if some broke just use a zip tie, its no problem.
Flare nut wrenches are a plus but seeing as you only putting it together a regular wrench will work okay.
Repeat for the rest of the lines.

Some lines to the master cylinder have coils in them, you can duplicate this by carefully wrapping the line around a glass bottle.
Bending NiCopp is easy, bend it over a socket, glass bottle or for tight bends a tool, most of the shaping can be done just by hand.

Practice flaring before doing it on the new line. Use brake fluid on the line to cut it and on the end being flared. The fluid acts as a lubricant and gives a much nicer flair and smoother cut. Be sure to debur the cut end before flaring.

I priced this out quickly with the tools, line, fittings and hoses come to less than $230.
 
Trav I appreciate the awesome information about the job but I don't know if I'm going to tackle it myself. I will probably just provide the two rolls of nicopp to the Indy shop and let them have at it. I don't really have anywhere to work on the thing and it sounds very time consuming also.

I am curious though if I provided the shop with the lines will they need anything else or will they have everything else on hand already?
 
That should be enough for them, they should have the fittings or be able to get them easily enough
This is one of those jobs thats easy to do and where you can save a lot of $$ if you have the time and place to do it.
 
I just called another Indy shop and they said that's what they use is Nicopp, he said he needs to look at it before giving a quote but he estimated $700
 
Understandable, they need to know if the bleeders are free and if anything else is shot. If they use NiCopp thats a fair price for all of them. You have about 5-6 labor there.
 
I'm not sure his much more labor the fuel lines will be but I think I'll get an estimate for all brake and fuel lines and see what happens.
 
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