Brake Pipe Repair

     

 

 

 

 

 

At the first MOT after I got the car, 2 brake lines burst during the test. I took the car to a local garage where I've previously had work done on other cars. Martin didn't fancy this job one bit and suggested it was a job for Toyota. So, I phoned them to get a quote making sure they understood it was a GT4. They came back with an answer of £130 ish. I took it over and left it with them, they then phoned me to say it would be more like £600 - £800!!! I promptly fetched the car home. I then spoke to my brother, who works on R&D for braking systems for somebody. He suggested just replacing the centre section of pipe, leaving the equipment either end untouched. I questioned whether this was permissible, he was happy that it was a satisfactory solution but I contacted the MOT station to check with them, and they were happy too.

 

 

So my bro' provided me with pipe, fittings and flaring tool, and off I went. Taking the plastic cover from the brake pipe track I could see why the pipes had gone. All the pipework was stuffed with dirt, all the pipes were badly corroded as were the fuel lines. I cut the brake pipes as near to the ends as I could ( only the centre section of the pipes was damaged ). Fortunately, it turned out that the fuel line corrosion was only surface stuff and I was able to rescue them. The tricky part of all this is leaving enough pipe on the car to get the flaring tool in place ( you still have to flare the pipe that's still on the car ). I was able to come up with an arrangement that allowed me to do this.

 

 
 

This is a sketch of how I did it. Using the 3 clamps enables you to tip the flaring tool backwards and forwards. Items A1 & A2 were 2 small jacks to clamp the whole lot into a stable position (use some flat wood between the top of the jacks and the floor pan to prevent any damage). Items B1 & B2 can be other pieces of wood or bricks to adjust for optimum height.



 
 

 

 

1