That Was Close!

[Doof 11]

Just got in my car after replacing the master cylinder and thought i'd give the brakes pedal a good stamp to check all was well. The pedal felt firm for a second then went down to the board. Tried again, down to the board. I took a look underneath and sure enough fluid was pissing from above the fuel tank! I've been putting track days off for years now because for some reason i've just not been 100% happy with the brakes. Imagining what would have happened if i'd tracked the car with brake pipes in such a state is scary...

 

My advice to anyone running a 20 year old car, get yourself a £30 brake flaring tool and replace your brake lines. I was lucky that this happened on my drive, you might not be!

 

Lewis

[welshpug 1,657]

very lucky!

 

You should get it all piped up for under £50 including buying the tool and materials, well worth doing

[pug_ham 244 3 Cars]

One of ther flexis must be the cause surely!!

 

A rigid pipe shouldn't spring a leak like that unless you've moved it & cause a crack imo.

 

As said though, a full set of new copper pipes don't cosrt the earth & flexi's are cheap enough.

 

You can do away with the flexi pipes to the caliper & run a copper pipe right to the caliper, same as pug did on the 306 etc & several people have on their 205's, me included.

 

g

[hcmini1989 16]

The rigid pipes rust up and get thinner untill they simply cant hold the pressure and burst.Ive seen cheap copper pipe snap the flared ends off and pull out of the flared ends when braking .

[ALEX 98 1 Cars]

The original brake lines are steel and can get a bit flakey.

It's the MOT guy's responsibility to check all the lines any surface rust on them and it should fail, but the one behind the tank is difficult to check without removing the tank.

My F plate CTI had an original pipe here and it was almost like dust.

[Anthony 1,003]

One of ther flexis must be the cause surely!!

 

A rigid pipe shouldn't spring a leak like that unless you've moved it & cause a crack imo.

The solid lines above the fuel tank are typically in terrible condition if they're still original, and given the state of some of them that I've seen, I can fully believe that it would fail without warning.

[S@m 156]

Well, this has added;

 

"Remove fuel tank - check brake lines"

 

to my list of jobs to do when i swap the engine. Even though the rest have been changed it has to be done.

 

Sam

[Alan_M 66 1 Cars]

Strangely, I've a rigid pipe on the 306 to replace, thanks to a rounded off union. But, upon inspection it would've failed anyway as it was very corroded.

 

Some years ago, a company called AutoMec sold a ready made set of lines for a 205 GTi, 1.6 and 1.9.

[welshpug 1,657]

They are still going so i would not be surprised if they still do yhem.

 

Personally i'd just crack on with a roll and the tools, find it quite satisfying making a nice accurate copy of the original yourself and save a fair bit

[Alastairh 47]

To be honest, any 205 that is still on its original steel lines i would replace as a matter of course. Its worrying that the section a typical mot tester can't see is the section that is the worst.

 

Al

[pug_ham 244 3 Cars]

The solid lines above the fuel tank are typically in terrible condition if they're still original, and given the state of some of them that I've seen, I can fully believe that it would fail without warning.

Whilst I agree the original pipes can get into a horrendous conditon, if they are in this bad condition they shouldn't pass an MOT.

 

Surely if the hidden section above the tank is that bad the rest of the pipe will be as bad or worse due to exposure to the elements more!

 

I'd also be very surprised to find one that hasn't been off the road for a prolonged period of time to still have the original pipes, even the J reg shell I have thats been off the road for 10 years has had replacement pipes to the back before I got it.

 

Replacement of any original brake pipes on a 205 GTI should be among the first things to consider doing on any GTI, especially if you have done an engine swap or are making substantially more than original power.

 

g

[Anthony 1,003]

Whilst I agree the original pipes can get into a horrendous conditon, if they are in this bad condition they shouldn't pass an MOT.

 

Surely if the hidden section above the tank is that bad the rest of the pipe will be as bad or worse due to exposure to the elements more!

Whilst that would make sense in theory, in practice it doesn't seem to work that way, and the pipes behind the tank seem to often be the worse condition ones on the car and being largely out of sight, they're difficult to check and will typically sail through MOT's. I don't know why they suffer so badly, but all I can think i that whilst they are largely shielded from the elements, any water or muck that does get up there doesn't really have anywhere to go but to just sit there, slowly rusting the pipes away - the same reason I assume why the metalwork around the fuel tank is always covered with surface rust (perhaps no coincidence that it's the same metalwork that the brake lines run next to).

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

My theory is that the area gets wet and then being shielded and enclosed takes a lot longer to dry out again. Certainly as said the brake pipes in the area above the tank are always the worst area on the car.