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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

WARNING 15 year old brake line rotted through


paul mac

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well i ended up coming home from meeting Rob Wild today on the back of an AA transporter, lost the brakes whilst in traffic in Preston city centre, the passenger side rear line where it runs past the fuel tank sprang a major leak with the result the car stopped :D but the pedal went to the floor :( leaving my expensive DOT5.1 all over the exhaust pipe, i am just greatfull it happened where it did as another 5 minutes down the road i would have been on the M6 :(, mine is a 15 year old j-spec and if its happened to me IT WILL happen to someone else, i will get some pics of exactly where the line has failed and post them up hopefully tommorow, i am going to replace both rear brake lines if necesary all the way back to the master cylinder and go over the fronts with a microscope, can i stress to people this is not the flexibles that run to the calipers it is the fixed steel tubing that has failed :(:(:( very worrying

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this is scary stuff fellas, my next big brake would have been exiting the M6 at Lancaster (post house) where i tend to leave it late, for anyone who knows this turn off its VERY tight and VERY unforgiving, to be honest i am now after the event just realising how serious this could have been

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this is scary stuff fellas, my next big brake would have been exiting the M6 at Lancaster (post house) where i tend to leave it late, for anyone who knows this turn off its VERY tight and VERY unforgiving, to be honest i am now after the event just realising how serious this could have been

 

Glad you made it home ok m8:)....Perish the thought off brakes failing at J34:omg:, that would be anyones worst nightmare, if you need a hand give me a shout...Will be checking mine also:blink:

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Glad you made it home ok m8:)....Perish the thought off brakes failing at J34:omg:, that would be anyones worst nightmare, if you need a hand give me a shout...Will be checking mine also:blink:

 

cheer jon, on a plus point i cant praise the AA enough, really cool transporter with no clearance issues

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I thought the whole point of having 2 pistons in the master cylinder was redundancy so one set of brakes will still work?

 

Happened to me on the fiat runaround (10 years) mild steel pipes from the italians... :rolleyes:

 

see what you mean mate and i thought that the case but when the fluid finds a nice hole it makes its bid for freedom and the pedal goes to the floor :(, i suppose to be truly independant you would need 2 master cylinders and a link bar

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Any chance you can post a pic of the failed line? Must admit I've not heard of a hardline failure until now, so am interested in as much detail as you can provide. Is it possible the line has been subject to any sheering in the past?

 

yep i will take some pics, i have never been anywhere near these brake lines aside from hosing everything with underseal some time ago and from the position i doubt there could be any means of mechanical damage

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Perhaps a timely reminder Paul for those of us with Supes of a 'certain age'.

 

Mine is also 15 years old, but recently I've had the UK Spec upgrade done, with all new calipers, discs, pads, fluid and of course Stainless steel braided lines.

 

I'm sure everyone would agree that the braking system is by far the most important thing to check, above and beyond power and looks :)

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Perhaps a timely reminder Paul for those of us with Supes of a 'certain age'.

 

Mine is also 15 years old, but recently I've had the UK Spec upgrade done, with all new calipers, discs, pads, fluid and of course Stainless steel braided lines.

 

I'm sure everyone would agree that the braking system is by far the most important thing to check, above and beyond power and looks :)

 

 

Thats all well and good (and the same as most of us have done), but Paul refers to a hard pipe split.. which is much more worrying.

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Got the car jacked up this morning and its not good, the first pic shows the black plastic cover circled in red where the fluid is coming from the second pic red arrow shows the fuel feed and return and the yellow arrow shows passenger side holed brake pipe, my car has just had an MOT but you would not spot this as its under the cover, the cover i think has lead to this problem as it was full of muck and mud the pipes are literally sat in this crud. If you were looking at the pipes for the first time you would think it was the fuel pipes leaking as they look in worse condition than the brake pipe :(.

Now i can sought the brake pipe with copper/nickel tube but what is the best way to tackle the fuel lines how do people uprate them are they flexible lines ?

car 192.jpg

car 193.jpg

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I've got a set of brand new, still in original packing, Goodridge brake lines, £50 inc p&p. Didn't realise I alreday had them on my car when I bought them:innocent:

 

PM me if interested:)

 

Lucky escape by the way;)

 

mate i think you need to read this thread again, IT IS NOT the flexibles it is the fixed hard piping that has failed

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