Blown Brake Line

My 97 Taurus blew a brake line this morning. The line runs on the driver side of the car, and blew near the rear brakes. Do I need to blead all four wheels, or just the rear two?

Well, first you need to replace the bad brake line and inspect the other lines. ;)

Since it's likely that you haven't flushed the brake system in the past year, I'd suggest you flush the system, install compatible synthetic fluid, and as part of the process flush the brakes at all four wheels.

But to answer your question, the brakes are tied diagonally on your Taurus (LF and RR on one line, LR and RF on the other) so you really should do all four to be safe.

-Rod

Thanks.

I bled them all in the end. I had the hoses checked and one more area is showing signs of ware. Going to need to do that one to.

I don't know how to inspect the rubber lines. How do I check them? I was able to bleed fluid through so they aren't stopped up, but it could be they are deteriorating.

The rubber lines are a bit more difficult to inspect. There is probably some duration recommendation like every 4 years or something, I'm not sure. However, if you look at the rubber where it bends and notice any sort of cracking, I'd suggest you replace them at your earliest convenience. As you are probably aware, they really deteriorate from the inside out.

-Rod

On my 87 Taurus, rest it's soul, I lost all braking after both brake lines, in front of the left rear wheel, rusted thru and split at the same time.. So much for diagonal braking systems.. pedal right to the board. The design allowed this to happen.. I now inspect the lines once or twice a year on my 93 and 95 as they have the same setup, dangerous in my opinion.. haven't looked at my 99 yet to see if the routing has changed..