Rusted Through Brake Lines

[seahook]

Do any of you have this problem with your Bonniville.The brake line under the hood on the right side under the air cleaner is totally rusted.I think this is a safety issue with Pontiac that needs to be looked into. Brake lines should not rust through in 9 years....I would like to hear from anyone else who had this problem and what did you do beyond getting them repaired....Can we let the NTSB know about this, and will they do an investigation on this?

[GTP Dad]

I have a 97 Grand Prix GTP and just had to have all the brake lines to the rear of the car replaced due to rust. I don't think that the NTSB would consider rusted brake lines on a car a problem after 9 years to be a major defect because the lines are subjected to a wide variety of corrosives such as road salt, water and etc that will cause this deterioration. If the line went bad in the first year that would be a problem they would likely address. Brake lines are cheap and fairly easy to replace. If yours is bad get it replaced as soon as possible.

[kapinossa]

I have a 96 SSE and just finished doing the front pads and was doing a road test to check the front brakes. After a couple of test stops below 25 mph, I began a higher speed run up to 40 mph. Upon brake pedal pressure, I felt a small pop and then full brake pedal travel with very little braking available. I slowly went back to the driveway at slow speed with very little braking and found a brake line below the driver floor to be rusted through and leaking. I also then noticed that all of the lines on the left wheel well contained excessive rust. There is an area below the driver's fire wall and on the left wheel well wall to contain rust on all brake lines with rusted material just caked on and ready to fail. I have been letting my wife drive this car to her work and somehow I missed this large area of rusted pipes. All of the pipes in this area are unsafe and I am so glad this didn't result in a high speed stop without much braking.
Now onto the repair, does anyone have a good reference or web site on how to replace these lines. Do you try to buy factory parts that match the orignal lines? Or does anyone sell replacements already sized with fittings? Or do I need to buy brake line material and try to bend and install fittings? Or as mentioned the replacement by a shop is not too expensive? Any help would be appreciated? Steve

[GTP Dad]

I will help you with your problem but please start a new thread and don't pull up threads over 3 months old as they really aren't up to date. As for your break line issue. You can do the repair yourself by purchasing lines at the local parts store. You will need to spend some time with a tubing bender to match the bends in the old lines. This is done by removing the old lines and laying them side by side and then bending the new lines to match. Then you will need to reinstall the lines and bleed the brakes. If you are mechanically inclined this is an easy job if not you probably will want to take it to a shop. You can also buy prebent lines at a much higher cost. Most of these are dealer parts although you can find them at auto parts stores if they have a good selection of lines. If you take the car to the shop you can expect to spend around $200 to $300 to have this repair done although if all the lines both front and rear need replaced the price will be higher.

[kapinossa]

Thanks for the quick reply. I really appreciated your information. I will do a survey today and determine the extent of the lines that need to be replaced and response with new thread. Again, thanks for the help in getting me started. Steve