Changing out brake lines - help?

One of the last things I'd like to do during my fall maintenance run is change out the brake lines for SS ones. Now I'm running into a problem where I can't get the old lines off. The first one I'm doing is the rear passenger and the brass fitting (body side) won't budge. I don't see much corrosion in there, so I'm getting the impression I'm doing something wrong here. There's a spring like piece of metal - does that need to be removed first? I'm holding the lines still with a wrench and using an 11mm open ended wrench to try and during the brass fitting. It feels like it's to the point of stripping! Any DIY's out there for this? Seems like a simple thing to take apart but I can't get it to move. Edit: I'm going to go out and buy a 11mm line wrench tomorrow. I have a 10mm and 12mm right now, of course it couldn't be one of those. I also let the fittings sit with PB plaster for ~5 minutes. There's no other rust/corrosion on this car yet, so I haven't had to break out that stuff too often yet. Just let them soak overnight??

My experience has been that the guys in the factory wouldn't know a torque wrench if it bit them in the ***. Every time I loosen something for the first time since it was built, I expect my aneurysm to rupture before the bolt/nut/plug breaks free. I think you should hike up your skirt and try it again. Good luck!

I can't offer help..but am subscribed to this thread. There are plenty of guys here who have done it. Where is Ed, Dell, Ferd? Been wanting to do this.

I dont mean to be a downer.. But is this a track car? Are you aware these are much less safe than regular brake lines. They are not meant for every day driving. Yes they look all high tech but they are exactly opposit. The braiding you see, thats ALL the braiding... No internal cloth braid... So when that braid get damamged you will blow a line. I guy on another board bought the farm a few years ago when his failed ebcasue it was rubbing on the suspention. Just an FYI... I kow a lot of guys run them.. but on the street they are kinda unsafe.

I thought the metal was on the outside to avoid dillatation of the line. But I assumed that underneath there was a regular line, so extra braided was just icing on the cake Sucks as I also would like to get strong brake line if I can

Kyle if that was true, they wouldn't sell them. Quit blowing smoke. OP, I've had issues doing that on two '02's in the past few months. The last one I ended up making it a policy to order both the lines and the small hard line that comes from the caliper to the brake hose. I had one that on the front left, we ended up having to replace the entire line from couple up by the headlight area to the brake hose, to the caliper. They were corroded real bad internally and that was why they would not come loose. You'd think on a car not even 10 years old this would be a non-issue.

Unsafe? I have them on my car. All 4 superbikes I've owned have been equipped with Steel braided lines. Any brake line can fail.... Braided lines are superior though. Better fade resistance. good luck with the swap.

Thanks guys, I've read all of the arguments against SS lines too and I came up with the following list: They'll rub against the suspension and wear a hole They'll get crap stuck behind the metal and wear through the rubber underneath They're only for race cars They fail quicker than regular lines If my regular lines don't rub against the suspension, then why will the SS ones? I specifically bought SS lines with a plastic coating on them that covers the SS. Therefore sand can't get into the braiding. Yeah, I don't know if all lines are like this, but that's pretty much what these ones are like. So I'm hoping that 2 days of PB Blaster will loosen them up enough. I'm also going to go get a line wrench instead of the box wrench.

Update here: I took the other end of the line off (the problem is the body side passenger rear fitting) with a little bit of muscle. I then proceeded to replace both drivers side lines with the amount of effort (think less than taking flywheel bolts off). I ran out of time, otherwise I would have done the 4th one (passenger front). The most confusing thing - I don't see ANY corrosion on any of the other fittings. It's just this one damn guy that won't budge. I think I've already slightly rounded the head of this guy to begin with. I'm not going to touch it until I can find a proper line wrench for it. Ugh!

- can you tell us which braided line you bought and if you are happy with the quality of what you got. - did you take any step to avoid inserting too much air in the system ? or you bleed it all ? - some pics of the points where you had problem removing the lines would be nice to illustrate the topic

philooo, I'll take some pictures of the install tomorrow. I bought the lines from thmotorsports but I couldn't tell you the brand for the life of me. However, to my untrained eye (these are the first SS lines I've ever owned), I'm very pleased with the construction. Very well built and the exact same size as the lines on my car currently. So - today's lesson. Get the right too for the job. I bought an 11mm line wrench at Sears today and bam; the fitting came right off. After putting the last line on I decided it was getting too late to keep working tonight, so bleeding will have to happen tomorrow. I plan on flushing out all of the old fluid, so I haven't been worried about getting air in the system. I'm not sure how you could avoid it anyways... you're putting new lines on which don't have fluid in them . BTW: Got my mufflers back from the shop today - had them to do the PSE hack. I can't wait to hear these things (they were reinstalled today too).

Ok - got a friend to come over and help me bleed the brakes. We did a combination of pressure bleeding and pumping the brake pedal. Fluid came out nice and clear and the brake pedal feels great. Excellent! Turned the car on (for the first time after alot of work) - PSM and ABS warning lights. Ok, I somewhat expected those considering I don't have the durametric to bleed the PSM system. Then 500 feet down the road check engine light. ****. Ok, it's getting late for the night - straight into the garage. The engine is running just fine, could the PSM and ABS lights cause a check engine light? I'll go out there tomorrow and check the codes and get back to you guys. I'm reading a MAF failure could cause a PSM/ABS light or a check engine? Could it be all 3?

I'm not sure if PSM/ABS errors can trigger a check engine light, but I do know that you shouldn't be getting PSM/ABS lights just from changing the lines. Introducing air that close to the wheels shouldn't cause problems at the master cylinder (requiring the PSM bleed). Did you allow the reservoir to drop below empty while changing the lines and flushing things? That would certainly cause a problem and require proper bleeding of the full system. You pumped the brake in addition to the pressure bleeder? Did you do that at the same time? If you did that would create a lot of pressure in the system (pressure bleeder pressure + pedal pressure) and could cause problems...

I heard also that pressing the pedal is not recommended when using pressure bleeder, as it brings too much pressure Even though it seems that the system can take a lot more pressure than the recommended 20 psi.

I should have explained better. I used the guide from Pelican Parts to bleed the brakes. I luckily convinced a friend to come over for the evening (for the cost of Thai food) to help out with the project. Out procedure went: Pressure bleed RR -> RL -> FR -> FL Pump brake pedal 3x & hold, bleed RR -> RL -> FR -> FL Repeat Now I've got a rock solid pedal. I'm pretty happy with those results. Onto the ABS & PSM lights (I'm starting a new topic for the CEL ). I've read multiple places (but not in the WSM or Owners Manual) that those lights will come on after disconnecting the battery. I did some more diagnostics on the car this evening and the lights were out. Hooray.