996 4S Brake Pipe replacement options

Well after a couple of years of advisories, my brake pipes have now failed the MOT Is there a better braided flexi kit I can buy? and it'll be what else shall I do while I'm in there..... Any thoughts on what I should budget and Indy doing this for me? Many thanks,

The hard pipes are pretty reasonable from Design911 - I just had them done on my turbo, so same parts I think. Don’t worry about flexi unless a hardcore track day fan, which I doubt in a 4S Whilst in, I’d get callipers all cleaned up and possibly rebuilt - that’s a couple of hours work for the four, plus remove and fitting, plus brake bleed. It’s around 700 to send to procallipers (who posts on here) to get a proper job done on them, of new seals etc - if I was doing it again I’d do that and get brakes back that felt brand new! Plus of course new ATE disks and Textar pads or whatever your own personal poison is!

If doing the bare minimum of replacing the four pipes, any trusted garage can do that by the way, for I’d say 300 including the hard lines - no need for an Indy. Porsche brakes are easy to work on

If the long front-rear pipes also need doing (mine don’t yet), then it’s YOLO - either gearbox out, or one of the Indy’s who can thread the new pipes through without dropping the box! There are some posts on here about this

It really depends on *which* front-to-rear pipes have failed. There are a total of four. Two go from the main junction box (behind the near side headlight) and lead to a joining box half way along the car behind the nearside sill. These aren't too bad to replace. The remaining two go from the joining box to the rear brakes and it's the 'crossover' pipe that goes from the near side joining box to the offside calliper that can require the gearbox dropping. The options you've got are for your indy to use pre-bent OEM pipes and fit them (around £100 per pipe from a Porsche dealer, which is the cheapest option for OEM parts) or to have them make their own. Materials are cheaper here, but require more labour - your indy will decide what they want to do, I suspect! The front pipes are shown on this diagram: https://www.design911.co.uk/diagrams/d/40923/0 Rear pipes are here: Dedicated to your Porsche needs Design 911 supply car parts, spares and accessories, to both retail and to the trade. Our car product and accessory range includes brakes, exhausts, tyres, wheels and panels and interiors. #Porsche #ServiceCentre #Essex www.design911.co.uk

You need to weigh up which pipes they mean first. As stated, could be gearbox off or even engine out, depending on which pipes and what you go for - genuine steel or after-market cunifer.

The off side front pipe can be tricky too. It's number 9 in that diagram, but that picture is misleading. It's a long one as it goes up, over the subframe and diff, along in front of the steering rack, and into the connecting block behind the N/S headlight. It will need to be checked along it's entire length, as they tend to rot where they are clipped to the body, but unlikely to have been seen by the MOT tester. It could also be rotten where it goes behind the wheel arch liner in the NS arch.

A cautionary tale for anyone finding themselves in a similar situation to the OP. I ignored a couple of years advisories on my MOT, until I found myself with no brakes at 70mph. Luckily I nursed it to a stop with no real dramas, just a change of underpants needed i had all mine changed even the one over the engine, I got mine from my OPC which were cheaper than Design 911, I got my indie to do it. Personally I would stick with original pipes rather than braided, they can rust from the inside and you won’t know about it….just my opinion, what ever route you decide, just makes sure you get them done.

I’m waiting to fit a new front NS to OS pipe (above front sub-frame). I also had it fail on the move about a month after I bought the car. Luckily not far from home and enough left to recover it. Seems to have gone where it disappears up and out of the OS wheel arch. I was aware from the PPI that it would need replacing but can certainly attest that once corroded you can’t really trust ‘em!

Good thread - thanks for the clarity on where the more complex pipe runs are

I’ve done most of mine myself - the front transverse one is a pig. On the C2 you have to drop the subframe and support the fuel tank - not ideal when you’ve just filled it! All the callipers have short metal pipes. I purchased all the metal lines from Porsche Leicester. I thought quite reasonably priced and the bends in all the right places. Did the flexi’s too with OEM. Only one done at GCR was over the gearbox when they did the clutch. If doing the front transverse pipe and dropping the subframe / rack I’d do the external metal lines on the rack. I got them from a man in a shed in Balsall Common

Yes, subframe needs to be dropped for 4S/Turbo as well. Good shout to do the power steering hard lines whilst you're in there.

I got my Indy to do the PS & hard to get to brake lines amongst other items, I had some big bills at the time and the additional £1000+ didn’t seem like much extra to sort the things that were going to go wrong in the future and man maths made them seem better value than new Porsche fuel rails.