I've changed oodles of brakes hoses in my life but this is a brand new Borg & Beck hose leaking. I have fitted it in the reverse of the old one with a copper washer each side of the banjo type fitting at the caliper......and it drips brake fluid and for the life of me I can't see why. I've been careful not to over tighten, and it all looks the same as the one that came off which didn't leak, but was a bit perished.

 

Is there a trick to these banjo fittings that I'm missing. I mean the copper washers should make the seal shouldn't they.  Very frustrating.

New copper washers or re-used?

Got a feeling the originals are a tri-lobular shape rather than fully round? So the grime on the caliper may have a (non-circular) area where the original washer will/did/would sit on clean flat metal, but a fully round replacement may not, and may be held off the mating face by the grime/corrosion?

Funny you should say that. The new copper washers are round and I spotted that the inner old washer was tri lobe. Like a good boy I had used the new washers......like an inquisitive so and so after the leaks I have just tried the inner tri lobe washer off the original and hey presto......No leak.  Hmmm. I had cleaned the mating faces as well as I could in both cases.

 

Anyway, many thanks for your input. I think the tri lobe one is staying put somehow.  I have already moved on to trying to remove the front roll bar bushes and thats not as simple as some have suggested, though maybe I need a universal joint on my socket set to get the 13mm firmly located. I've disconnected the roll bar link to give a bit more space, but the driveshaft seems right in the way of the lower bolt...not that I've even got the 'easy' one undone yet..

 

 

Edited 18 May, 20188 yr by alfalincs

I agree, I'd always make sure that the flat sealing area on the calliper is cleaned back a bit further than need be to avoid this happening, maybe remove these washers and gently dress both sides of each on a very fine bit of wet and dry paper, not an ideal idea but it might clean them up again ready for re-use after you have cleared that a bit more.

 

Edit:- as you were posting while I was writing I just left things as I had written them, but yes, I can confess to choosing to re-use the original seals when I replaced a calliper on my old Passat.  Only issue with these aluminium seals is, at least on VW Group cars, maybe model specific for some unknown reason, but at one time quite a few people found a puddle of fluid at their rear wheels on cars that had rear discs, turned out salty water in winter had landed on these seals and corroded a breach across the sealing face, any aluminium seals that I have taken off rear flexis have always looked as good as new - though I did have that issue with the highish pressure fuel system on my old Passat a few years after replacing the original fuel filter - reversed out of the garage one winter's morning and discovered a trail of wet stuff - petrol!! 

Edited 18 May, 20188 yr by rum4mo

Ha ha...just got the roll bar bush done with existing tools and using jack to lift suspension arm to get driveshaft out of the way of lower bolt.  When I bought the bush kit I was careful to buy one which included brackets and new bolts. I think this paid dividends in terms of ease of getting the new screws/bolts in as there was no rust on them. I had no idea of the quality of what would arrive, but it turned out to be a Bilstein bush kit that arrived, which will do for me. 

 

Other than that it was just a lot of jiggling my ratchet socket a lot in small movements because of the lack of clearance under the arch and round the roll bar.  Thats about 1/4 of my MOT work pretty well done today, so I'm fairly happy with progress.

 

One thing does irk me a bit. Why don't they send retaining clips with the new brake hoses ? The one on the suspension leg crumbled as I removed it, and I bet they all do, so I've had to order some new ones, along with a couple of caliper bleed nipples, one of which I chewed up removing it, and I will no doubt be doing the same to the other tomorrow.

Maybe I've always been lucky, but buying cars from new and keeping them typically 13 years has seen me cleaning up all brakes either every other year up to when the car is maybe 8 years old then cleaning them up every year after that - and that seems to include removing these flexi pipe retainers and covering them and the storage point with Waxoyl - so so far, no new retainers needed, though it would not harm me to keep a pair as spares, I must remember that the next time I order parts!

 

I seem to have a fascination for replacing brake nipples every 8 years as they or at least their hex section seems to "go down" a size quite quickly, also after a few fluid changes the cone seat/sealing point has ended up being a step so not so good at sealing.

I have only taken on this maintainance job reluctantly as my son (whom we support) seems uninterested in doing more than fuel/oil.washer bottle even though he is capable. He can't get to work without a car. He doesn't earn enough to buy a car. We'd rather he was in work than not by a million miles. It does make me very irritated as I spent my youth maintaining some hopeless case cars and keeping them going somehow or other, and making them quite nice in the odd case. This car (ostensibly my wife's) therefore qualifies for neglected status, with only the necessaries done for MOT. No I'm not irritated about it, let be honest I'm pretty disgusted with the way they neglect it, shouting has never done any good either. I was halfway to shelling out for a new..(to us) car for them, but then I thought b****r it, why should I if I can get the old one through an MOT for £150 or less. |(Garage quote was £700+)

 

Its a bit delicate as my wife no longer earns as she is full time carer for her parents at the other end of the country ( she does 10 days on, 4 days off) and the stresses on her are big, but I really don't see why my son could not shampoo the filthy car upholstery, or rub down the rust patch on the hatchback and prime it or something to stop it getting worse. Every little helps and all that.  He has plenty of days off to do stuff.

 

Sorry for rant

Looking after other family member's cars, yes a bit of a pain in bum, I probably stupidly took temporary ownership of my older daughter's late 2009 Ibiza, for what was to be a year, the car was only just over 3 years old at the time and we gave her market value to let her buy a car when she was teaching in Perth Oz as an exchange teacher. That car started asking for cash almost right away, that year turned into return to UK for 6 months after that then another year or two or three working in KL, that car kept asking for more and more money, we have two cars so having a third was not my best idea! On her return she paid us proper market price for that car, so for 3.5 years use of that car we, in cash terms lost the lot as the market value on her return was equal to what I had spent on repairs etc, so adding the difference between that and the initial price we paid equated to 100% loss, in all honesty she did expect me to sell the car as soon as she left for Oz but I thought I was being a good father by keeping it for her return as it was a known quantity, now at 8.5 years old, it has suddenly sprouted blisters on both sides in front of the rear wheels - oh joy at least it is now her property and her worry - but we are retired so have time to chase SEAT over this - maybe!  Like your wife, my wife spent too much time looking after her mum, basically only 3>5 days off per month when her sister came up from down South, it took its toll in a big way, her mother has now died but she, and I now need to start actually doing what retired people can do and not keep waiting for the phone to ring etc, life can be a bit tricky some times!

 

My best friend still supplies and supports his son's transport, his son works down South and is almost 40, I think that something is not quite right there?

For the ARB bush bracket bolts, use a second jack under the end of the wishbone to adjust the driveshaft angle as required for access. 

Thats what I did in the end. Axle stand under rear suspension arm bush housing, trolley jack under end of suspension arm. It worked a treat.

"Axle stand under rear suspension arm bush"..........Eeeek!     I've often thought about that as a way round the "jack up car and support on axle stand" problem. But the consul always looked too weak for that to me.

Am I wrong?

3 hours ago, Doily said:

"Axle stand under rear suspension arm bush"..........Eeeek!     I've often thought about that as a way round the "jack up car and support on axle stand" problem. But the consul always looked too weak for that to me.

Am I wrong?

 

I'm with you there. No way would I put the weight of the car on the alloy console bush housing.

21 hours ago, TMB said:

 

I'm with you there. No way would I put the weight of the car on the alloy console bush housing.

 Its no problem. Did it on our Favorits and Felicias from 1990 onwards without any detriment. We've had two Favorits, two Felicias and two Fabias all run to well over 100,000 miles so I don't think your fears are justified. Where would you put axle stands where you can get them in an out quickly and not have them in the way of where you are working. They are a lot tougher than where you put the jack on the bodywork lets be honest and you support the whole car on that........well I don't as I don't trust it at all, but thats the plan when you change a wheel. Straight on the cill 

The console housing already has to support the weight of the car, that's its job!

 

You're both being too precious, its more than up to the job.

Also think of the hard thumps of force going through it over pot holes, speed humps etc with a fully loaded car. You are just resting weight on it.

1 hour ago, aubrey said:

Also think of the hard thumps of force going through it over pot holes, speed humps etc with a fully loaded car. You are just resting weight on it.

 

Its not just that. Its supported on the other side by a nice firm rubber bush and then the subframe above that, so any forces on the outside are supported from above and transmitted through the fitting.  I am quite careful you know. 

Thank you for the comments about putting an axle stand under a consul bush. But I'm still a bit sceptical. Sepulchrave's contributions to this forum are brilliant and I've learnt and saved a lot from them but I can't agree that  "the consul housing already has to support the weight of the car". Normally the weight is shared primarily between the 4 road springs with the 6 suspension bushes taking some of the load. To put a large proportion of the weight of the vehicle onto a thin cast aluminium alloy ring with only a rubber bush behind it for support seems a bit dodge.

Surely there is a risk of distorting the ring holding the bush out of round ? Or have I totally misunderstood and there is another part of the consul that can take an axle stand?

The console itself is not at all thin, it is a very substantial alloy casting and is subjected to much higher loads than just a proportion of the weight of the car during cornering and braking with five adults and all their luggage on board.

 

It may look flimsy to the untrained eye but it certainly is not.

6 hours ago, sepulchrave said:

The console itself is not at all thin, it is a very substantial alloy casting and is subjected to much higher loads than just a proportion of the weight of the car during cornering and braking with five adults and all their luggage on board.

 

It may look flimsy to the untrained eye but it certainly is not.

 

27 years and counting and I've never so much as bent one yet, never mind broken one.  Each to their own though, and if anybody is not happy doing it, then don't. I'm not making a recommendation, just saying the way I've always done it on the most secure looking location I can find.

 

 

13 minutes ago, alfalincs said:

 

27 years and counting and I've never so much as bent one yet, never mind broken one.  Each to their own though, and if anybody is not happy doing it, then don't. I'm not making a recommendation, just saying the way I've always done it on the most secure looking location I can find.

 

 

 

If you were to remove it from the car, take out the bush and go at it with a sledgehammer I reckon you might be able to deform and maybe even crack it.

8 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

 

If you were to remove it from the car, take out the bush and go at it with a sledgehammer I reckon you might be able to deform and maybe even crack it.

 

Breaking cars is the wife's dept. I just have to fix the flippin things

I'll try it next time. If it buggers up I'm blaming sepulchrave who I will expect to come and fix it

Copper washers, heat em up with a blowlamp to cherry glow, let em cool naturally, they are then softened and malleable so take surface imperfections in their stride!

Edited 21 May, 20188 yr by Frenchtone

6 minutes ago, Frenchtone said:

Copper washers, heat em up with a blowlamp to cherry glow, let em cool naturally, they are then softened and malleable so take surface imperfections in their stride!

 

...and now for some random stuff from the shipping forecast team...

Thanks Sepulchrave and others. You have convinced me. All these years of not knowing where to put the stand..............

Great forum!