Hello readers,

Addressing MOT advisories ahead of this year's test and it's the offside/nearside rear brake pipe corroded problem. I thought that was just a case of buying the new pipes from ECP and then getting after it for a weekend on the drive. That's this weekend. However, with the brake side piece of the rear left pipe removed, what I now see is in the image as I go about taking the remaining little piece of rubber link pipe out. It's pretty bad corrosion on the car side pipe run. Bad enough for me to wonder whether trying to undo the 11mm nut (soaking with WD40 at the moment) to get the rubber pipe section off might actually just twist the end of the pipe off.

Has anyone been in this situation and remedied it? It looks like getting the entire pipe run out is pretty major surgery tbh. There's a lot to dismantle. Add in the corrosion I can see where the sub-frame/axle mounts to the car (another advisory) and things might be looking terminal. I really don't want to be thinking about scrapping because the car runs like a Swiss watch, but I can't go about replacing the brake side piece of pipe and connecting it up to something so corroded on the car side, only for it to then fail on the bit I've not replaced. The car side is actually worse than the bit I've taken off.

Seems to be a bit of a 'mare. Anyone got any advice?

Thanks for reading.

Nathan (Horwich).

There was a similar issue on my mk1 Octy estate for the first MoT after I got it (2012 IIRC). Our Indy suggested fitting an insert piece in place of the corroded pipe sections, which he then did and the MoT passed with no problems.

The car itself continued on to our son in law and has just been finally laid to rest with over 270,000 miles and still running fine, let down sadly by chassis corrosion.

Thanks Mike. I had wondered about releasing enough of the pipe run to make cutting the end cleanly off possible and then figure out how to join a piece of new soft copper pipe to it to complete the run again. I'll dig into that later tonight when I'm back indoors. Mine's an '03 car. It's no so much the mileage (175k) as it is the time on the road that's done the damage. Really don't want to have to get another car this year, and want to run this one out to 2027, by which time I'll have had it a decade.

I originally asked if he could just fit an extended piece of flexi hose to replace the corroded piece but was firmly informed this would be a BAD IDEA. Reasons given were 1) too much flexi hose makes the brakes feel 'soggy', 2) flexi hose is much more prone to road debris damage, 3) he felt there could be a chafing issue with the flexi against the chassis and 4) wasn't sure if such a fix would be MoT-permissible.

I don't know if the current MoT rules would argue against the cut-and-insert approach; hopefully someone on the forum with current MoT experience can comment.

FYI my mk1 was an '03 also - YH53 GCK in magic black. Quite sorry to see it finally go. We shared a lot of good times around Lancashire and beyond - as also did our son-in-law.

Note: I have an assortment of mk1 bits to pass on so keep an eye on the for sale/ for free sections over the next couple of months.

I had same on mine in a few locations. I just cut pipe back to good and fabricated a new copper length with a joiner using a brake flaring tool. Getting the end out of caliper was tricky but if you cut the pipe flush you can get a six sided socket on it. Less likely to round it off. I sprayed with wd 40 and then used a bit of heat and then penetrating oil. Eventually managed to get it undone. Main problem is the nut was seized to the pipe.

Have joined loads of brake pipes in the past and replaced with copper and never a problem with MOT. Make sure there is no corosion showing where the pipe clips to the car. They will fail it as they can see corosion but cant see behind the clips.

Alasdair

Alasdair, that's the general direction I'm heading in. Did you manage to do the job on a driveway on axle stands? I'm finding that I'm struggling to manoevre under the car, and also struggling to get the pipes free enough to be able to make a cut. It disappears up behind the fuel tank heat shield and there are 2 clips up there. It did occur to me to just cut it under the rear passenger seat area and just put a rather longer run of new pipe in.

I've got the old pipe section off the back plate on the near side. The replacement part from ECP has a flexi hose piece at the piston end which took me a bit to figure out, meaning that I'm re-using the flexi piece where the rear axle pivots.

Bleeding - I've had a go at bleeding, still got the main run of pipe that I need to repair but wanted to get the car mobile again. I've been at the rear nearside, so figured bleeding shouldn't be that hard. But I can't get a pedal. Even though I've only interfered with one brake at the moment, and I've got no leaks, will I have have to bleed all 4? Starting with the offside rear? Try as I might I'm nowhere at the moment. I know I'll only have to do it again anyway.

Thanks.

Nathan.

Edited 28 July, 202528 Jul by urbanpeasant

1 hour ago, urbanpeasant said:

so figured bleeding shouldn't be that hard. But I can't get a pedal. Even though I've only interfered with one brake at the moment, and I've got no leaks, will I have have to bleed all 4?

You can just about guarantee that most of the pipes will be in poor condition now. The only really safe way is to effectively change all pipes that run outside the engine bay . flexi hoses (they can rot outside and/or inside). Re brake calipers/cylinders etc plus gas is your friend (soak for a few days), cut off pipe and use a well fitting socket. If they are still bad get new ones. You are probably better getting new clips/ connectors etc.

Yes, you'll have to bleed all 4. You really need a pressure or vacuum bleed and something like VDCS to bleed the ABS block otherwise air remains trapped.

I had a pipe pin hole blow many decades ago going down a hill towards traffic lights (my Dad's old MKIV Zodiac, single circuit brakes!). Fortunately a big v6 engine, large clutch and chunky gearbox meant I could get into reverse whilst going forward, rev the engine , drop the clutch and spin the rear wheel backwards to stop! The only casualty was my underwear but I've vowed never to repeat.

A while later I saw a garage owner greasing metal brake pipes as part of his service so a) I used him for a few year, now retired sadly and b) I've either done it myself or insisted that my local independent does the same. Let's just say the metal brake pipes on Mrs BJ's 2006 Panda are still in remarkable condition.

I did it on a combination of axle stands and car ramps. I cut the pipe back to good pipe roughly and managed to bend it enough to get a small pipe cutter on it. Mine had gone at both rear wheels and also down I think left hand side. I filled brake reservoir to top and sealed with some thin plastic under cap to try and reduce the amount of fluid coming out before cutting and made up a small rubber pipe that push fitted over old pipe with sealed end to give me time to make new pipe and fit it without losing too much fluid but still got covered in brake fluid. Managed to bleed the rear althouh it took a fair bit to get the last bit of air out. Think I eventually used a pressure bleed kit.

Alasdair

Had this for my MOT 2 years ago. It’s was bad enough that I just told the garage to make up new copper lines all round. I couldn’t be arsed to faff about with bits here and there as it’s all going to corrode at some point. The tank was dropped and it was all done and completed in a day. Must’ve been about £200-£300 and most of that was just labour charge.

Sometimes there’s just jobs that I send to the garage for. Saves my time and effort for little reward without a lift.