Splicing in exisiting brake lines.

[bungz]

Against my better judgement I took a car that had been sorn for a while to a erm eay to book online mot/garage.

I did this so it would be easy to prove if I got picked up driving around with no Tax to and from the said appointment.

Anyway.

They failed the car soley on a crusty brake pipe near the balancer at the rear of the car.

This is the "repair"



Splicing in unions 6 inches from the end of the original steel pipe. Not shaped or formed to the car at all just dangling about.

What makes me more angry is the original pipe is only 3ft fking long

Seems like a bodge to me and is not something I would have let them do if I had known. Adding joins in brake line seems daft.

I feel the car was genuinely better the way it was before the MOT

What are peoples opinions of this?

[GreenV8S]

It's not great but that was likely much quicker and cheaper than replacing the whole brake line.

[steveo3002]

cheap bodge up i guess....not keen on copper pipe myself

[Coilspring]

Acceptable to mot standards. Is it good and professional? Not really, but did they give an estimate of the difference between changing all the pipe, or was just a basic repair specified?

I dont like the joints, would always use a proper pipe joiner, but seems to be a thing of the past.

[bungz]

It was put to me replaced front and back which is why I am annoyed.


I am more than capable of doing stuff like this but just to get it through I let them do it.

I don't feel comfortable driving it tbh and will redo it.

Also took them two days to work out how to double flare...and broke a tool in the process.

[DuraAce]

bungz said:

I don't feel comfortable driving it tbh and will redo it.

Why? Nothing wrong with a properly flared joint IMHO. Many cars don't have one piece brake lines from front to rear.

A compression joint would be a bodge job.

[stevieturbo]

Coilspring said:

Acceptable to mot standards. Is it good and professional? Not really, but did they give an estimate of the difference between changing all the pipe, or was just a basic repair specified?

I dont like the joints, would always use a proper pipe joiner, but seems to be a thing of the past.

Pretty sure you are not allowed to join soft metal like that ? It must be using a proper jointer ?

Certainly never copper to copper. Copper to steel pipe flare...maybe.

But done right and supported, nothing wrong with it. Kunifer always preferred over copper, but copper is easier.

[The Wookie]

It’s a bit st but it’s not dangerous.

I’d change them if the rear lines are easy enough to get to, but I wouldn’t be worried about driving it in the meantime if nothing is leaking

[CrutyRammers]

an IVA inspector would want the joints supported, it's quite a common fail. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with having a joint between two copper pipes with a female-female connector, but I'd always clip it to the chassis.

[bungz]

Thanks all for the input, I was just venting.

I know its technically "safe" but I dunno it's still a bodge in my head.

Lines ordered will do my best to mock up some new single lines from the closest join, just north of the fuel tank.

New skills and all that.