I took my car up for it's annual MOT (road worthiness) test, it failed on corroded brake pipes,

Repair immediately (major defects):

• Offside Front Brake pipe excessively corroded (1.1.11 (c))
• Offside Brake pipe excessively corroded front to rear (1.1.11 (c))
• Nearside Brake pipe excessively corroded front to rear (1.1.11 (c))
• Offside Rear Brake hose ferrule excessively corroded (1.1.12 (f) (i))

I decided, as they were still available, to buy the proper Jaguar parts, so I ordered them up, front comes as a set of 3 pipes, at £60 or so, front to rear, £35, the rear flexi hose was £100. Front pipes, a pig to fit, as there is little room for access, but got there in the end, front to back, no problem, remove under tray, and replace, and the flexi hose, not too bad either, bled them up and Job done.

Took it back up to be retested and the complete moron of a tester said I had done the wrong pipes, he said he wanted the front to rear pipes done, which i pointed out HAD been done, he insisted that these were not the front to rear pipes. I got him to point out what he consdidered to be the front to rear brake pipes, he points to the pipes from just in front of the rear axle that disppear over the tank above the axle and go to either rear wheel, I pointed out that he was indeed a complete and utter cockwomble and that those were the rear pipes, as the front of the car was some 2 meters in the other direction. Not impressed, he shrugged his shoulders and said they still needed to be done, end of conversation. little PR&*K!!

These pipes are also still available and as that would just leaves one front pipe, which is not available, but is not in need of replacing and the other rear flexi to be done, I ordered the REAR pipes £40 and the flexi, £60, which is a mirror image of the other side but for some inexplicable reason known only to Jaguar, it's actually nearly £40 cheaper. Pop it up on the ramp and thats when I realised what a nighmare these were going to be to change, I can just see them, but I can't see me being able to "feed" them in over the tank and subframe, I have seen other posts where the subframe and Fuel tank were actually removed to fit these, and that's where the problems start as the captive nuts are prone to escaping, the clamps on the exhaust are def not going to be coming off in one piece, so would prob have to remove the entire system from the cats back in one piece, and it's the original system, so anything could happen, and chances are the tank straps are going to give problems too. So I will "try" to get the pipes in, without removing anything, but i am not holding out much hope.

 

Hope you get them done ok , I posted a few pics when mine were done showing the fuel tank on the ground and the rear subframe on the ground, it is the subframe capitve nuts that can be a nightmare, fingers crossed for you.

 

Pipes done, I really wasn't keen on trying to remove the subframe and tank just to fit brake pipes, I even condsidered just replacing them with copper pipes and shaping them as best I could, but I had a good look over it with a friend in the daylight, and between us we managed to unclip the old pipes and pull them out, then using a length of copper brake pipe, fed it over thesubframe and tank, attached the new pipe to it and gently pulled it through, reshaped the bits that needed reshaping and joined them up, fiddly to do but got there in the end, used long socket extension bars and screwdrivers to push the new pipes into the clips and bled up the system, had it done in a few hours.

 

There you go, nice work, brake work is usually pretty simple, & way over priced!!!!!!!!!
People are very often very afraid till they do it a few times.
Then they get pissed at the prices, some even start doing brake work, for extra income.

 

I always enjoyed doing brake work, normally I just go for it, but older and stiffer these days, so always on the hunt for workarounds for problematic jobs, and everywhere i looked, came back as having to drop the entire rear end out, which I thought was a bit drastic for what was basically one brake pipe. Glad it turned out to be fairly easy. Apart from the battery going flat, with the car stuck **** against a wall, with no access, jumped it from the 80amp fuse and then had to clear some 50 fault codes. But all good now.

 

just to clarify is the new section is all copper or did you just use the pipe as a tool to pull the preformed steel pipe in?

i need to do this job for a customer, the tech that did the recall work in 09 was ******* off instead of removing the NVH pad

 

Please, under no circumstances should you ever use copper tubing for brake lines.. Brake lines are steel for a reason.

 

“copper” means nicopp/cunifer

a bunch of manufacturers use it

 

Hi Xalty,
To clarify, I fitted OEM Jaguar Brake pipes, still available from Jaguar, only used the copper pipeing to help feed the new pipes through.

Brian.

 

That copper & nickel brake tubing is great stuff.
Bends just as easy as copper, claim its stronger than steel.
Have used it for years, to replace damaged lines.

 

thanks, just ordered the oe pipe c2c29560. already have some copper line.

by help feed did you attach the copper pipe to the oe section via a union or just hook and pull?

 

But did it finally pass the MOT !

 

My comment regarding he use of plain copper tubing still stands. Copper-Nickle alloy is a different animal.

 

Pretty sure I made off a new end on the copper pipe and attached it to the new pipe to pull through, but if the fittings don't match, its just as easy to twist the copper round the new pipe and tie it off with duct tape or something similar, I do remember it pulled through quite easily, with no snagging.

 

Yes it did, although i had my basball bat ready incase he said I had done the wrong pipes again...

 

Half the pipes for my car are nla.

 

I'm hoping that by "copper" actually cunifer is meant - but for some reason misnamed!

Cunifer is good stuff. Copper is not IMO fit for brake pipes.

 

do you remember the size of the lines you used i was about to order the 4/16 inch