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Squashed brake pipe
Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 9:14 am
by Pyoor_Kate
I'm trying to work out how this happened, 'cos I'm slightly worried that I get the pipe replaced and it might happen again....
The rear brake pipes, on my car at least, run along the top surface of the rear axle. I noticed yesterday that the passenger side brake pipe is completely crushed. Flat. It looks like it's been crushed between the exhaust and the axle - but, well, how would that happen?
The bump-stop things are intact and suitably springy, so I'm at a bit of a loss really. I'd've thought I'd notice hitting something that hard.
squashed
Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 9:13 pm
by Willie
The position of the brake pipe along the axle tube is very
well protected and unlikely to suffer being squashed. If it is
squashed in one place only then it has suffered a rare bit of
damage. You can check if brake fluid is still flowing by undoing
the bleed nipple and waiting for the drips! If you are going to
replace the pipe I would recommend copper pipe. Perhaps
you have given the answer yourself (exhaust) it can be very
awkward to fit a new silencer system so it was probably squashed
when this took place.
Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 10:07 pm
by Pyoor_Kate
The other option, which has been suggested to me is that when the car was recovered on one of the many occasions fairly early on (she had some reliability issues) the tie-down was put over the axle and this crushed it - which would tie in more with the way it looks.
I'm fairly certain nothing is flowing, it's *flat* Either way, I'll get it replaced (I hate brakes/bleeding brakes, I'll do it on my motorbike, but then there's only one calliper and it's *easy*).
It really looks like it's been crushed *hard*....which makes me think it's unlikely to be when the exhaust was fitted. It's also not the same curve as the exhaust......
Posted: Mon May 31, 2004 2:25 am
by Chris Morley
If the fluid isn't getting through to the wheel cylinder the car would fail it's MOT when the back wheels are put on the split roller. So unless you've gone to a very dodgy garage it must have happened in the last year.
----------------------------
Chris
1969 2 Door - Daily Driver
1970 Traveller - needs a lot of work
1969 4 Door - needs a miracle
1969 Citroen DS21
Posted: Mon May 31, 2004 11:39 pm
by rayofleamington
The other option is that one rear spring was removed. An easy way to do that is to choch between the axle and the body, then the axle can still take the cars weight (eg. on an axle stand) for example if there was welding repairs required at the suspension mount points, or for suspension rubbers or to replace a broken spring.
Brake fluid doesn't need a big pipe, so you could just get the brakes tested at an MOT place (should only be a couple of quid). If the brake works then it's less to worry about.