D40 Braided Brake Lines Install - Pics

[DaveHAT]

Evening all,

After the deafening silence in regard to my question re: installing the braided lines acquired in the group buy I decided ... time to suck it and see.

Checked the tools required to do this successfully:

1. 10mm flare spanner - to crack the brake line nuts.
2. 1lt of fresh brake fluid.
3. Long nose pliers + Flat blade screw driver - remove the brake line retaining spring clip.
4. 12mm flare spanner to crack the banjo bolt on the back of the front calipers
5. 10mm ring spanner to bleed the brakes.
6. One man brake bleeding kit.

Disclaimer - if you're not confident working with brakes ... DON'T ATTEMPT THIS. I'm not a mechanic and don't profess that my way is the way to do it but I've been DIY with brakes for 20 years and it worked for me.

I started at the left rear, then right rear, left front, right front working my way closer to the master cylinder each time. Rears are male female connection top and bottom, fronts are male/female top and banjo bolt bottom where it connects to the caliper.

Best tip (IMO) is to crack the brake line nuts at the top and bottom of the rear lines BEFORE you remove the retaining clip, That way they won't spin in the captive component on the diff/body.

Pic is worth a thousand words:

 

[DaveHAT]

I slapped some black hammer tone the calipers for good measure and bling value. Came up ok! Took about 4 hours not rushing and included giving the wheel arches a blast with the pressure washer and bit of detailing.

Pedal feel you ask .. inconclusive at this point. It's at least as good as with the rubber lines (IMO anyway) and perhaps slightly better but not massively. If measured in terms of repeated hard brake stops it could be different. Pedal firmness is not a shade on my old HR which is rock solid but it is what it is. Good bling value if nothing else.

Thanks again to Nathan for organising and diesel tuner for supplying. Thus far all seems well with no issues with fit, leaking or otherwise.

Cheers.

 

[nathand22]

Nice write up mate.
I still need to install mine, hope fully i will get them on and a few other bits and pieces while im on holidays.

 

[DaveHAT]

Nice write up mate.
I still need to install mine, hope fully i will get them on and a few other bits and pieces while im on holidays.

Having allowed a couple of weeks to gauge if there was anything more than psychological improvement that bling creates ... I'd certainly say this was a worthwhile modification with definite improvement in pedal firmness.

Maybe it was the fresh brake fluid maybe it's the braided lines but measured by the foot-o-meter the pedal feel is definitely firmer.

Get onto it Nath ...