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Preface: I would only use this trick in varying circumstances. I would NOT use this if more than one line on the same wheel broke, or if a line on one of the front wheels broke (since 75-80% of the stopping power is applied by the front brakes). As you will read in my description below, this was applied to a line on one of the rear wheels, as a temporary fix so the vehicle can be driven for a few days or so until it can be repaired correctly.
I was out snow-testing our fairly new addition to the family, a 1997 Buick LeSabre. I haven’t tested it in the snow, so I took it up on some backroad that was pretty messy and had some fun testing the traction. I did several brake tests, and the road was slick! Needless to say the traction on that car is great! Anyway, as I was about to apply a third or fourth brake test, as I pushed the pedal to the floor I got that “sinking feeling” as the pedal let loose and went right to the floor. What a bummer! I drove the car home using the secondary hydraulics (or whatever gives you the brakes when one line fails). My father and I looked at the car and found a portion of one of the brakelines leading to the rear left wheel had rusted and popped. It’s cold here in Northeast PA…high of 23 today, with a slight breeze that put it down to a little below 20. We had no access to a warm and dry place to work. So to avoid doing a complete brake line job (which would have meant the purchase of brakeline itself as well as a propane tank to attach to our torch, and to sit and fenangle to do the work), my father came up with a pretty neat idea that I’d like to share with you.
We made a visit to the hardware store. Dad was looking for a brass union, with a cap on the end (like the union you would use to splice brakeline together). The clerk helping us said he didn’t have a non-compression union without a cap, but he did have one in plumbing. It’s a brass compression union (with a metal ring, or ferrule, inside) that goes into the union then on the other end, instead of another union to join line together, there is a cap to seal the line off. He had estimated that it was 3/8″ line, so he got a 3/8″ compression union with cap, as well as some teflon tape to wrap around the end going over the brakeline so that it would form a proper seal and brake fluid and other misc tools (I would recommend having a metal pipe cutter for this job, the kind that screw onto the pipe then swivels around on a circular blade to cut the pipe).
We returned home, and started to work. We prepped the union by placing teflon tape on the end of the union going on the front end of the brakeline (coming from the master cylinder). Cutting the brakeline in this fashion was a pain simply because of where it was at near the frame/door panels, but dad managed to cut it. Then I got on the ground, and got to work. Unfortunately it wasn’t 3/8″ (most like a 6mm line), however dad happened to have a spare union in the house; it was just the right fit, and it threaded into our newly purchased unit without a hitch. I threaded the compression unit of the union and the ferrule onto the brake line coming from the master cylinder, then slid the cap over the end of the cut line. Using two open end/box wrenches, I held the cap in place against the line while threading the compression union into it (tightened by hand first, then snugged with two wrenches, one on the cap and one on the compression union).
Upon test driving, I have to say, I think the fix worked rather well. To me the firmness in the pedal came back better than it had been before, and the braking was superb. I would call it a success. A quick fix, in the event a line pops and you do not have the means to repair the line immediately. Again, I believe this tip worked best in our situation simply because it was a line going to a rear wheel, and it was only one of the two lines supplying braking to that wheel. If both lines had broken, or if it had been a front wheel, I would have been hesitant to attempt this trick with success. The car will be taken to a mechanic on Monday or soon thereafter to have the brake line properly replaced.
I hope to post a picture of the job just for those of you who might not have understood my wonderful writing style (yeah, right C:P). Any feedback on this job is welcome, hope you all get something out of it!
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I can’t say I know much of anything about this topic, but I did see a video on Youtube where a guy used a compression fitting on a brake line. He got a lot of criticism, with some saying that compression fittings are not legal in many US states or Canada. The point they made is that there is tremendous pressure on those lines, and sudden failure could put innocent bystander lives at risk. Good for you to plan to repair it correctly in a few days. I would just replace the whole line….
Quoted From spelunkerd:
I can’t say I know much of anything about this topic, but I did see a video on Youtube where a guy used a compression fitting on a brake line. He got a lot of criticism, with some saying that compression fittings are not legal in many US states or Canada. The point they made is that there is tremendous pressure on those lines, and sudden failure could put innocent bystander lives at risk. Good for you to plan to repair it correctly in a few days. I would just replace the whole line….
+1
If you look at some of the packages for compression fitting, it does say there not to be used on brake lines. I would never use one on a vehicle, particularly if it has ABS.
So I’m not sure what the general consensus of what I posted was, but needless to say from the comments I read that kind of a repair is only illegal in Canada. Maybe I didn’t read far enough into it, but I’m pretty sure my father would have known if this kind of repair was illegal (but I guess we’re all wrong from time to time…). If someone can tell me without a shadow of doubt that this repair is illegal, then I would ask that my post be kindly removed since I wouldn’t want to be promoting a fix that is illegal, after all.
I believe it’s only illegal if you decided to sell the car with the compression fitting on the line.
Compression fittings are NOT supposed to be used for brake lines, but sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do. Being that is was a rear brake line, and and emergency fix (temporary I hope) I am not against what you did. I would never do this as a permanent fix. I guarantee that if that car was ever involved in a wreck with a fatality, the crash inspectors would point at that and blame you as the repairman, regardless of the circumstances. Again, I’m not being critical. This was actually taught to me on the second or third day of my brakes class during my automotive program.
I see this a lot.One was a Dodge truck my father bought,had 3 compression fittings used on the brake lines.Did fix it right using brake line by the roll and did get rid of the compression fittings.
Compression fittings on a brake line are illegal in all states. For an Emergency repair where you have to get home they may work.
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