Has anyone used Copper Nickel Brake lines as shown as www.fedhillusa.com ? I am replaceing the rusted steel lines on my 1995 Eldorado and don't want to use dbl steel again to watch it rust. My system appears to be Metric (10 and 12 mm fittings ) with ISO buble flares..Anything I should watch out for in particular???Remember this is not hardware store copper line and is thrice as expensive as double steel..$66 per 25 ' vs @ $22 .

My 92 ETC blew one of the rear lines just in front of the fuel filter last Wednesday. The FedHill tubing is interesting. Am searching the forum for more info. Good luck.

Thats the same place my line blew out..After research it seems that is called "Crevise Corrision" because it occurs where the lines have spacers,insulaters or mounts, and the salt gets in there and sits...I just ordered new 90/10 C70600 alloy brake line from Fedhill and 10 and 12mm fittings with leads..It seems that 90/10 copper /nickel/iron /manganese is a common deal in Europe...I called 4 Vovlo dealers ( Supposedly uses 90/10) and they didn't know what the brake lines were made from.but all said they had never replaced a brake line on a Vovlo after 1976...1 dealer (Saab/Volvo) said he regularly replaces lines on Saabs ,but never on Volvo>>>I ordered enough to replace my entire brake line system,,cause I don't trust rusted dbl steel(.028) lines..It appears that 90/10 has a slightly lower Burst test than steel but well above whats needed...If you are interested I will keep you posted and if you decide to do a complete job order a rear crossover hose ( i got mine online ) and replace the old one ..its a bitch to get to above the rear crossmember..I think I will have to remove the filler pipe to get a wrench in there..I hate brake line work almost as much as exhaust systems, so I only want to do this brake job once...

Ken - Keep me posted. The car is sitting for now, too many other projects going on. But I want to get it back on the road by mid-Sept. I'm driving the conversion van for now. The GoodGuys ( or is it GoodFellas ? ) show is up here next weekend and I was going to hit there flea market.

Well I just finished the brake job. All new copper nickel brake lines , new rear cross over hose, new pads front and rear and one new proportioning valve. Altogether it went fairly well..The people at Fedhill site were very helpful. I used 10 and 12 mm by 1 fittings and 2 rolls of brake line @ 25 foot each. The copper line was very malleable which is just whats needed for the front crossover line to the right front calipher. The rear lines run all the way from the ABS unit ( under the air cleaner) to the left rear wheel well. The run to the left rear is interuppted about 4 foot from the ABS unit with an installed proportioning Valve ( metering valve) . the inputs to the prop valves is 12mm and the out put is 10mm fittings.. All the flares are ISO ....I have all the quantites if you want them , as well the site where I get my Caddy parts on line...prop valve is $33 plus 6.95 s/h.... Back to the rear lines , the right rear is a stupid set up but I did it the same as the factory.. The brake line extends all the way back to the left rear wheel where there is a prop valve , then a 6 inch jumper line to a short hose to the rear crossover line...The rear crossover line and the hose are a bitch and I ended up buying metric crows foot wrenches from NAPA to reach the fittings.....Every thing ended up fine and the only leaks I had were at the Top ABS fittings from the MAster Cylinder, actually I shouldn't even have removed them, since I just put them back in..I didn't tighten them enough since I was afraid of the the threads.NOTE!!!!!. I did find that the other long line from the front to the back just above the fuel filter , was JUST AS RUSTED as the BLOWN line...If you don't do the entire job make sure you do both long line sfrom the front to the back...OH, yeah the new pro valve was because the threads in the aluminum prop valve came out when I tried to un screw the valve... But jsut maybe I will never have to worry about brake lines on that car again.....Good luck , Allow at least 1 solid week for the entire job, remove the old line carefully and use them for models to prebend the new lines...Let me know if I can be of any more help...

Great report, thanks.

Congrats on tackling and completing the job.

Hey Ken Seliga! I too am currently dealing w/ rusted brake lines. My left rear line started leaking just before the connection to the rubber hose which goes to the caliper. Upon removing that line & further investigation, I discovered the other rear line was also badly rusted & when I scraped the surface rust away, it too sprung a leak.

So now I'm in the process of changing both the front-to-rear lines & trying to get to the connection for the rear crossover pipe. I see what you were talking about regarding lack of space. I wonder just how the service techs do it. It seems impossible to get to, and mine is badly rusted in. I guess the "crows foot" wrenches worked well for you? Do you remember what sizes you had to use. I don't have any (yet!), but it's the only option I can thing of. I figure I might as well replace that one too while I'm going through the hell of the others.

How did you flare the ends on yours? That's another problem I'm having. I bought 2-6' sticks with the correct ends for the left rear pipe at AutoZone. But the other right rear pipe goes from the ABS & hooks into a proportioner valve on the left rear side. And like you said, the inputs to the proportioner valves are larger thread than the outputs. I've tried 3 different stores & can't find a 3/16" pipe with this size fitting.

I'd buy a roll of tubing & flare the ends myself, but I can't figure HOW this type of ISO end could possibly be done at home. How did you do it? Any insight you could give on these ISO ends and getting to the crossover pipe would be GREATLY appreciated. I desperately want to drive my Cadi again!! It's been sitting on stands for 2 weeks now.

Thanks a bunch.

Stephen

I had that same problem a while back and ended up replacing almost every component of my brakes.
In order to get the brake line to fit the valve thing i took the whole valve thing to napa, they had an adapter to make it fit. :thumbsup:

Hey Krashed989! Thanks for the post! I "pondered" using an adaptor today & wondered where the easiest place to get one was. Now I might try NAPA & go that route.

I'm really not having much luck finding a 3/16" pipe with that larger fitting on it. This job is just turning out to be WAY bigger than it should be. I swear sometimes that my "little" car repair projects turn into unique "this only happens to me" ordeals that the parts stores just don't seem to have what I need. How can this be? I know I'm not the only "Joe" that's ever been through this.

Anyway, thanks for the input. Maybe I'll be able to finish this by this weekend, and enjoy my smooth ride again:)

Cheers,
96 STS

Pimpmobile??? Is that any way to talk about your fine car?? I was calling mine, "bitch pig"...The ISO 9000 flares are standard on a lot of GM cars..I bought an ISO flare kit from NAPA and flared the lines myself...they didn't look as pretty as the factories, but all long as they are reasonably round and you "gently" file any rough edges and use new fittings , all should be fine...If you don't want to flare ISO lines ( which napa sells but not with metric ends ) then have them drag out the adapter boxes from under the counter and use American ends with metic adapters...My metric ends were all 10 mm and 12 mm with leads (Lead is the end part of the fitting that has no threads, fittings without leads are threaded all the way to the end....DO NOT substitue ends types or styles...USA threads look very close to metric BUT are not the same...VIsit the fedhill site I mentioned in my earlier posting , they have some very neat pictures of all the fittiings and an explanation on what is close BUT not right.IF you decide to put brake pads on the car , remember do NOT compress fluid backwards into the ABS unit , make sure your line is open or disconected before screwing the rear piston backwards in the brake cyclinder... A kit of crows foot wrenchs with 3/8 drive was $ 25 bucks and mostly useful to put the new fittings together by reaching over the crossmember from the rear and fumbling around..Oh yeah I did have to take gas filler pipe off by loosening the clamps at the tank and duct taping over the tank hole.. But the gas filler pipe was rusty and needed a coat of spray anti rust anyway//////Sorry I didn't answer earlier , but if you need any more help I will be available at some times ......Good luck.