I've done a few here in northeastern USA. Used steel replacement, and hated the stuff. Hard to fit, and destroys the flaring dies. Pushed hard for the copper alloy tubing in the shop. It's more expensive for sure, but worth every penny. Best benefit, flaring dies last a very long time.
My 1969 Austin Healey Sprite had copper brake lines! It was common. Steel brake pipes should have been banned years ago, especially in the Northern Hemisphere.
Nice Vid. Great workmanship. Back round 1990 l bought a seven year old BMW 635. It was a private import into Aust from the UK. It had a similar problem rusty brake lines which l had got replaced ASAP. And the BMW had no extensive covers beneath like the mercs nowadays.
@sprautos totally agree at the brake pipes. My old W204 C class passed the MOT, but the mercedes specialist picked up the corroded brake pipes. So thankful to specialists like yourselves. Great video by the way! 😊
Just put my E60 2.5i BMW 2006 through its MOT and it passed I had to put it in the garage I use for work on my car for a broken rear spring and the garage owner phoned me to say the car needed a complete brake pipe replacement same thing pipes hidden under a plastic cover so had to replace them
Is there a particular reason other than cost that from the factory they don't use stainless steel for brake pipes? Genuine question. My mechanical knowledge is limited on cars I'm more of motorcycle tech.
Thank God I own two of the best Mercedes had to offer. A1994 W124 E280 & a fabulous 2003 W211 E320. Both cars in pristine condition & both here in Australia. No rust, no crap!
I like your videos, especially the ones on engines. I had this rust issue on my 2004 W211. A mechanic told me that copper in ABS cars is not acceptable. He was not sure about the reason. So I bought a coil of Ate steel brake pipe and shaped that to fit the car.
Interesting ..fortunately I am in a warm and dry country , so brake pipes do not corrode. I am always surprised at the state of the underside of the cars in countries where they salt the roads ,or where people drive in rain most of the time.
I use a square block of wood at 6”long with a hole drilled down the middle just slightly bigger than the copper pipe , the just pull the pipe through the hole dose the same job , 👍
I am most interested in the fact you use copper pipes on a performance car? Are copper brake the right ones for the application here? Granted they are easy to install for you as a mechanic… but how do they behave under heavy use, e.g track where you have high temperatures and you want a solid pedal feel? (Just for background I used to work in chassis and brake development @ JLR)
I was waiting for a comment about the copper lines 😂. Well in 20 years I’ve never had an issue. We can offer kunifer brake line or even the steel coated but it all depends on the customers budget as it’s a more expensive material and takes more labour to fit. So we have to work with the customer. You will be more of The expert here given your background and interested to here what you say. Every car including AMGs I’ve had in that have had brake pipes at some point in there life have had copper “not fitted by us” but I fully understand what your saying.
I have a question or 2 for you mate , why didn’t they come with copper pipes from factory as they don’t rust and given the fact this is a subject of safety ? Could it be that manufacturers assume they will make more money from after sales jobs and also is it any different from steel piping for use in performance cars? In my ownership of amgs I will never cut back or refuse the car of things it would need replacing as my OCD of it all😅
I suppose steel is the strongest option, and warm countries won’t suffer like we do here in the Uk. They do now fit steel with a a plastic coating on which is much better but will still fail in time in the Uk. Some people will say you should replace with steel again on performance cars, personally I’ve never had an issue or seen an issue, you could use nickel pipe also which can stand a higher pressure to copper.
@@sprautos thanks for reply so steel basically is the fit for all option industrially but as you said I’d probably go that little extra being a perfectionist as an amg enthusiast😅, it’s always a joy watching anything w204 c63 related as it’s my most treasured model both length of ownership & modded performance wise !. I was binge watching all the vids as it gives me a lot of info if things go wrong so it gets me halfway to assuming what would of gone wrong .. liked and subscribed mate , I’ll be contacting you in future for your services !👍
I had a Citroen in the 1980’s with exactly the same corroding brake pipe problem. I went to my local Citroen garage and they too made up their own brake lines from copper pipe. They said the copper brake pipes would out last the car… Kinda disappointed that in 40 years of automotive technology ‘advancement’ that this problem still exists.
