Break Line Failure due to rust with no warning

96 Accord, 140,000 miles, no rust on undercarriage, good condition

* Failure location = Under car where fuel/break lines are mounted to car undercarriage mid way between front and rear wheels, driver side.

* Visual inspection - Lines looked like new thru plastic fuel/break line cover openings

* Where Fuel and Break Line Clamps contact break/fuel lines, rust was excessive and caused break line failure (external rust).
- cannot see without removing fuel/break line cover and connected break/fuel line clip


* Fuel line also rusted, failure not far off

Anyone else had this problem ?

Can I spliced the lines with flared fittings or do I need to replace the entire line ?

 

“Can I spliced the lines with flared fittings or do I need to replace the entire line”

I suggested that in the past and it didn’t go over well. On my 95 all the brake lines were rusted out and Honda sells them line by line (around a $100 per line) so that is how I handled it. I did a web search and found no one that mentioned this method so I can’t recommend it. I go back to when most cars were rear wheel drive when working in a small shop and replacing bad sections was common there, but fuel lines where low pressure and don’t know if brake pressures have changed much on non ABS vehicles. To be safe you are going to want to get a new one, but on mine the lines were only part of the price there are lot of clips and other good stuff in that bundle. When I did Fords at Roush the bundle came as an assembly and that made it a nice job. I will say Ford had us cut down brake lines and change fitting and flare. Ford was taking a new car stripping it down making major changes and putting it all back together for testing. We had to paint mark every single bolt after torquing it.

 

On my friend's jeep, we cut out rusted sections of brake line and replaced sections. That was my friend's solution, so I helped him although I disagreed. I forget what adapter we used, but we didn't flare the original pipe that we cut.

You may be able to replace each bad section, but it sounds like there is a lot of rust under there. I always lean on the side of safety, so I would buy new line(s) from Honda. Having a brake failure is dangerous for you and others on the road. It is not worth repairing each bad section IMO.

 

I had that problem on a 95 Integra. Replaced the lines, but I've also seen people use compression fittings rather than flare fittings.

I think you can get generic coiled lines to use, you just have to feed them through & bend them to shape. The dealer lines are all bent up into the final shape - more convenient & more expensive.

 

I have a little more faith in flared fittings than compression. It is a lot more work but I have never had one leak. I have had compression fitting leak many times and had to crank down on them beyond what made me comfortable in using them. The first garage I worked at we used compression fitting on trans line repairs often.