Need brakes specialist helps

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ST2008

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Hi guys

Long story short, I have a Honda civic 2000. one of the brake line section (between the brake and the flexible from the rear passenger side) was ruptured suddenly and all brake fluid in this brake line where emptied. The master cylinder also look emptied. I bought a new brake line from the dealer and I plan to change it next week. I have a question for you. In fact, do I need to bleed other brakes even though only one brake line was ruptured? I ask this question because I tried to not touch too much other brakes or brake lines because they are rusty and I'm afraid I will break something which will cost me more time and money.

Anyways thanks.
 
All brake lines need replacement then bleeding. Do it now as since you know you don't want to be responsible for a death or at least feel responsible. Family is always more important.
 
All 4 corners need to be bled. Air may have also made its way into the ABS motor and some makes and models require the ABS motor to be activated in order to bleed the system correctly. My advice would be to replace what needs to be replaced and bleed all 4 corners. If after that, if you still have no pedal have it towed to a shop for a ASE certified (in brakes) guy bleed it properly. Then, like the other person mentioned it may be a good idea to begin replacing the other lines.
 
When the master cylinder empties there will be air through the whole system-- you will have to bleed all four wheels. Really the only problem you're likely to find doing that is the bleeder bolts may be rusted stuck. Start now putting penetrating oil on them and see if they will turn.
 
Originally Posted by tiger862
All brake lines need replacement then bleeding. Do it now as since you know you don't want to be responsible for a death or at least feel responsible. Family is always more important.
LOL how much money are you going to dump into a twenty year old rust bucket? Virtue signaling with someone else's money, a BITOG staple.

You could bleed that line and try it out, but if the MC ran dry you are probably going to have to bleed everything, including the MC.
 
Originally Posted by maxdustington
Originally Posted by tiger862
All brake lines need replacement then bleeding. Do it now as since you know you don't want to be responsible for a death or at least feel responsible. Family is always more important.
LOL how much money are you going to dump into a twenty year old rust bucket? Virtue signaling with someone else's money, a BITOG staple.



Is stopping not important? Did you know all 4 new brake lines are as low as $35 shipped from rock auto?

If one has failed, then the others are also on the way.

Id also highly recommend replacing all four lines.

For the rusty brake lines you need a flare line wrench($12 at HF w/coupon) and use a penetrant of choice.
 
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Originally Posted by maxdustington
Originally Posted by tiger862
All brake lines need replacement then bleeding. Do it now as since you know you don't want to be responsible for a death or at least feel responsible. Family is always more important.
LOL how much money are you going to dump into a twenty year old rust bucket? Virtue signaling with someone else's money, a BITOG staple.



If it happens to one the others may be close. It's that or scrap the whole car which would be silly if it works well. When I lost a brake line on my truck it could have been bad. I could have been on the highway. I inspected the whole brake system and replaced more than just the line that ruptured. It was on a 23 year old truck. It wasn't that expensive but it was worth it.
 
Originally Posted by thescreensavers
Originally Posted by maxdustington
Originally Posted by tiger862
All brake lines need replacement then bleeding. Do it now as since you know you don't want to be responsible for a death or at least feel responsible. Family is always more important.
LOL how much money are you going to dump into a twenty year old rust bucket? Virtue signaling with someone else's money, a BITOG staple.



Is stopping not important? Did you know all 4 new brake lines are as low as $35 shipped from rock auto?

If one has failed, then the others are also on the way.

Id also highly recommend replacing all four lines.

For the rusty brake lines you need a flare line wrench($12 at HF w/coupon) and use a penetrant of choice.

There's no guarantee that if one failed, the others are going to as well.

Don't just replace brake lines for no reason. Do replace them if you have identified what the mechanism of failure was. For example was it a freak accident where road debris kicked up and hit a line? If so there's no reason to replace anything but the damaged line. Was it corrosion through the entire brake system? Then maybe you might want to do all of the lines.
 
Originally Posted by NoNameJoe
There's no guarantee that if one failed, the others are going to as well.

Don't just replace brake lines for no reason. Do replace them if you have identified what the mechanism of failure was. For example was it a freak accident where road debris kicked up and hit a line? If so there's no reason to replace anything but the damaged line. Was it corrosion through the entire brake system? Then maybe you might want to do all of the lines.

We are talking about an almost 20 year old car, age on a rubber component is a huge factor.
 
At the very least use some kind of probe to poke at the other lines and make sure they are in good shape. Many people use copper-nickel brake line rather than dealer replacement brake lines.
 
Originally Posted by Kestas
I disagree. The OP said he was afraid to touch the other lines because they are so rusty. This statement alone tells me all rusted brake lines need to be replaced. Once you have all the tools, it's rather cheap to do. And it shouldn't be too time consuming.


Sorry for not clarifying better. In fact the other brake lines are still "OK". But the bleeders from the caliper and the cylinders are pretty rusted. What I'm afraid is I break the bleeders and I have to change the whole caliper or cylinder. This is why I try to not touch as much as possible the bleeders. For the brake line section I have to change, I know I have no choice to bleed the brake connected to this brake line even though I can break the bleeder. But If I can "save" other bleeders, it will save me lots of headache and money.
 
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Originally Posted by thescreensavers
Is stopping not important? Did you know all 4 new brake lines are as low as $35 shipped from rock auto?

If one has failed, then the others are also on the way.

Id also highly recommend replacing all four lines.

For the rusty brake lines you need a flare line wrench($12 at HF w/coupon) and use a penetrant of choice.
The fact that you suggest HF flare wrenches for corroded brake lines on a twenty year old rustbelt car shows that your recommendations are not based on experience wrenching on rust buckets.

Originally Posted by E150GT
If it happens to one the others may be close. It's that or scrap the whole car which would be silly if it works well. When I lost a brake line on my truck it could have been bad. I could have been on the highway. I inspected the whole brake system and replaced more than just the line that ruptured. It was on a 23 year old truck. It wasn't that expensive but it was worth it.
You actually mentioned scrapping a car over a single rusty brake line, you can't make this stuff up!

Southerners = rustophobic.
 
Originally Posted by ST2008
Originally Posted by Kestas
I disagree. The OP said he was afraid to touch the other lines because they are so rusty. This statement alone tells me all rusted brake lines need to be replaced. Once you have all the tools, it's rather cheap to do. And it shouldn't be too time consuming.


Sorry for not clarifying better. In fact the other brake lines are still "OK". But the bleeders from the caliper and the cylinders are pretty rusted. What I'm afraid is I break the bleeders and I have to change the whole caliper or cylinder. This is why I try to not touch as much as possible the bleeders. For the brake line section I have to change, I know I have no choice to bleed the brake connected to this brake line even though I can break the bleeder. But If I can "save" other bleeders, it will save me lots of headache and money.


That is a risk you have to take to do the replacement properly, otherwise, you don't have any brake at all.
Easy to check, you can try not to bleed the others, see if the pedal is mushy.
If it is mushy, then you have to bleed in all points.
As a matter of fact, you have to bleed until your brake pedal is firm.
If you ever done a brake bleeding.
 
Yeah... I had some brake bleeding experience. But they were all small leaks (routine maintenance) or when I changed a caliper or a brake piston. But this is the first time I have to deal with a section of brake line without fluid.
 
I wouldn't scrap a vehicle over a single line, but often it's a sign of things to come. I'd take a solid sober look at the rest of the car and decide if it's worth continuing.

2000 Civic? i'm taking it no ABS? If it did have ABS I'm guessing you'd need the tool to make it cycle.
 
Originally Posted by maxdustington
Originally Posted by tiger862
All brake lines need replacement then bleeding. Do it now as since you know you don't want to be responsible for a death or at least feel responsible. Family is always more important.
LOL how much money are you going to dump into a twenty year old rust bucket? Virtue signaling with someone else's money, a BITOG staple.

You could bleed that line and try it out, but if the MC ran dry you are probably going to have to bleed everything, including the MC.



Hopefully enough to keep himself and the others on the road around him alive. I had a brake line on my Avalanche rupture. A rear one up near the fuel tank. I replaced them all. If one is that bad , how are similar ones magically better. The other side of mine were close to failure as well, why on earth drive with that?
 
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Replace the other line going to the back.Honda used a 5 ft long plastic carrier for the fuel and brake lines going to the back. It was known to trap water in it and rust out the lines. Honda sells a repair kit with the fuel and brake lines together but I can't remember how much it is. Might be more than the car is worth.
 
Rusted out fuel and brake lines indeed often do total an old car. I did replace the ones on my Honda with copper nickel, the line cost alone was more than $100 and it took several hours of my labor.

After you get it back together and you think you're ready to test drive, in the driveway stomp on the brake pedal as hard as you can to make sure nothing else blows out. If that's going to happen, you want it to happen when the car is stopped and at home, not when you need the brakes to work. Then test drive not in traffic.
 
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