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The junkyard in El Paso taught me more about brake lines than 15 years of manuals
I stopped by a self service yard last Saturday to grab a window regulator for an old F-150 and ended up spending two hours just looking at how different trucks rot. The salt and mud in the undercarriages told a story, especially on the brake lines. One Chevy had lines that looked fine on the outside but were paper thin where the clip held them against the frame. That exact spot is where I've seen three road failures in my own shop over the years. I pulled one line off and bent it with my fingers, no tool needed. It reminded me that a visual check only goes so far, you really need to run your hand along the whole length and feel for soft spots. What do you guys do to catch rust before it becomes a tow truck call, or do you just replace everything once the fittings start to look crusty?
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nina_johnson869d ago
Used to be a visual check guy myself until I found a line that looked perfect but crumbled the second I touched it. Now I squeeze every inch with my fingers and if the fittings are crusty I just replace the whole line, not worth betting someone's life on a maybe.
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