RUSTY BRAKE PIPE

1The brake pipe from the ABS pump in the offside of the engine bay (routed over the front panel and into the nearside front wheelarch) had corroded. To renew it, we first needed to remove the air filter housing and its induction pipework.

2While the brake pipe could be unclipped and lifted a little above the front panel to see the full extent of its corrosion, in this instance we wanted to remove this entire brake pipe, so would be undoing the connections at each end.

3To help prevent brake fluid loss when the pipe was removed, John at Tasker & Lacy unscrewed the brake fluid reservoir cap and place a piece of cling film underneath it before undoing the brake pipe connections.

4The brake pipe’s connection at the ABS pump was straightforward to undo with a 13mm open- ended spanner. The other connection in the nearside front wheelarch was corroded, so penetrating fluid was sprayed over it first.

5The brake pipe splits in two when removed. Luckily, it has retained most of its shape, so it could be used as a template to form the new brake pipe. The old pipe was made from steel, but we used copper for the replacement.

6After adding new 11mm pipe nuts and flaring the ends, the new length of copper brake pipe was fed into the engine bay and through to the wheelarch, then routed across the front panel to the ABS pump and connected up.

7Routing it through to the wheelarch was a little awkward, especially where it needed to be bent to shape (but not bent and kinked). When the pipe was in position and clipped into place, we removed the cling film and found we only needed to bleed the nearside front brake.