I have a 2004 Grand Cherokee Laredo, with a leak in the top break line going to the rear of the car. It is VERY rusty, and needs replacing. I am not a mechanic, and have a neighborhood guy coming to look at it. Can anyone tell me what I should know, about replacing it, before he takes it apart ( someone told me of him) in case he doesn't really know how to fix it. Maybe a ball park figure for the fix. Any help will be appreciated!!!

 

A brake line should not really take very long to repair. It wouldn't really be considered a major maintenance item, so having an ASE Certified Mechanic as a repairman wouldn't really be considered necessary to me either.. If the repairman comes from a recommendation having a good reputation, and you trust that.. It should be fine if they have prior experience with brake systems. Also, with this.. if they really mess up this particular type of repair, you probably wouldn't be set back too far. Aside from maybe being set back on some time.. The brake line needs to go either way. I wouldn't pay a repairman if it didn't get fixed correctly and work right when they were done with it though. You would just have to buy more brake fluid, and get it fixed up correctly if you had to at that point... Basically, you would be about where you are at with it now. Maybe even a little further ahead?

With a non-certified repairman. The rate would be lower. About $100.00/hour for an ASE Mechanic. Maybe $55.00/hour for a good repairman. Probably charge a minimum of one hour. There may also be another charge of around $25 - $50 for a mobile mechanic repairman to come to you. You could be charged maybe two hours of work to do this job. I think maybe $150.00 or so, plus the cost of fluid and any parts sounds like a reasonable and fair cost to do this repair. Provided of course, there are no unexpected suprises along the way when the repair is underway. Even $200.00 - $300.00 would probably be normal for this type of repair in some areas? Out in the country, in Georgia, a girl I was working with had a pickup truck picked up and towed from the side of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. He stopped by when her and I were on the side of the road looking at it, having a no-crank no-start condition. It was the starter not working. On a wierdly designed Nissan truck, I believe.. Where the starter is hidden up under, and basically nearly inside of the intake somehow! An awful design! You could not find, or even see the starter anywhere.. Had to remove all of this other $$it to even get near to it. I was about to start taking down the intake to be able to get at it when this guy pulls up to see what we were doing offering to help us. She gave him her keys. He came back and picked it up, towing it to his yard somewhere. Diagnosed it.. Finding it to be a wiring abnormality as the reason for the starter being inoperable. Fixed the wire. For all of this, he only asked her for and charged her $75.00 Which I think is an amazing price! You probably won't see something like that often, especially in the city. Someone else might have easily charged her $300.00 or more.

 

First of all spell it right. BRAKE line.
Second, replacing it is straight forward, and be sure to use the copper-nickel lines that won't rust out like that one did.

 

I'm about to pull all the nasty rusted brake lines in my 98 XJ this weekend. Do you think it is worth it to put in stainless steel lines and fittings or stick with your suggestion of copper/nickel? Also if I did put in stainless steel (I've never used it before) do I really need to invest in a quality double flaring tool? The one I have may be cheap but it's worked fine in the past. Beast wishes!!!

 

Stainless looks good, and wont rust, but its a real PITA to flare. You are going to struggle using the cheap flare tools from the parts store. Dont bother. Buy a pre-made kit if you want stainless. Inline Tube sells a high quality kit. Make sure you get the right kit as they sell two. One with ABS, and one without ABS.

If you want to make your own lines, use Nicopp. You can bend it easily by hand, and it flares just fine using the cheaper tools. Practice a bit to get a feel for it. You will need a double flare tool, a bubble flare tool, and the proper fittings (there are standard, and metric threads). The coils wrapped around the factory lines is a rock shield. Its optional, but id use it. Cut it to length and slide it onto the line along with the fittings before you flare.

I have yet to find a good bubble flare tool. There are videos on Youtube that show using a double flare tool to make a bubble. I have yet to try it tho.

 

Just spent over an hour trying it and went thru 8" of tubing to see if it could be done, using the methods shown on Youtube. Does. Not. Work. So i kept trying thinking i did it wrong. Cranking the die 1/2 way down and the flare came out flat. Tried 1/4 way down and it came out flat. Tried 3/4 of the way down and it came out flat. Tried again with the tube at different heights and the flares came out flat. Everytime. I gave up. Only way i see it working is if the business end of the double flare is deeper. Every double flare die i have come across is shallow, almost flat, resulting in a flat flare. Obviously. So how are they getting a bubble flare using the double flare die when the dies are so shallow? Dont know, but i tried thier way and failed everytime. BTW, i returned a PT Performance Tool bubble flare kit yesterday because even it couldnt make a bubble flare. Not one. So i dont recommend buying one.

Buy the pre-made brake line kit.

 

Thanks for the advice. I just looked around online for 3/16 copper lines and the best price I found was on JEGS for only $30 for 25 ft...not bad.

https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/635800/10002/-1