brake lines

[nappyroots827]

does anyone know where i can find stainless steel brake lines for my 87 accord...It is the last problem i can think of with my brakes, my brake pedal is soooo squishy...They've been that way since i got the car, ive replaced the master cylinder, pads, and the shoes, and the only thing i can think of is that the brake lines are worn and they expand when i press the pedal down

[maka_RTH]

you can get some from www.techna-fit.com i'm pretty sure the lines from an lx will fit any 86-87. one thing before you get the lines, have you properly bleed your brake lines? that would cause them to be "squishy". the correct order is drivers front, passenger rear, passenger front, driver rear. air in the lines would do the same thing as bad lines expanding. also, make sure you aren't leaking brake fluid(broken line or line not hooked up all the way).

[shepherd79]

you don't need stainless steel brake lines. they are overrated. just get yourself regular brake lines from autoparts store and replace them. after that with a help of a friend bleed the brakes on all 4 wheels.

[danronian]

My brake pedal was the same way so I replaced the master cylinder. The first time I bench bled the cylinder I mistakenly let a little air in it and I tried bleeding all the brakes but I finally realized there must be air in it. I bled it the second time and the brakes are now 100% better than before I replaced the master cylinder. I read in the manual that if you don't get the air out of the master cylinder 100% before you install it that it will never work properly. I would try re-bench bleeding it if you find that none of your rubber brake lines are cracked or leaking.
IMO stainless brake lines won't fix an overly spongy pedal, usually other things are to blame.

[smufguy]

you only need ss brake lines for performance brake systems as in bigger and heavy duty ones. This is because of the flex in the rubber lines that would be an hinderance to the full working efficiency of the new hi-perf brake systems.

[Mike's89AccordLX]

Well I don't see that you replaced your wheel cylinders. I think you should go and get some of those if you haven't already. Brake lines won't fix your problem. I know many little tricks to bleeding brakes but they are way to hard to explain on the computer.

Try gravity bleeding for about a half hour but watch the fluid in the master cylinder so it doesn't get low or it will get air in the brake system. Then after that manually bleed the system again and until it feels solid.

I hope you guys know this that if you bleed your brakes that you have to work in diagonals and always start with the rear wheel that is furthest away from the master cylinder. This isn't the case for every vehicle but most vehicles are like this. And the Accord is one of them.

[Vinny]

Personally, if I were replacing lines I would go with the SS lines myself. A few reasons for my answer. First of all they arent going to cost much more than replacing all 4 lines with new rubber ones. On my se-i rear swap it was actually cheaper to get the SS lines than it was all new rubber lines. Secondly they will not weather or soften like the rubber lines will. I had 1 line rupture in the front when I did my FULL brake job (master cylinder, calipers, and all) the other front line was worn all the way through to the inner cords.

If you can afford the extra money I'd go with Stainless

[nappyroots827]

I did actually replace the wheel cylinders too, the only thing i didn't do myself was the master cylinder and i don't remember my friend saying anything about bench bleeding it, how exactly do you do that, cuz i might have to take the time to redo that and see if it helps, and yes, i did bleed my brakes...and one more problem i was thinking of, i was wondering if maybe there was a vaccuum leak on my power brake booster...just a thought

[Mike's89AccordLX]

Ok I have a trick for you that everyone should note in their long term memory...

It's an easy way to get all of the air out of your lines and master cylinder. First you will need someone else to help you and a brake line wrench if you don't already have one for your brake lines.

Alright your going to bleeding your brakes at your master cylinder. Have your friend very slowly press on the brake pedal and then when he's doing it crack open one of the brake lines coming off of the master cylinder and then close it before he reaches the floor with the pedal. Do that with all of the brake lines a couple of times or as much as you wish. Brake fluid shouldn't come out of the lines that you crack open only air. It works awesome and I thought I would share it with you guys. Also for anyone that pumps the brake pedal several times before cracking the bleeder that's a big no no I've learned. In the ASE Newsletter we get at school they said that pumping the brake pedal between bleeding sequences. They said it can damage seals and other stuff.

And if you think you have a leak in your brake booster then I want you to do these two things for me.

Get in the car close the windows turn the radio off and start the car and turn it off and then slowly push down on the brake pedal and it should make a whooosshhh sound. The sound should start slowly as you start pressing on the pedal and when you press more and more the whoosssh intensity should increase.

If it just goes WHOOOSSSSHHH and stays the same and doesn't do like I said before then you have a problem with the air control valve in the booster.

Then I want you to start the car again and turn it off and then pop your hood and then take the check valve off of the brake booster and if the valve is good then the sound should make a pssssss sound. If it doesn't make any sound then your check valve is bad.

-Mike

[nappyroots827]

hey, thanx dude, i guess my brake booster is fine then, i didn't think that was the problem, but it was just another thought to narrow down the problem. Ill do what you said with the master cylinder and see how that works and if i still have problems ill just mount a wooden rod with a rubber end where my ebrake is and go ghetto go-cart style...haha