JimMadsen
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- April 1, 2012
- Messages
- 230
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- New Britain, CT
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2000 Mercury Mountaineer
2000 Merc Mountaineer
So on Tuesday, my wife called on way back from the grocery store. She called to tell me that her brake line went and is having problems stopping. She had pulled into a gas station and watched the fluid leak from the rear line.
I got into my car with a bottle of fluid and went off to meet her. I topped off the reservoir and was able to drive it home (only a short distance and didn’t have to drive very fast.) Appears only the rear axle line broke and the others looked mostly rust free. So only being able to spend some time on it each evening, here is my step by step.
-Research the heck out of it to make sure I could actually do it. The handy search feature on here really helped.
-Jack the SUV up and realize again that the bottle jack will not lift the SUV off the ground. Already found out that my floor jack won’t stay elevated. Curse and find a piece of wood. Put jack stands under both sides.
-Take the tires off and look at all the fluid sprayed everywhere. Appears to only be one break.
-Remove the brake line from driver side fitting. No problem.
-Find that the open end wrench that took off the driver side ain’t cutting it for passenger side. Dig around in tool box for a smaller wrench.
-Use smaller wrench just to watch it slip and strip the bolt. Curse.
-Remove the brake hose and fitting from the caliper. Snap off a smaller section of line to take with hose to Autozone.
-Loosen bleeder bolt on driver side with no problem.
-Curse when I found the passenger side bleeder frozen.
-Got 51” pre-flared line, bottle of fluid, new bleeder bolts, new brake hose, and a bottle of coke out of their cooler.
-Remove caliper with frozen bleeder and spray with liquid wrench. Let it sit overnight.
-Brought caliper to work and sprayed it again. Used table vise, vise grips, and torch. Ain’t moving. Left work early to bring wife to work, ran to Pep Boys down street and got new caliper.
-Go home and start bending line. Snapped line. Back to Autozone, yes I will rent the tube bender, thank you.
-Got home again, bent line, installed, pour fluid in, pump brake some and then see I forgot to tighten the brake hose to caliper bolt (found out later it is called a banjo bolt.) The new hose and new caliper both did not come with the banjo bolt so I am using the old one. Tighten, tighten, tighten, snap.
-Take out the broken bolt and put a bucket under the line to catch the fluid leaking out.
-Go back to Autozone to return the rental tool and get a bolt. They don’t carry it.
-Go to Advanced Auto down the street. They don’t carry it.
-Go to Napa down the street. They have bolts, but wrong size.
-Call Pep Boys, they don’t carry it.
-Go home, remove the caliper, get old hose, take both to major Napa warehouse 10 miles away. They have 1.
-Go home, install, bleed, test drive, collapse.
So as a piece of advice, if your going to do this, order some banjo bolts online first. And don't forget the washers! I forgot the caliper side washer on the banjo and thats why I leaked.
All in all, I still only spent $75 on parts. And probably an equal amount in gas driving around!
So on Tuesday, my wife called on way back from the grocery store. She called to tell me that her brake line went and is having problems stopping. She had pulled into a gas station and watched the fluid leak from the rear line.
I got into my car with a bottle of fluid and went off to meet her. I topped off the reservoir and was able to drive it home (only a short distance and didn’t have to drive very fast.) Appears only the rear axle line broke and the others looked mostly rust free. So only being able to spend some time on it each evening, here is my step by step.
-Research the heck out of it to make sure I could actually do it. The handy search feature on here really helped.
-Jack the SUV up and realize again that the bottle jack will not lift the SUV off the ground. Already found out that my floor jack won’t stay elevated. Curse and find a piece of wood. Put jack stands under both sides.
-Take the tires off and look at all the fluid sprayed everywhere. Appears to only be one break.
-Remove the brake line from driver side fitting. No problem.
-Find that the open end wrench that took off the driver side ain’t cutting it for passenger side. Dig around in tool box for a smaller wrench.
-Use smaller wrench just to watch it slip and strip the bolt. Curse.
-Remove the brake hose and fitting from the caliper. Snap off a smaller section of line to take with hose to Autozone.
-Loosen bleeder bolt on driver side with no problem.
-Curse when I found the passenger side bleeder frozen.
-Got 51” pre-flared line, bottle of fluid, new bleeder bolts, new brake hose, and a bottle of coke out of their cooler.
-Remove caliper with frozen bleeder and spray with liquid wrench. Let it sit overnight.
-Brought caliper to work and sprayed it again. Used table vise, vise grips, and torch. Ain’t moving. Left work early to bring wife to work, ran to Pep Boys down street and got new caliper.
-Go home and start bending line. Snapped line. Back to Autozone, yes I will rent the tube bender, thank you.
-Got home again, bent line, installed, pour fluid in, pump brake some and then see I forgot to tighten the brake hose to caliper bolt (found out later it is called a banjo bolt.) The new hose and new caliper both did not come with the banjo bolt so I am using the old one. Tighten, tighten, tighten, snap.
-Take out the broken bolt and put a bucket under the line to catch the fluid leaking out.
-Go back to Autozone to return the rental tool and get a bolt. They don’t carry it.
-Go to Advanced Auto down the street. They don’t carry it.
-Go to Napa down the street. They have bolts, but wrong size.
-Call Pep Boys, they don’t carry it.
-Go home, remove the caliper, get old hose, take both to major Napa warehouse 10 miles away. They have 1.
-Go home, install, bleed, test drive, collapse.
So as a piece of advice, if your going to do this, order some banjo bolts online first. And don't forget the washers! I forgot the caliper side washer on the banjo and thats why I leaked.
All in all, I still only spent $75 on parts. And probably an equal amount in gas driving around!
