Hanmin

Long story short, I'm in college and my car is at home. Let my girlfriend drive my car and she hits a pothole and then loses brake pressure. Since my car is lowered, I'm guessing the passenger side's, aka the pothole side, rubber brake line ripped. Sound reasonable to other people? I don't trust other people with my car, and I don't plan on giving a mechanic money he doesn't deserve. I was planning on guiding my friend at home with fixing the car, shouldn't be hard.

Any other possibilities would be great to hear as well.

RICKSAUTOMOTIVE

my advise would be to pay the mechanic. if you have to tell your buddy over the phone how to fix a brake line then he dont really belong workin on a car with an issue like brakes. you still have to teach him how to bleed the breaks and tell him what to look for. and you have to make sure you didnt crack a caliper or somethin

a&w

it could be something more major. have a mechanic look at it. brakes are important.

Hanmin

....

First of all, it's advice...

I don't know what kind of shop you run, but the hardest part of working on a car is diagnostic. IMO anyways... Any dumbass can turn a wrench, and with proper instruction I can get a child to build my motor. If you remember, I don't know if you specifically work on honda's or if your a fix it all guy, but I mentioned a rubber brake hose and a rubber brake hose should be, at most, 2 clips and 2 bolts. Then bleed the system. How hard is it to have one person pump while another turns a wrench? I don't wanna burst your bubble, but it doesn't take much to be a mechanic, and for what they charge I've saved so much money doing it myself with simple searches. I respect welders and machinists more than I do a mechanic.

Thanks for the input on the cracked caliper though. I highly doubt a pothole alone can cause my caliper to crack. The caliper is basically protected by a bubble.

Sorry if it seems like an attack towards you, it's not. I'm just mad that my car ****ed up and mechanics **** me off because I've seen the estimates they give my mom for stupid ****.

RICKSAUTOMOTIVE

i'm not mad about your response. the fact is i deal with convincing people that this shop is not dishonest like other shops. i show em the company pics of me working at the honda dealers over 10 years ago. i point out the multiple certifications i have (ASE) on the wall and point out the false ads of other shops. i know shops have ruined the mechanics trust with customers-yet i'm still here so i must be doing something right. i also hold an LA city welding certificate (means i'm certified to weld sky-scrapers to withstand earthquakes), AWS (american welding society) certifications, metallurgy certs, previous positions in the diesel industry as senior fabricator, senior technicion, shop supervisor, cheif engineer, and i have a college certificate in general business. calipers are casted and casted parts crack or break with hard impacts like a lowered car hitting a pot hole. (connetic energy) i do hope its just a hose though. keep us posted so we can put longer brake lines on our lowered cars if thats what happened. we dont wanna be in your situation

PnX-R

I prefer bleeding the brakes by myself. I find it faster that way. Plus the pedal always feels so much better when I do it myself.

98civdx

brake line seems most likely to me, i agree i highly doubt a caliper would crack because a pot hole. a break line should be very simple, personaly if this were me id just wait until you can go home and do it yourself.

ChRiS_p123

found your problem.
all kidding aside, i agree with the other guy wait till you get home to fix it.

Hanmin

lol. Thanks guys, according to my buddy. It's not leaking from the brake hose. It's leaking from the prop valve. I guess reflaring brake lines isn't good enough? I had to cut and reflare the brake line earlier because the previous owner cut the brake line in order to get the prop valve out. ... I was low on funds and couldn't afford brake lines at the time. I'll check it out when I get home, in a month, and shoot some pictures for informational purposes and to see if i did it wrong.

98civdx

actullay now that you say that, i remember a long time ago some dude cut my friends mom off and the same thing happend, we check the hose but it was fine, then we looked around and saw the line had poped off the prop valve.

have your buddy pull on the lines and see if they are loose or anything.

Matt93eg

I agree with this. OP, I would wait till you get home. That way you can make sure its done right, I'm not saying your friend isn't capable of doing it right or trying to take anything away from him but brakes are important and with your girl driving the car i'd make sure everything was in working order and done right that way you will have piece of mind that she or anyone else on the road won't get hurt due to a brake pedal that goes to the floor in the most inopportune time.

Sorry to hear about your issues and being away from the car to where you can't look at it sucks. GL getting this issue resolved.

Hanmin

So for my solution I did this.

Went and bought about 12 inches of 3/16th brake line pre-flared with 10x1 fittings.
a new 10x1 fitting. and a 10x1 female connector fitting. with a bleeding kit.
$13 and some change


Took off the old brake line, and double flared it with a new fitting. PITA

Mocked up how the new brake line was gunna fit.

Cut it to how I wanted it, double flared the new cut and just put it in, making sure I got it in with a flare wrench. I found that a high quality regular wrench got it in tighter than a powerbuilt flare wrench.

Bled the brakes, tested it out. Drove it around and then checked the worked area for leaks. Checked the Master fluid reservoir. All worked out good.

Oh yeah, rained a few times. and still got it done. It's way cheaper than buying a new line altogether. Reliability? IDK but the new double flares looked beefy enough this time.

Tips with flaring?
When putting the pipe in the clamp for the first of the double flare, it's better to have too much than too little. The excess can be filed off.

Atomic1

You should be fine with the flare connections.

Just dont tell your girlfriend how easy of a fix this was. Let her "pay".

98civdx

You should be ok, everyone i have talked to says aways double flare them.