Leaky line into proportioning valve - 1998 Odyssey
 

Greetings,

One of the lines going into the proportioning valve on the rear brakes of '98 Odyssey is leaking.You can see from the attached photo that there's lots of rust and so I'm not sure what will even happen once I try to take off the brake lines (it's the top brake line and so I'll probably need to take off all the lines) I suspect that some of the fittings will disintegrate when I try to remove them even if I use a flare nut wrench. I'm trying to formulate a plan to repair this and would welcome any suggestions for how to tackle this.

Thanks in advance.


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Re: Leaky line into proportioning valve - 1998 Odyssey
 

I just did this repair on a 97 Ody.
You will have to cut each line about a few inches away from the nut with a hacksaw or suitable cutter.
Then use a pair of vise grips to turn the nut out.
Now you need to get a short length of preformed brake line with both male fittings and a brass female double ended connector plus a new male fitting for a splice that you will do.
Cut back to a suitable clean area on the offending line..
You will now make a clean square cut with a pipe cutter for an operation of preforming your new flare for the female connector, don't forget to put the male fitting on before making the flare which is a standard double inverted flare with standard metric fittings.
Bring the old ones in to the store to match up .
I had to do this for the 2 lines that run to the front.
The other 2 lines run to the wheel cylinder hoses.
(These can be done using a suitable length sized preformed line with existing male fittings and flares .
You will need to remove the line and use a tape measure to roughly follow the contours and figure out the length and add a few inches for extra bending.
The bends don't have to be perfect, just enough so they stay out of harms way and you can do them by hand.)
I had to do all of them as they broke as each one was done.
Then after the repair add brake fluid and use a brake hand vacuum pump on the farthest rear wheel caliper bleed screw to suck fluid from the brake master and evacuate any air from the system.
Do this for each rear wheel and don't let the fluid fall too low letting air in the master or you need to start over again.
You will go through about a liter of brake fluid, buy 2 liters in case.
Total parts cost minus fluid should be about $ 25.00 minus the tools to do the repair.
Harbor Freight should have the brake flare kit for about $ 45 and the brake pump kit for the same.
To make the job easier you might want to get a set of car ramps to make crawling under the van more easier.
Total cost will still be far cheaper than a mechanic which could run near $ 500 to $ 800 .
Just take your time and do one line at a time, don't mix up the lines or you will have some fun sorting it all out and get a set of googles for your eyes as you will get dirt falling into them as well as eat some dirt too.
You also might want to practice on a scrap brake line to get the hang of making flares as it is a bit of an art to do correctly.
Practice makes perfect but any minor imperfections can be overcome by tightening down extra hard on the fittings.