Ouch MOT Failure...

[wytster]

Ah those dreaded words you dont want to hear at the garage "need to show you something on your car sir" "sorry to be the bearer of bad news"

My v6 failed on brakelines and fuel lines due to rust, and they are really really rusty, official mitsi dealer quoted me to change both brakelines (and most probably exhaust after taking the tank out) and the fuel lines £850 :(

Bought the car home to have a think about it, theres no way I want to let the car go but it's a lot of money, I'm a busy guy who lives in central london so just wont get the time and space to
look at anything myself.

What would you do ?

[OrlandonOrtiz]

I believe you can replace all of them with braided lines from Goodridge? I don't think you'll spend more than £250 to do everything.

[elnevio]

Not get the Mitsi dealer to do it, that's for sure!

We've had the V6 brake lines replaced for about £100 in May.

They fabricate up new lines from copper tubing, replace the old lines, and bleed the fluid through. Can't see that the fuel lines are done much differently to that.

It should be bread and butter work for a good independent mechanic/garage.


And for the sake of spending about £200 (rough guess) you would make that back if you sold the car straight away with 12 months MoT on it, rather than selling (or even scrapping!) it as is.

[giblet]

I'll second Nev, had one of my rear pipes on my old VR4 replaced by a local garage who fabricated a new one. Cost a damn sight less than dealer prices.

[John TheAntique]

If you are in south London take it to Eurospec or if in north to Nutter-John, both should be considerably cheaper than a Mitsi dealer and they know what they are doing.

[elnevio]

I believe you can replace all of them with braided lines from Goodridge? I don't think you'll spend more than £250 to do everything.

You wouldn't want to replace the hard pipe runs (which are what will have corroded here) with braided hoses. You need to replace them with more hard pipe. The braided hoses will only get used for any 'soft pipe' runs, which are where the pipes need to flex do to movement (be it due to suspension, steering, or engine movement).

[elnevio]

Yes, to be clear, you are probably being priced for dealer parts at £xxx, whereas, copper tubing can be used for £x per metre!

[OrlandonOrtiz]

You wouldn't want to replace the hard pipe runs (which are what will have corroded here) with braided hoses. You need to replace them with more hard pipe. The braided hoses will only get used for any 'soft pipe' runs, which are where the pipes need to flex do to movement (be it due to suspension, steering, or engine movement).

I didn't know that, thanks! One more thing learned from Club VR4 :-)

Cheers

[MarkSanne]

Last year I've replaced a good part of the rear brake lines on my mums VW Polo which was a first time for me. Took me a few hours to get all the bends correct but this flexible copper piping works very easy. Any garage who do this more frequently will have it done in no-time and it will save you a LOT of money!

[wytster]

They said they ramped the price up because to do the brake lines and filler lines they need to drop the tank out which means taking the off the last section of the exaust (which will probably need to be replaced as it doesnt look like it'll survive being taken apart), whats the best way to contact nutter_john ? through this forum ?

[elnevio]

You can get to him through his advert (Kanji). I'll send you a PM.