2004 Yukon rear brake lines.

[dajn]

I live in Minnesota. So is standard on a 16 year old vehicle that has a billion miles on it and driven year round. I hate to hire this out. Any advice on just getting prebent lines and just doing it myself? It doesnt look like a fun job. I have fixed many things and i have a big tool collection so that's not an issue. but i have never really messed with brake lines. Just the standard calipers rotors and brake pads. And now I have this issue in multiple vehicles. I hate to pay $800 for a job that is 50 dollars in parts.

[dajn]

Pic.

[dajn]

No clue why it posted it upside down.

[95 S_Trucker]

I buy the kits from GM. They take 4-5 hours for me to do, but I've don dozens of them. The hardest on is the line that goes from the ABS unit to the right front brake hose. The rear one is pretty simple if you don't have traction control. You can replace them with out dropping the fuel tank. Make a diagram of the ABS unit before you take all the old lines out.

Edit, I see you have 2 flex lines at the rear, so you do have traction control. There are 2 hard lines that go from the ABS unit to the rear axle. You may want to drop the fuel tank to make it easier.

[Keith Seymore]

I did them on my '04 pickup.

I used the pre-bent lines. On the front - it went great. On the rear - I felt like it might have been easier to use a straight piece in order to feed it through the obstacles and then put the final 90 bend in it after it was in place.

K

[dajn]

Thanks for the information guys. Sounds like I am in for a nightmare. Maybe this will have to be one of those rare times when I bring a vehicle to the shop and just hope for the best.

[truckdude239]

I used the dorman stainless steel lines on my 2000 tahoe was around 100 buxs paid another shop 350 to install them all Nd bleed

[hatzie]

Unlike older vehicles the GM T800 trucks used DIN/ISO bubble flares on the tubing. There are brake flares other than the older SAE 45° double flares and DIN/ISO (like the special Japenese line fittings on my 1976 Z car) but the SAE 45° and ISO/DIN are the most common.

I get coils of NiCopp and form the ends with a Hydraulic flare tool. Stainless is a PITA.

Tube straighteners are easy to build or you just do it by hand.

I make some bends with the Ridgid tubing bender you could get at Home Depot several years ago.


If it's truly going to cost $900 to get them installed by a shop I'd consider spending 1/3 of that or somewhat less for a Mastercool Hydraulic tube forming tool. They make the job so much easier and you can use it to form GM transmission and oil cooler lines.
The 72485 universal set comes with dies for 45° inverted, ISO bubble, and Jiffy-tite push in transmission cooler, oil cooler, & fuel lines that GM used on many trucks and cars.
You can get the 72300 set that doesn't come with the transmission, oil, and fuel line dies but the missing dies cost significantly more than the price difference.

[95 S_Trucker]

Originally Posted by hatzie

Unlike older vehicles the GM T800 trucks used DIN/ISO bubble flares on the tubing. There are brake flares other than the older SAE 45° double flares and DIN/ISO (like the special Japenese line fittings on my 1976 Z car) but the SAE 45° and ISO/DIN are the most common.

I get coils of NiCopp and form the ends with a Hydraulic flare tool. Stainless is a PITA.

Tube straighteners are easy to build or you just do it by hand.

I make some bends with the Ridgid tubing bender you could get at Home Depot several years ago.


If it's truly going to cost $900 to get them installed by a shop I'd consider spending 1/3 of that or somewhat less for a Mastercool Hydraulic tube forming tool. They make the job so much easier and you can use it to form GM transmission and oil cooler lines.
The 72485 universal set comes with dies for 45° inverted, ISO bubble, and Jiffy-tite push in transmission cooler, oil cooler, & fuel lines that GM used on many trucks and cars.
You can get the 72300 set that doesn't come with the transmission, oil, and fuel line dies but the missing dies cost significantly more than the price difference.

You make be thinking about GM cars. All of the lines on GMT800 trucks are 1/4 tube with a standard double wall inverted flare. You can make them with a standard flare tool.

You can buy complete prebent brake line sets that are inexpensive. They are 70-100 from GM(depends on truck/suv/wheelbase). The lines from GM are steel, but they are coated so they will never rust.

The stainless kits from dorman are prebent and pre flared.

I have the mastercool tool, and I used it all of the time for brake lines, fuel lines, and transmission lines. But lines are so cheap for these trucks, it doesn’t pay to make them. It’s better to buy them.

I charge 5 hours per truck. The cost goes up if I have to drop the fuel tank for models with traction control. And the price goes up if the bleeders are stuck. It’s right around $500 if I buy the lines.

[bigdaddy4x4]

i just had to replace the front steel brake lines on my 2005 1500 it was not fun but not to bad i just replaced the 4 lines that go out of the front of the abs module all of the others were fine i did luck up and have a wrecked 02 tahoe and the all 4 lines were the same as the 05 just had to bend them a little but they worked fine .but i need to bring this is up the brakes went out completely with no warning i did make it home just used the parking brake. i first thought it was the master cylinder because i didnt see no leaks any where . i took it off and got another one and still had no pedal then i seen a small spot were the lines were rusted where they sit together in a clamp and they just were rusted mainly it that one clamp. one small little leak caused the brakes to fail completely . i looked on line and seen gm knows about this problem and wont fix them. it happens on most all 2000-2007 pickups suvs . and my truck has never seen salt. so it a problem on any truck in any state.

[dajn]

Thanks for the great info. I was wondering the same thing about complete brake failure. Isnt that not supposed to happen? Problem for me is my mom has my Yukon and I have to always do my best to keep up on maintenance. She was pulling out of the driveway and the pedal went completely to the floor. Luckily she was able to just back up into the driveway. When she called me I asked her 'is there a big oil stain in the driveway?' Of course there was and she didnt notice it. But that is scary to completely lose your brakes like that. I thought they fixed that problem in the early 70's.