Porous brake fluid reservoir pipe?

[davefiddes]

Hi,

Noticed when I had the front of my car open today that there was a small pool of brake fluid on the floor under the brake master cylinders. Upon closer inspection it appears that I've not sprung a leak but that the two pipes from the fluid reservoir are covered in a fine mist of brake fluid over their entire length. It appears that the hose is not impermeable to brake fluid.

Has anyone else experienced this and what did you do to fix it?

Dave

[craig-ultima]

I had a really curious problem with one of my reservoir to master cylinder lines, that was caused by tiny scratches on one of the mating surfaces. It resulted in a very slow leak like what you are seeing.

I'm pretty sure that the lines are not permeable to brake fluid (that would seem dangerous). I would remove the reservoir and the two lines and all the fittings and inspect for dirt, scratches or some deformation in the plastic reservoir. You might also want to setup the reservoir on the bench, block the outlets, fill it with fluid and see if it is leaking. Its only plastic afterall. The filler cap has a venting hole in it. Check that too.

It took me quite a few goes to find my problem.

[Rubi]

Hi,

I had two problems with brake fluid leaks from the reservoir / feed pipes

1)my reservoir cap did not tighten properly it wiold pull down on the seal and then jump back a thread - moulding marks on the reservoir threads was the problem - I had a spare available from another project and fitted that - fixed that leak.

2)Then I noticed that the rubber hoses were apparently leaking fluid as you describe, basically they seemed to be too large ID to seal on the reservoir outlet nipples, no matter how tightly you did up the jub clip. I knew that Merlin Motorsport sell an excellent cloth braided rubber hose that was impervious to brake fluid & had a better wall thickness to allow sealing on the reservoir nipples (I've had it on another car for 10 years)so I called them and got a suitable length. That fixed it.

[arthurr]

I expeianced the same problem and replaced the lines.

[GTRMikie]

I also had this problem. It was definitely brake fluid permeating through the tube wall. It appeared like beads of sweat and was cured by changing the hoses (my clutch hose also leaked, same batch of tubing)

[shithotfast]

Yep.... had the same... rang the factory and they say that they have heard of this. They now sell special (expensive) pipe which doesnt "melt" as the others do. They charged me £20 (inc post etc) for enough to do one ultima. Suggest you change to that.

[davefiddes]

Yes. That exactly what I was seeing...like beads of sweat.

I think I'll give my local Pirtek (hydraulics supplier) a shot and see what they can do.

[cortina1]

I have had the same problem, actually thought it was condensation a while ago and wiped the pipes clean. Over a couple of months its swetted some more, will upgrade the pipes before it gets worse- maybe a bad batch of material or wrong material selection happened along the way? cheers, Mark

[B1 ECC]

I've had this problem with the original pipes, factory supplied improved version which lasted about a year before the problem reaccurred.Second set of improved version seem to be ok at present!

[gdr]

Exactly same problems as descrobed below. Combination of what appears to be porous pipe and leaks due to pipe ID a bit big for reservoir outlets. I replaced hoses and used better jubilee clips at reservoir, no further problems.

[usagtrman]

Me too. changed the lines and all is well.

Brad Z

[brdee]

If this is the case and many of us are experiencing these problems, what is the Factory doing about it?????

I for one are about to go to this stage, but don't want the hassle, or the cost of having to replace these critical parts???????

cheers

brdee