Replacement Brake Pipes

[The Busman]

Advice welcomed please.

Background- I have a 61plate E Class Cab. 99k miles that I have owned for the last five years. Car in good overall condition with MB or specialist history. I have no intention of replacing it in near future. The car has had an A service last week and the specialist has advised due to corrosion all the brake pipes be replaced at an estimated cost of £1100 plus VAT. The MOT, done in October 2020 has an advisory namely “ Brake pipe corroded, covered in grease or other material Nearside rear (across body from O/s flexi) (1.1.11 (c)) A couple of very practical engineering friends of mine have said that the brake pipes could be left unchanged or only the MOT specific advisories dealt with. Your thoughts would be appreciated re;

Is the specialist going over the top- should all pipes be replaced given the lesser scope of advisory?
I
Does the estimate of £1100 plus VAT seem excessive? Regardless I am mindful to shop around.

Thanks in advance

[steveo3002]

need to have a good look at them yourself really.....lots of folk will smear them with grease to keep them from getting rusty

£1100 does sound steep , but may involve removing the fuel tank /axle etc

might be a nice little project for you...the pipe is under £20 a roll.

[CJ22]

Leaving the brake pipes unchanged as your friends have suggested, is something you could do, but bare in mind it's only prolonging the inevitable. Brake pipe corrosion on this era of Mercs is common, and before long they will be a MOT fail. So you could start putting money aside for when they do fail the MOT, but obviously there is the possibility as time goes on that they could start leaking between MOT tests due to the corrosion. As for the specialist advising all compared to the MOT tester, with some MOT testers being a lot harder on the advisories than others and some being more lenient, it may be the case that the garage that's serviced it has seen signs of corrosion on all of them, and is just suggesting to do them all in one hit.

Have a chat with the garage that serviced it if you're looking to have them change the pipes, and ask them what the exact extent of the corrosion is on them all. They may for example tell you that the rears are nearly a MOT fail, but the fronts have approx 2-3 years life left in them. In that instance, you could have them do the rears first when needed, and the fronts when the time comes. The rear axle needs to be removed on yours to replace the rear brake pipes properly, so it tends to be a pricey job due to the amount of labour involved.

Edited by CJ22 on Sunday 13th December 21:24

[The Busman]

Thanks guys- that’s so helpful. My inclination is to replace them all as I will keep the car, but do some price comparisons. The garage have advised it’s at least a two day job, so in fairness it won’t be a cheap exercise wherever I go. And yes, the MOT station I use is more relaxed re the advisories, so on balance I will go with the Specialists advice. Thanks again

[Dog Star]

£1100 Jesus!

I have done these plenty of times over the years. I did a number of them on our SLK (not for an MOT, but because I just like doing stuff) and pipe is cheap, Union nuts are cheap, flaring tools are cheap. And it’s a piece of piss.

Quote like that you’ve got to live in That London!

[W201_190e]

Rear subframe usually needs to be dropped. If I recall I used to charge around £800-£900 (main dealer)

[Dog Star]

W201_190e said:

Rear subframe usually needs to be dropped. If I recall I used to charge around £800-£900 (main dealer)

They're pretty flexible and can be bent and routed through and around things. I'll defer to your greater experience but I've never come across that myself.

[steveo3002]

including a flare tool its £100 in parts tops....

id spend a couple of afternoons trying to feed the pipe through , or use a slightly alternate route and fit new clips to save 1000

[W201_190e]

Dog Star said:

W201_190e said:

Rear subframe usually needs to be dropped. If I recall I used to charge around £800-£900 (main dealer)

They're pretty flexible and can be bent and routed through and around things. I'll defer to your greater experience but I've never come across that myself.

I'm sure it probably could be done, being a dealer they just followed the workshop instruction. More often than not the rear subframe was found to be rotten or getting there anyway.

[Sheepshanks]

Dog Star said:

W201_190e said:

Rear subframe usually needs to be dropped. If I recall I used to charge around £800-£900 (main dealer)

They're pretty flexible and can be bent and routed through and around things. I'll defer to your greater experience but I've never come across that myself.

I got quoted £1200 for the rears only on my C Class by a dealer - and that was a few years ago. On my car rear subframe and fuel tank has to be dropped. There are various work-arounds, but they're all some level of bodge.

[sf1969]

If in any doubt get them changed. My father has a very clean 2011 C Class and it was slightly losing brake fluid. This concerned me and I tried it and felt the pedal wasn’t right. Sure enough he was pressing the pedal hard on his drive to investigate and it then proceeded to dump all its fluid on the floor. This could have happened in an emergency brake situation with obvious consequences. The pipes fail in the rear axle area on the car where they aren’t easily visible but are exposed to water, dirt and salt. Under the bonnet the pipes are still perfect. Get it looked at properly, you may only get one chance to do so.

[goldieandblackie]

I had all my brake pipes renewed by my local garage for £210 on an 2008 E class 320 cdi last year.

[CJ22]

goldieandblackie said:

I had all my brake pipes renewed by my local garage for £210 on an 2008 E class 320 cdi last year.

I strongly suspect they just replaced the corroded sections at that price (which there's nothing wrong with if the remainder of the pipe is in good condition). If they did replace all the pipes in their entirety, that garage lost a lot of money on that job, or are charging a far lower labour rate than they should be.