Brakes: s40 (53, 1.6 petrol) leaking brake fluid

[euphoria1z]

Hi

my s40 was low on brake/clutch fluid, and the exclamation light came on the dashboard, and my clutch went soft, so I topped up the brake/clutch reservoir and the light went off, and clutch started feeling normal.

later on today I decided to look underneath my car and noticed its leaking once the brake pedal is pressed. its leaking from underneath the rear seats driver side, almost like its from the petrol tank,.


it may be the brake lines running around the petrol tank possibly? anyway, my only day off is tomorrow and I need to know if kwik fit can fix this ? coz there are the only ones open on sundays that I know off. cant take time of work as its a new job. so weekends is all I have.

what kind of garage is best to deal with leaking brake lines? will normal garages have parts (spare brake line, splices etc) to fix on the same day?

what are the costs? will it be less than £100?

should I go to kwik fit tomorrow or will it be a waste of time?

Thanks!!! (im in Leicester if you know of any decent places)

[Matt86]

Ok, This is a known issue with our cars, Funny enough I had this problem myself and the pipe burst.

There's a copper pipe for the rear drivers side that runs above the fuel tank it get corroded VERY easily and after a while it'll pop.

I got a quote from halfrauds auto centre to replace my 2 rear pipes and it was £200+

Thankfully you only need 1 pipe do be done and it has a breaker point at the bottom of the engine bay but it's really annoying an fiddly to do so expect them to hit you hard with the labour fees as they have to drop the fuel tank to do it and if it's got a lot of fuel in it it's really heavy lol.

Expect they'll be able to do it for you but don't think it'll be cheap

[euphoria1z]

Originally Posted by Matt86

I got a quote from halfrauds auto centre to replace my 2 rear pipes and it was £200+

Expect they'll be able to do it for you but don't think it'll be cheap

oh no! the cars only worth £5-600, ...

it seems straight forward on the videos ive seen on youtube...locate the leak, cut the pipe, splice the new pipe.

il see if theres any local garages that can do this. should I take it to kwik fit for a diagnosis first? could it be something other than the breakline ?

[euphoria1z]

and can it be done on the same day? how long did yours take?

[v40alex]

I'm sure someone on here said their local indy did the two rear pipes for £150. Ask them to splice in from the middle of the car back to the brakes (as the area around the wheel arches will no doubt be corroded too), the pipes under the main car body don't seem to suffer at all.

Someone also said you can run a new pipe around the front of the petrol tank, then that doesn't need moving, just leave the old pipe in place.

[Matt86]

It can be done in a day and mine didn't cost much as I replaced my own. The only diy issue is flaring the pipes, can be a right bitch but I didn't too many issues. Need to replace my rear fuel pipes soon as well as they are corroded as well. Sucky!