Winter ride costs me-- BIG!!

[Alfieboy]

The lines arent that hard to bend.. and worse case ya could have got a compression union to temp restore it....even Advance has small hand held tuning benders.... BUT it would been pain in butt in wintry weather without a garage & lift..

[80Zedder]

You got hosed!! Sorry to say

[Sterling]

I had that happen to me once in an old VW bug... only the breake lines run along the floor inside the cabin... the break fluid squirted all over me! Needless to say... I figured out what happened pretty quickly. And in those things it was pretty cheap to fix.

[yuioutta]

Wow, I am glad that I don't live around salty air. My winter driver is a 99 Silverado with 142,000 miles and all that I have had to fix was the heater core. Less than $200 and 6 hours in the my shop. Of course I have the tubing bender and would have fixed the lines myself but around here a blown brake line due to rust is just unheard of. Hope it all gets better for you.

[Diabel1969]

Originally Posted by AFblueSS

Sucks about the brake lines though. Same thing happened to my 19 year old son in upstate NY last September. He was driving his roommate's 99 Buick LeSabre and went down a steep hill, through a stop sign, across a highway and under a semi trailer which drug him over 400 feet before it came to a hault. All because a brake line rusted through!

Life Flight Helicopter ride to the E.R., 1 month in a coma, followed by 1 month in a Brain Trauma Rehab unit learning how to walk, talk and eat again. He suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury, but over one year later has recovered at least 90%! He's playing his guitar again and has just started driving again as of 2 weeks ago (with my wife or I in the car with him).

The thing was, another line rusted through and him and his friends lost brake pressure on the NY Thruway just 2 weeks prior to the accident. He called me, and I told him to use the e-brake pedal and release lever to "Limp" the car to the next exit to get it repaired. He took it to some brake / muffler shop, where he told me the guy "patched" the line.

PATCHED the line? WTF? He said it worked fine after that.
After the accident, the car was so mangled the front end was completely unrecognizable, so there was nothing left to "investigate". It went on record that he failed to stop, but I have my suspicions!

PEOPLE UP NORTH, INSPECT YOU BRAKE SYSTEMS!

YOUR LIFE IS HANGING ON THE INTEGRITY OF A PIECE OF 3/16" o.d. .040" WALL THICKNESS TUBING MADE OF MILD STEEL. AND LIKE THE MAN SAID, NO WARNING. IT JUST FAILS!

I'm just lucky to have my best friend (my son) still with me.

Even if he does drive a soup'ed-up Honda S2000!

Holy Crap! i'm in upstate ny, and very curious how the line was patched, as it's against NYS laws to patch a line, unless it's cut, flared with nuts, and put together.. if they used a compression fitting it would violate the law and that shop would be responsible! Glad to hear your son's getting better...


To the OP of this post. I've got the same year truck, and although mine didn't rust out, they were rusty enough to where I decided while I was changing my engine anyway, I'd go over the whole truck and change them.. If it's not too late, have them use the copper coated lines, so they won't rot. Part of the reason it's so pricey is the correct way to put those lines back into the factory location is you have to unbolt the cab from the frame, and lift it off to run those lines. Also while they are in there, have them inspect the ABS pump, and connections, especially the two wires that feed the pump. They're known to corrode, and break causing your ABS to fail, causing your 4x4 to turn off whenever it feels like it which really sucks if your plowing when this happens. FYI, since your brake lines are that rough, inspect your tranny and fuel lines while your at it. I replaced all of mine just because they looked crappy..

[Diabel1969]

Originally Posted by yuioutta

Wow, I am glad that I don't live around salty air. My winter driver is a 99 Silverado with 142,000 miles and all that I have had to fix was the heater core. Less than $200 and 6 hours in the my shop. Of course I have the tubing bender and would have fixed the lines myself but around here a blown brake line due to rust is just unheard of. Hope it all gets better for you.

Don't bet on it. Where these lines rot out is right under the front of your driver side door where all the lines cluster there, right behind your front tire, as in everytime you drive in rain, water gets in there and settles there. It's worth checking out just for your own safety..

[Diabel1969]

Originally Posted by Alfieboy

The lines arent that hard to bend.. and worse case ya could have got a compression union to temp restore it....even Advance has small hand held tuning benders.... BUT it would been pain in butt in wintry weather without a garage & lift..

Compression union and brake lines is a bad bad bad move.. especially with ABS systems.. don't do it, they will fail.

[Ivas]

Originally Posted by Blackhawk6

I know it was not right for the idiot to drive on your side. But look at it this way maybe he also saved your life. Because if you had not found the brake problem when would you have found out about the rusty lines. In the summer time driving normal and a another idiot pulls out in front of you and you find out then you have no brakes. It could have been alot worse later... Thing always happen for a reason.

Things just happen. You can imagine "reasons" hither and thither. The only rule at work in our universe is cause and effect. In this case, a sudden deceleration into a snow bank precipitated an early rupturing of a weakened brake line.

[mikeSS]

my winter ride cost more then my camaro idk how that happen

[SILVERHAWK]

Originally Posted by Ivas

Things just happen. You can imagine "reasons" hither and thither. The only rule at work in our universe is cause and effect. In this case, a sudden deceleration into a snow bank precipitated an early rupturing of a weakened brake line.

I would agree with you my friend but I hit the snow only with my right side tires and kept going.... the ruptured line was on the left (drivers side) the line ruptured because right before baling out to the right I slammed the pedal down as hard as I could so I could slow down as much as possible before partially blasting into the bank

[Oldrocker]

There should be a recall on GM brake lines. I'm a shop owner in West TN. and I see these problems on occasion here. There's no telling how many people are badly hurt or killed because of these brake lines. I suggest you make a report with the NTSB. The more these problems are reported, the more chance of there being a major recall on the problem.

[bluetooth-ss]

Don't they look at stuff like that when you have your yearly state inspections done?

[afireinside]

Man are the lines any better on the 2008-2010's? My Z71 is a 08......

[yuioutta]

Originally Posted by Diabel1969

Don't bet on it. Where these lines rot out is right under the front of your driver side door where all the lines cluster there, right behind your front tire, as in everytime you drive in rain, water gets in there and settles there. It's worth checking out just for your own safety..

Yes I know where they are at. Having worked on 100's of Silverado pickups and replacing several ECBM's (electronic brake control module) on these vehicles when the relay goes bad and makes the ABS pump run constantly. In all of these never having seen badly rusted lines unless the vehicle came from somewhere close to salt water. Mine are rust free thanks for your concern though.