Front brake hose union problem

[davewithington]

OK gents, your thoughts.

I had an advisory on the MOT re. lightly cracked front brake hoses. I had a new pair in my stock, so I set out to change them this weekend.

The right hand hose was no problem. Union came undone no problem, old hose unscrewed and new one fitted in a half hour. But the right hand hose......

No way would the (insert preferred word here) thing come undone, To complicate matters, the hexagon has rusted, and was nowhere near the correct shape and size when I started. Funnily enough the same happened on my last Xantia, again on the right hand hose, but that came undone eventually.

So. Has anyone seen a flare tool that will work in situ? I thought of cutting off the offending part, and making a new flare with a new union which I have. Any other suggestions?

[Stewart(oily)]

I have never seen one but I recall plieades sell an inline compression fitting that might do the job.

[davewithington]

That would do. I can trim the pipe back to suit

[RichardW]

But note that the front brake pipe on the Xantia is an odd size (even by Citroen stds!) - 4.75mm or something. If there is just light surface cracking on the flexi I would just leave it - I got an advisory about 3 years ago on this - and none since

[addo]

4.76mm is 3/16" - commonly serviced in the aftermarket.

[Mandrake]

But note that the front brake pipe on the Xantia is an odd size (even by Citroen stds!) - 4.75mm or something. If there is just light surface cracking on the flexi I would just leave it - I got an advisory about 3 years ago on this - and none since

I concur.

I got the same advisory last year - I looked closely at the hoses and couldn't see any cracking, leaving me wondering what the fuss was about. It flew through this year without any advisories despite not touching the hoses!

I think sometimes the tester gets bored with a car that passes and nit picks things that aren't actually faulty to give the appearance of having done something!

A lot of advisories are very much a matter of opinion on the part of the tester, and if it passed I wouldn't worry about most advisories, especially if you can't verify what they're complaining about!

[RichardW]

4.76mm is 3/16" - commonly serviced in the aftermarket.

I hadn't connected that... but is it a std brake flare, or a Citroen flare?

[davewithington]

The flare is whatever is on the pipe from the factory, which I assume is a Citroen flare.

If I'm using two lengths of pipe and a compression fixing, I'll use a spare length from my other car with the end already formed.

Ref the hose itself. The cracking is evident when you flex the hose, and as this car may well be the last car I own - I do tend to keep cars for ever, and retirement looms - I want it done. There's no rush, but I do like things proper.

Just going back to pipe sizes, 3/16" is standard British isn't it. I've got a roll of that, so could use my mate's Citroen flaring tool to make an end if necessary

[addo]

From memory it's a standard Euro style bubble flare - which can be mimicked with a double flaring tool.

[davewithington]

I'll check that. I've got a set of metric and Imperial dies for my old Sykes flaring tool, but I don't think that's usable under the car.