97 civic rear brake line replacement - Costly?

mharnisch

New Member
I have a 97 civic lx 4 door with only 75000 miles on it that I bought new. I just found that one of the rear brake lines is leaking about mid-way under the car. There appears to be 4 lines that run from the front to the back and they are protected by a black plastic guard. I am assuming that 2 of the lines are for the brakes and the other 2 for the fuel. They are all badly rusted and all would need to be replaced. Has anyone attempted this repair themselves and is it difficult? What should I expect to have to pay for this work to be done at a shop such as Tireman, Midas, Tuffy, etc.? Can anyone recommend a good place in the Perrysburg, OH, area, just south of Toledo?
Thanks for your help.
 

skim35

New Member
I did that job not too long ago

Well I shop around last couple of weeks and the price varies between $800 - $1500. so I decided to tackle the job myself. The high end, they offered to flare the lines and run custom brake lines. The low end, they offered to take out old lines and replace them with Honda pre-bent brake lines.

I started disconnecting everything from rear toward the front until I found out that the brake line cannot be cleared out of the space between the frame and subframe. I can wiggle the brake lines, but I cannot pull it out between the frame/subframe - so you would need to support the engine with a jack and take out the rear engine mount. Then support the subframe and then loosen the subframe bolts, then slowly drop the subframe to create about 1/2" space. After this point you should be able to take out the brake lines - you need to unbolt the flare nut from the firewall side and the rear flare nut right above the caliper and the whole line would come out. There are several plastic/metal holders you would need to take out as well.

Honda sells pre-bent brake lines for about bout $60 each. Fuel lines, even if rusted, will take years to rust though and leak. so you really don't need to replace the two fuel lines unless they leak. The thin fuel line is the delivery line, and the thicker one is the one for charcoal canister.

The only issue I ran into was the front plastic guard bolt was rusted and would not come out. So I knock it out with a air hammer and JB weld the same size bolt (in reverse direction). the purpose of this bolt is create a mounting point for the plastic protection guard so is JB weld is strong enough to hold.

The whole took about 6 hours, $130 in parts, and $80 in tools (SK flare wrench set). My skill level is semi-pro, - I have taken out engine (mostly BMWs) and dropped the transmission multiple times.
 




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