Another wear item, the brakes. Gonna replace the pads and turn the rotors, so I figured with all that I was looking at some braided lines for the front. Anyone else used'em, anny effect such as better pedal feel or better stopping? Any recommendations of brake fluid..............
TIA

 

Never tried the braided steel lines but new front rubber lines are worlds better than some old 100K mile rubber lines.

Most the of braking performance comes down to the pad/rotor combo. Better pads do so much to improve stopping power. Perhaps looks into a higher end set.

Regular DOT 3 fluid is just fine. Unless you think you'll be putting some serious heat into the brakes with racing or towing heavy loads down hills and risk boiling the fluid.

 

Thanks, FF- I went ahead and ordered up some braided Russells. Got a bottle of DOT 3, I'm lucky I can find that in this town- If I want a quart of Dextron 6 forget it..............

 

Some people attribute magical properties to braided brake hoses. I think it's mostly the fact that installing them required a good bleeding of the system. Maybe in a non-boosted brake system you could tell the difference in pedal feel...

With that said, I dig 'em, but I wouldn't bother replacing unless your existing ones are old. In that case, definitely replace them, but you could go either way - OEM style rubber, or braided.

Richard

 

Yeah, I figure since I'm down there and at a bit over 120k, new- braided lines are good/ cheap insurance...........

 

Good idea. Ive got 196K miles on original hoses and it feels like stomping on the back of an alligator snapping turtle. Good luck slowing down.

 

You'll know when the flex hoses are going bad. A nice pull to one side when braking, a quick check with an IR thermometer and you'll see one rotor/caliper significantly hotter than the other. In extreme cases it will seize the caliper and not let it go until you crack the bleeder screw. This actually happened to me on a truck I was taking to the alignment shop. It had been pulling on me and I'd meant to get around to it; towed it to the shop and they couldn't drive it onto the rack because a bad hose seized the caliper.

Richard

 

Prolly got something slightly similar as I've noticed lately passenger side wheel brake dusting up waaaay more than drivers side. the lines should be getting here today, when I'm in town getting the rotors turned I'll get another little bottle of DOT3................

 

I out the braided russels on a few months ago front and rear look great and will probably last forever pedal felt better but I did replace everything at the same time.

 

Cool, Dan- really lookin forward to this. Still waiting on the lines, otherwise have everything else............