Changing rear flex brake hose

3 replies [Last post]

Mon, 06/20/2011 - 13:05

Valhalla

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Joined: 06/20/2011

Changing rear flex brake hose

Hi - I have a leak in what appears to be the rear flex brake hose that goes from the passenger side back caliper over to the driver's side back. I'm assuming it connects to a T-connector. This is on a 1997 Legacy Outback. Is this an easy job? Is it just dissconnecting from the caliper on one side and dissconnecting from T-connector on the other side and pulling it out? I saw a post from a google search that was talking about getting behind the gas tank but it also did not sound like they were trying to fix the same thing.

Please tell me what you can...

Thanks!

Mon, 06/20/2011 - 14:41

porcupine73

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Joined: 10/11/2010

Hello VH and welcome to the

Hello VH and welcome to the site. If it is just the flex hose itself that is leaking, that is not too hard to repair. The flex hose at the caliper end is secured with a banjo bolt and two sealing washers. The sealing washers are supposed to be replaced each time the banjo bolt is loosened. It usually takes a 12mm wrench for the banjo bolt.

Where the brake hose connects to the solid steel brake line can be a bit more tricky. Those can get siezed and it is easy to screw up the brake line if you force it too much there. A high quality 10mm flare nut wrench is needed to get hold of the fitting that goes into the flex hose. I put vise grips over the end of the flare nut wrench to keep it tight; otherwise cheap wrenches will open up a little bit and makes it easy to round off the brake line fitting.

If however the solid steel brake line itself is leaking, then that section of line probably needs replacing. I had this happen on my '96 Legacy; the rear lines were completely rotted out. I found a junction block under the rear seat passenger side and spliced in there to replace the rear lines. That way I didn't have to remove the fuel tank or anything like that, which can be kind of a pain.

Mon, 06/20/2011 - 17:46

Valhalla

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Joined: 06/20/2011

Where is junction box?

Hi - Thanks for the response. I took another look at the hose and where it goes and saw that it goes from the caliper passendger side, up to the middle of the car in front of the gas tank. It the T-connector / junction and the bottom of the car in the middle? Did you mean you can access this junction from inside the car under the seat? It looks a little hard to get to without a lift.

Thanks!

Mon, 06/20/2011 - 18:01

porcupine73

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Joined: 10/11/2010

Hello. The flex hose itself

Hello. The flex hose itself is only about 10 inches long going between the caliper and the steel brake line itself. From there is all steel brake line. I'm not sure if the Impreza is the same, but that era Legacy the next junction is underneath the vehicle on the passenger side, kind of under the passenger rear seat. That block was rusted out on my Legacy, so under the rear seat I found where the lines came through from inside the vehicle, so thats where I cut them and spliced in new lines.

Here's some pictures:

Really rusty junction block: (this is not a T, it is just a junction, one for the left rear caliper and one for the right rear). 1996 Legacy rear brake line connection block

1996 Legacy rear brake line connection block

Underneath the rear seat: 1996 Legacy brake lines rear

Changing rear flex brake hose

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