Rear brake line on my 2007 Chevy rusted into where it goes through frame. Thankfully I was in parking lot when it happened, and not on highway. What is up with this brake system? Spring a leak in rear line, and have no brake pedal. I remember they used to have a 2 reservoir master cylinder. I've read these year models are bad for lines rusting. Anyone have any experience with this?

ya we have owned 3 silverados from 2003-2006. all needed brakelines. go the extra money and put stainless.

I was thinking about replacing all of them with stainless. I don't really want a 6,000 lb rocket with no way to stop.

Can't speak for E.Tn. But in the Lex. Ky. area it's rampant in all brands & models over a certain age due to the liquid ice melt they spray on the highways.

Hell, Toyota replaced a boatload of frames under Tacomas & bought back others.

It’s definitely a thing. I own more than a few 2004-2019 GM Silverado’s and express vans, 1500,2500,3500,4500 & 6500. Replaced all the rotted brake lines on close half of them. I was sitting on the exit scales at the quarry in my 6500 and the pedal went to the floor. Lucky as fugg. If it had blown a minute later I’d have been heading downhill toward a stop sign at a busy interection.

Mechanic told me it’s a given.

Try a 12,800lb rocket with another 13,000 lbs of #57’s loaded on it.

I've heard that spray is fairly bad stuff. They call it brine around here, but not sure what all is in it.

The rear brake line rusted through on my 2005 gmc with only 50k miles on the truck. I was pulling up to the drive thru window at McDonald’s when the pedal went to the floor.

I have replaced all of the brake lines on my 99 Silverado over the last two years, The long line from the drivers side rear going to the front is a real pain in azz to replace, it goes over the top of the fuel tank before it goes under the cab. We had to unbolt and tip the bed up to get the pre-bent line through a spot the size of a quarter.

I'll replace these, and should be good. I'll probably wince from now on when I pass another one.

Jeepers - need go go out and look under the 2003.

The pre-70's cars had a single piston, single reservoir system.
Anything fails, you have nothing.


Then they went to a dual chamber, dual reservoir system.
Front and rear circuits, you only lost brakes on one end with a single failure.


Sometime around 1990, they started using a single reservoir to feed
the dual piston. Dumbest fudging thing I ever saw.

You have two seperate systems, but the are supplied
from a single place.

If you are driving when it pops a leak, you get maybe two brake
pumps, then...No brakes!

If the leak comes when it's sitting, or if you cause a leak by pressing the
pedal, but don't notice, it will siphon out. No brakes, no warning light!


This was done (I think) to save weight, and money by using that cheap
ass plastic tank.



This isn't GM specific either.
The whole thing I wrote applies across the industry as far as I know.
Not sure about German cars.

Your emergency/parking brakes will still work if a line pops, I've had to limp home that way.

I am sure the liquid de icing agent ingredients vary around the country but for awhile they were using quite a bit of magnesium chloride. Very corrosive , kills quite a bit of vegetation, highly soluble as it enters the water table. The amount of damage to vehicles alone is huge, but I questioned some engineers many years ago who worked for the state of CO and said the lives that are saved on the highways outweigh the damage to the environment and the vehicles. Extremely detrimental to concrete as well.

This.

Not to mention the rerod in the concrete.

Had a guy bitch about this to me one time. Parts are junk nowadays.

Told him to take a 1965 whatever make and model for one winter in it will be fugged in short order and faster than this "new junk".

They used calcium chloride here for awhile, according to my
DOT employed BIL.
Now it's a salt brine.


Funny thing, sort of.

With the required DEF and exhaust system needing t o be right behind the
cab on the new trucks the state buys, they can change the
exhaust or mount the beds up against the cab. Wing plows might play a role also.
So, they stuck the brine tanks between the cab and bed.

Spilled brine runs off the tank and down to various mounts and over the
doubled frame.

Yep, saltwater brine running between the double frame is about what you would expect.
He says he is just waiting to see a number of these trucks folded in half.
Probably in summer when they are driving with the beds up,
dumping in a paver.

It pays to go through a car wash with a good undercarriage sprayer fairly regularly in the winter if you live where they salt the roads. Buys some time. Having said that I replaced all the lines in my 04 Sierra when I had it, they rotted right out I did them before they leaked though.

Its a GM thing. Just ask any guy looking for a Duramax from 2000-2010. First thing to check when you look at one on a lot or a private seller is the brake lines, rocker panels, fenderwells,frame. Northern born trucks are worse but I've seen them just as bad on southern trucks that seldom see road melt agents. I know of 3 replaced in the last year. Go stainless and never look back.

The dual reservoir master cylinder was federally required on all 1967 model year and newer vehicles.

Thanks, I didn't know exactly when, but knew it was so by 1970.


Dad had a brake leak with a 90's Cadillac, was telling me he lost
all brakes. He didn't understand why the did away with the dual system.
He's not good at explaining, so (in my 40's)
"Dads wrong about that, no way they would do that?"

Fast forward a couple years and my wife's Caravan blew a line.
"Hmmm, this must be what Dad meant."


A few years later my Junker Subaru popped one.
Got it home, filled the reservior and waited for my wife to follow me to
the guy who was going to fix it. And for there to be less traffic, because I knew
I only had about 3 brake attempts and 8 miles and 2 stop lights.

Started out the driveway and found out about the siphon thing.
Lucky I was able to get back into the bottom of the yard and go uphill.
Refilled and bled, we pulled it off.
It was an auto. I hate driving with no brakes in an automatic!

Someone posted about E-brakes.
Who has an older vehicle with a working E-brake?
Inspection stations don't even check them.
If you do get them pulled on, they stick. One reason many cars wear out the front pads.
That's another thread.

Keeping the underside clean makes a huge difference.
Ever since I started driving we Baja'ed our trucks in saltwater marshes and the like, we always ended the day with a
thorough washing to prevent rust.

Now days, living gulf front we deal with occasional saltwater floods, parking high works if you know it's coming but heading out when there is just a few inches of saltwater on the road is common.

Clean them or lose them to rust.



What we've always done that is easy and works well has been to put a oscillating lawn sprinkler under our rigs and just let it run moving it and changing direction from time to time.
A couple hours of sprinkler time seems to be pretty effective.

I'd imagine with frozen winter conditions when these de-icing chemicals are being applied to your roads taking advantage of the first warm day would be wise.

Keeping accumulation points clear of mud, dirt, debris can take a little hand work but other than that it's pretty easy and very effective.

As always an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

That's a good idea. I never thought of a sprinkler for underside.

I had it happen on two trucks!!
I am done with GM.

My SIL has two ford trucks , I don't know the years but they both had to have their brake lines replaced because of rust.. he sold one after repairing it, but still has a dump truck.. with rusted lines he stopped driving it..

You are in eastern Tn. I am nearby in western NC.
I drive Nissan pickups and I get five years on 'em and they rust through.

Two years ago I was selling a rust bucket 4WD Frontier, I was driving up to the Ingles store to show it to the buyer, and in that five minute drive the brake line rusted in two and brake fluid blew all over the road, and I had no brakes. Had to tell the buyer he couldn't drive the truck. Tricky driving around with no brakes I had to use the manual transmission and the emergency brake to slow down.

The shop guys tell me that the salt on the snow was bad enough, but 12 years ago they started using calcium chloride as well and that really rusts the vehicles out.

You can buy complete prebent stainless steel line kits with all the correct fittings already in all the right places. Took myself and my 2 brother in laws about 2 hours to swap every single line and hose on my 2004 2500HD. Now I never have to worry about it again

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...8M-exaYHtwaApe7EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Theres the one for my truck. best $98 you'll ever spend

I'd recommend that as well.

I tried to find prefab lines but my truck is so old they don't make them.


My wife was driving my Toyota when a brake line went out, she went thru an intersection red light. Lucky she wasn't hurt. Like mentioned above the brake line goes over the gas tank so in my attempts to replace the brake line I broke a rusty fuel line coming from the tank, so I just ended up taking the bed off, replacing all the brake and fuel lines from the cab back with coated lines and then sprayed everything down with rust converter paint. I just replaced everything I could to make sure I didn't have to do this again at least for another 7 years .

Happened to my '06 a few years ago. Pedal went right to the floo r.

I bought a flaring kit and a roll of tubing so I can make my own replacement lines. On a lot of vehicles it is nearly impossible to follow the original routing without major disassembly.

It always irritates me that they can mandate BS stuff like back up cameras, but not stainless brake lines.

Jerry

04 Tahoe
Pulling out from a weekend camping trip pulling a 10' trailer with canoe and 4-5 kayaks along with other various items.
No brakes. Had ALL the lines replaced the year before when one rusted through.
Have it towed home, buddy[former mechanic] was camping with us said we'll fix on your carport.
Every line HAD been replaced except one short junction on the rear-the hardest to get to and we had to let it soak for 24 hours to keep from breaking the junction box.
Shop that supposedly replaced ALL lines had been sold in between, new owner said "too bad".
Pre-made lines only come in full kits so we made one.
Very lucky that we didn't get out of the campground.

My 2005 GMC Sierra brake lines blew (in 2017) through the rust when I hit the brakes trying to brake slowing for a turn. I was lucky that the speed limit was around 35. I was able to hit the emergency brake and stop in the turn lane...some 5 or 6 truck lengths past my turn

A simple emergency fix is to crimp the end of the brake line where it broke with a vice grips.You will have brakes on three wheels then.Enough to get you home or to a service station.

My crown vic has never had a working emergency/ parking brake. I just now figured out how they work on 4 wheel disc brakes. Combination rotor drum set up. Now I've got another project. I'm so behind the time on automotive tech it's sad. I miss the days of single ignition coils , distributors, & carbs. At least I knew what was going on.

I replaced mine on my '02 before one let go. Glad I did, great piece of mind.

All car makes have problems, but give GM credit, they are the most consistent