Impossible to predict how long you have. It looks pretty gnarly. Think about the pressure strength of the line as designed, and as rusted. Then roll your dice.

 

yeah, I know it is horrible. I cannot believe it is actually that bad when all of the other ones look totally fine. Argh. Need to do this asap.

 

Any advice other than the totally obvious: "Man that looks horrible, get that fixed asap!"

Sure.... Move south.

Best thing I ever did. I lived in upstate NY for 35 years and then moved to Texas. In the last 20 years I've never had to deal with this or replace an exhaust.

OK, down to the real questions. I'm sure a lot of folks will freak out about it, and I did initially, but having been in the rust belt for a long time, I can step back a bit.

You may NEED to get it fixed NOW, but if I were faced with your situation, here is what I would do: Get some Evaporust (it's not cheap) and soak an old T-shirt with the stuff and then wrap it around the brake line (maybe even wrap the T-shirt in plastic wrap). Let it sit for a weekend you don't have to drive it. Come back and take a look at it. You should be able to get a better picture of what you are really dealing with, but this doesn't look so good.

I'm less concerned with the corrosion on the fittings than I am with the corrosion on the lines. The fittings are thick and well sealed, so they are not likely to fail (until you try to take them apart). The failure is likely to come on the thin brake lines. They don't look too bad at the moment, but some Evaporust will give you a much better idea.

 

You can wait until your driving down the highway and find the brake pedal doesn't actually do anything and you're taking a 30 mph turn at 70mph. Pretty sure you can't wait at that point.

 

You are from NJ, and your E46 is old as sh*t. I take it you have had to replace at least one by now? So how much did it cost if you did not do it, or how hard was it if you did?

If you haven't closely inspected them, please do. It's the crap they put on the snowy/icy roads up here that eats the car away.

 

Dont be afraid to replace the brake lines yourself, with the right tools, its super easy. Schwaben makes a great pressure bleeder which you can get from ecstuning. Ecs also has a video showing you exactly how to use the bleeder. Its like $60 but you will never have to pay somebody $200 to do a brake flush, not to mention it works on almost all euro cars
(its fits my buddies mk5 GTI)
The brakes wont be much either, so for $100 you can change the line, replace with new fluid, and have the pressure bleeder to keep

 

i have access to one, a buddy had one so easy with that.

Why were your RTAB limiters giving you a knock..?

holy crap it was horrible. bought the kit from FCP everything was installed correctly but it was knocking and popping so bad it sounded like a blown rear shock mount. once I took them out everything was fine.. returning those limiters to FCP pretty soon
Sent from my LS670 using BimmerApp mobile app

 

You can wait your whole life if you want a short one!

 

Why were your RTAB limiters giving you a knock..?

+1 on the Schwaben bleeder. So worth it. Do it yourself.

 

I would get a nice "line wrench" for this job. I think it's 14mm. It may be tough to get the brake line out of the caliper if everything is rusted- try loosening it with the caliper still in place. Hopefully the next junction up isn't as rusty and it comes apart for you.

 

Since it's rusted at the connection it looks like you'll have to make two brake lines.

 

Was quoted £600 from a BMW indy for a 15 year old E46 to have the rear pipes replaced. In comparison to pictures above, they were not as bad although many parts of the piping seemed quite solid. The connecting bends, which is what the mot tester sees were corroded. Its a safety thing first anyhow.

High Cost is due to labour involved as fuel tank needs to be dropped if it is to be done the proper way.

Got it done for £250 including the copper piping and fresh brake fluid. Was still umming and erring but a burst pipe means no brakes and not about to take that risk. Possibly could have left it but then an mot failure may have forced to do it.
I viewed them whilst on the ramp myself and that was enough to just get it done and then forget about it.

Sorry pictures are unclear as did not take a close up. Got the front arm rear bushes and drop links done too usukng Meyle HD.

Keep safe everyone.

 

 

That's a tough call mate. Everything is just fine, then that idiot is texting and looks up and the light you thought he was going through, he slammed on the brakes.
Guess what!

BTDT with my Chevy suburban, if I didn't have all of the years of racing under my belt, there would have been an ambulance or two.

It was just fine, then on high demand, pow right to the floor.

 

I had to do the drivers side rear line at about 204,000 miles about 4 months ago. I had to panic brake for some baby birds and next time I touched the brake it went to the floor... I drive a manual so I was able to limp back to my friends house with lots of engine braking and carful manuvering...
Cut off line where it seems to be solid, disconnect the rest going to the caliper. Save the fitting going to the brake caliper or buy a new one, and scrap the old line. Pick up a good brake flare kit, not a crappy one from harbor freight, the cheap ones just don't work... Grab some brake line and the right size brake union fittings at auto parts store. Put the fitting on the old line first, give it a flare. Cut a section of brake line that matches the old peice and put the metric caliper fitting on and make a bubble flare. Place the other union fitting on the other end and flare that side as well. Connect the two with a threaded connector and bend the line to fit. Nothing fancy, just don't want it hitting on things or getting crushed by the suspension travel. Bleed the system and check for leaks. No need to do the whole line if just the rear section is messy. It is an hour or so of labor vs a whole weekend or more to do the entire line... At that point I would do them all and replace the calipers and soft lines and do a full on restoration.

 

Sure it would have been satisfying to do, well done.

Upon inspecting, there were parts of the line that didn't look as healthy as others and the mechanic actually changed line to the front. Kind of pushed him if he was going to drop the tank anyway. Although as you have done was an option. Can hopefully forget about it as just want to drive the thing hard but responsibly.
Have the rear ns and front os shocks to replace also as they are damp but perhaps will do that in the near future.
Got a set of brembo discs and pads for the front and just need fitting but holding off right now.
Swirl flaps were off and new glowies installed couple of weeks ago.

The brake lines were something bugging me and the weather here is getting wet so it kind of further picturised a rotting cancer type image everytime I drove it so glad they got done. Changing the front arm bushes and droplinks have also done away with juddering steering.

Brake lines, get them done if need doing and if u got the know how like Panzertank831and the job warrants it, do the bits yourself. Or get a reputable mechanic to sort but you can see the price difference when you shop around!

 

HA! Thread revival! Thankfully, but not so thankfully, my 01 330i was taken from me out of my control by an old lady, who claimed her foot slipped off the brake onto the gas pedal because it was wet, shot out of a parking lot and directly into the right rear of my car, full family inside, we were all OK, but the car was totaled. Was replaced with my sig, so no complaints in the end here!

 

I happened across this sweet little spot while I was under the car inspecting a knock coming from the rear (turned out to be due to RTAB limiters).

This is the rear brake line that comes from the left of the car, and crosses under the car behind the diff and over to the right rear caliper, I believe.

From the looks of the OE diagrams, there is a union here at this point for some odd reason. You'd think that BMW would put a union there so that if the rear line rusts out of becomes damaged you could just replace that section and not the entire thing. However it appears from this picture that it was the union that started rusting in the first place which then spread to the line. The rest of the line is ok.

Never did brake lines before, but have a buddy willing to help me out, he says that this can be a lot of surface rust and line is still probably ok for now underneath. Not wanting to really chance having my brakes go out, but trying to determine how long I should wait before addressing this. The line is not expensive, it's the precise bending that is the PITA here, and I am not 100% sure where the heck this connects up front, as it may go all the way to the DSC box, and that would just make things worse. Anyone ever deal with a rusty line like this on an E46?

Any advice other than the totally obvious: "Man that looks horrible, get that fixed asap!"

I did the rear pipes they looked exactly like that it snapped with one bend applied to it