brake pipes
 

Hi again, still searching for my Rover, .On researching these cars and checking mot history, I find that rusty brake pipes and ineffective handbrake result in a lot of failures and advisories, I know about the handbrake cure but are replacement brake pipes a major expense or reasonably easy to replace and then bleed the system manually. other common advisories are the headlights not bright enough due to the discolouring of the lenses, is this just a case of polishing them?.
thanks again,
Roy

Hi Roy, I just had the rear metal pipes changed to get Kim through her MOT.
The pipes apparently go over the top of the fuel tank, which has to be lowered. I assume that also means dropping the rear subframe, but not too sure about that.
Anyway, it took them a full day and cost over £300.
The front metal brake pipes are easier to do apparently.
Hope this helps :}

Hi Roy.
Brake pipes are not that costly and if you use Kunifer pipe they should out last the car, roughly £100 front to back, headlights can be rectified by polishing and as you say handbrake problem as been solved a long time ago now.

Good news about headlights, Is brake bleeding straight forward?. I can replace rusty brake pipes, so if price of car is right then it could be a bargaining chip I suppose.
thanks again both.
Roy

£30 all in if you use copper pipe, single run, front to back:getmecoat:

great heddy, now all I have to do is find an excellent car within my pretty small budget, so if anyone is selling a diesel automatic connoiseur, hopefully se for around a grand please get in touch:}
Roy

Roy, the vertical metal brake pipes in the front wheel arches, behind the wheels, meet all sorts of attacks from everything that comes up around the wheels, therefore, they rust. However, with a good clean with emery paper, so long as good metal is revealed, they can be treated and pass the test (I use plumbers emery ribbon). Nothing should be added to pipes that hide them, i.e. heavy grease. One can however, place a dose of grease on and then wipe the excess off.

I have seen comments on this forum and others that the rear long brake pipes can be replaced beside the fuel tank, and not necessarily over it.

I have cleaned and polished two sets of headlights in the past year and it makes a lot of difference, and is not too difficult. The lights have to be treated after though otherwise they tend to mist over again.

It pays to use a good local independent for repairs you can't handle. I've found these cars quite cheap to run with a little common sense.

Another alternative is to paint them with clear lacquer after cleaning.

I had the exact same thing last month, but in my case the pipes were rusted through only next to, not above, the tank. So I cut out the rotten parts and put in new ones. I bought a copper pipe and connectors for about 50 EUR and a flaring tool for another 50 EUR.

Even without removing the tank it took me a couple hours so 300 GBP seems fair for front to back.