brake lines went while driving

[KyleNatolix5]

I was at a red light when the pedal seemed like it popped and the car started rolling, luckily I was able to pull into a lot. I already have stainless steel brake lines and fluids. Anyone know off thier head the size of the line wrench needed to remove the old ones?

[X5SND]

IIRC it's a 10 or 11 mil on the caliper side....unsure about the other end though.

[srmmmm]

Whoa! How many miles on that ride? I've split an o-ring in the master cylinder before on an older Buick, but never popped a brake line on a vehicle, and that includes a 1981 Bonneville diesel with the hydro-boost brakes and 265,000 miles on it.

2002 X5 3.0 247,000 miles
2004 325i 107,000 miles

[tmv]

Because "break" lines LOL

[Ricky Bobby]

make sure you get a flare wrench if you didn't already round the nut a bit lol.

[KyleNatolix5]

TMV: You knew what I meant haha
Ricky Bobby: Almost learned the hard way, tugged once the wrench slipped right off.
srmmmm: About 116K, seems very odd to me as well...
X5SND: Thanks

[bcredliner]

stock size is 11mm on both ends of the line running from the caliper on the front and rear. The connection at the rear caliper is easily accessible with a box wrench or a flare wrench but you will need a flare wrench for the others anyway.

You mentioned steel lines, I assume they are on the front calipers. I have steel lines on the front and the connection is 14mm. The line from there to the master cylinder is 11mm.

A 3.0 has different brakes than a 4.6 so yours may be all 11mm.

It is much easier to put the vehicle on jack stands for the back and do the repair with the wheels removed. The front can be done by turning the wheel hard left or right without raising the vehicle though it is much easier with the wheels off.

[KyleNatolix5]

Bcredliner: I should of made my self a little more clear. They are rubber lines, but I purchased stainless steel braided replacements. Saturday I plan to put her up on jacks and take care of this, needed a brake fluid change anyway. 4.4 btw, gotta figure out how to put that in my damn signature.

[SlickGT1]

Are the SS lines shielded. As in covered in a material that won't trap the dirt in the metal and chage the rubber. If you don't have the dipped in some sort of protective material then there is your answer why your lines failed.

[Doru]

The brake lines of my Tribby failed catastrophic this last spring. Front wheel, pass side, just burst. It was my son driving, and luckily, he was driving slow, and was almost stopped at one of his friends house when it happened. When I changed all the rubber lines, I noticed that ALL of them developed deep cracks. I did a research on the net, and I found out it's actually quite common to have brake lines cracking after 100k miles....or +/- 10 years of service.
Lesson learned.