- My apology for my previous posts from 2014-2015 saying you should drill a hole in the big-ass cover to rinse off winter salt. Yes you should drill a hole in the big-ass cover anyway.

- However, the brake lines are covered by the long plastic cover just to the OUTSIDE of the big-ass cover.
So if you want to prevent brake line corrosion, then drill a few holes in the long cover (YELLOW color in the photo below).
Be careful if you drill holes in-situ! Do not drill through brake lines...



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I personally think that no matter what you do it is only a delay result.
Whomever made these lines supplied every manufacturer as brake line failure is now so prevalent that the aftermarket is making complete kits to replace them. So far no one makes E53 kits. My Grand Cherokee had the same failure. In its case the entire rear line looked like a flute. Hundreds of rusted pin holes. The front lines were perfect and they were not under any type of protective panel. Just ran along the frame rail.

This reinforces the idea above. The plastic panel Is holding in moisture and speeding the rusting process.

My take on the X5 rear brake line failure is the tightest bends damaged the protective paint layer at the factory so the seed of rust starts there.

Catch it before it rusts through and prevent that failure.

Completely agree. The major issue is the flaking of protective covering on the lines at each bend and clip point. There appears to be no flex additive in the covering material so every movement/ bend is compromised at the factory. Time and exposure to vibrations and weather impacts the lines. Now if you live in a dry/hot climate your worries are ZERO.

Here on the east coast mine went just sitting under a cover... Oh well, just one more opportunity to learn new skills. :bustingup

Our '06 lines were very crusty. So bad that the rust had gone forward of one of the unions, so I had to splice in the fender. The '04, with twice the kms, and had spent its first few years in Quebec (worst rust on the planet), is fine but showing some white puffy spots along the lines.

Working on my 2006 X5 brake lines this weekend.
I will post all details (part numbers for pipes/unions, bubble flare tool, tricks etc.) when I am done.

Here's the union I did in the fender.

Mine also had rust ahead of one of the unions but I didn't splice I want to replace the whole line to the abs block so I "punted" for now.




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I just wrote a comprehensive Brake Line DIY...

DIY: 2006 BMW E53 X5 3.0i Brake Line Replacement

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...placement.html

Bump for winter prep