How do brake lines connect to their respective fittings?

Question

I'm planning on replacing a leaky section of brake line for the rear driver side wheel on my 2004 Hyundai Getz 1.3 Gsi. The section of brake hose is relatively short, with one end connected to the wheel and the other connected to a fitting that then connects to some flexible hose.

I'm planning on replacing the line with the equivalent sized copper pipe. However, I'm unsure how the brake line is connected to the fittings on either end. What type of fitting is this? Can it be reused? What tools/replacement parts are needed to make the connections?

Here are a couple of photos

Answer 1

Getting them to break loose is the biggest challenge.

I use a good penetrate, soak them several times over 3-4 days, use high quality brake line wrenches to turn the nuts to prevent rounding the brake line nuts, as they are soft steel. Cheap brake line wrenches will round the nuts, buy good quality wrenches of the proper size, metric or american.

Use a wrench on the other side to help hold the line from twisting when using the brake line wrench on the nut side.

If the nut does not turn before they round, you will have to use a propane or oxy-acetelene torch to heat the nut very hot, let it cool and heat it again, do this several times to heat cycle the nut then re soak with penetrate in between cylces, then it should turn without rounding the nut. Heat may damage the flex line but may be the only way to break the nut loose, in this case replace the flex line, a casualty of war. Once the old line is off determine which flare type you have, nut type and line diameter.

Once you remove it you will have to buy some steel (not copper) brake line of proper diameter and cut to length with a steel tubing cutter, then slide the new nuts on first, then do a proper flare on both ends of the line, you will need to buy a brake line flaring tool, follow the instructions that come with the tool carefully. Steel brake line is fairly flexible but will kink if not careful when bending,

Parts stores here in the usa sell variable lengths of different diameter brake lines that are pre-flared with nuts included, just cut the length you need and reuse the nuts and re-flare as needed. You need to determine the diameter of the old line and type of flare nut needed. Sometimes the pre flared lengths have the correct nuts, sometimes they don't, nuts may have different thread pitches-diameters for the same line size, if you do not damage the old nuts they can be re-used.

There are two types of brake flares, inverted double flare (most common) and bubble flare. To do a bubble flare you use the double flare tool but skip the last procedure that inverts the flare.

Brake line flaring tool kit:

Bubble flare, which can be done during the second step of double falring

Here are the three steps of the double flare, to bubble flare you skip step three, it takes some practice to do either flare correctly, buy extra line to practice until you are confident you have a good flare quality.

High Quality Brake line wrenches for best results.

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Answer 2

It is just as @Ben stated ... it will have a double inverted flare with metric threads. Look it up online and find the exact part (brake line) to match. It will save you a bunch of time and a whole lot of agony. I'd look it up for you, but the Getz was not marketed in the US as any model. Most manufacturers sell the individual, pre-bent brake lines. You can probably find one at your Hyundai dealership fairly easily. If you don't have any tube bending experience, I highly recommend you do this.

The first thing you'll have to do, though, is clean off all of the undercoating which is on the connections prior to trying to disconnect anything. It should come off with a stiff wire brush. It looks as though it was thrown on there on both ends of the line.

When taking the lines apart, always use two wrenches or you'll never get it apart. You may need a line wrench on both sides, as usually a regular open end of a combination (spanner) wrench has has too much give in it and will strip off the points on the connector. Use the same two wrenches to put it back together. If you don't use two wrenches, you'll end up twisting the tubing instead of breaking it free. At the other end where it enters the wheel cylinder, you'll only need one wrench, but probably still will need a line wrench to get it off.

When putting it back together, ensure the lines are square (or in line) with each other, or you run the risk of cross-threading the connection, then it will never seal. If it doesn't go together easily, you need to back it out and try again.