Rusted Rear Brake Lines - Subaru won't honor their recall?

Do I need to get under the car to inspect the brake lines? Not sure where they run.

Yeah, right in front of the rear passenger wheel there's a big plastic shield. It's gotta come down, and you should see a brake junction near the front passenger side of fuel tank once it's off. There's also a little inspection flap that pops out of the bigger plastic shield, but I didn't actually try to inspect through it so idk what you can actually see. See a few pages back for pics of what the junction looks like. Edited August 15, 2019 by awfulwaffle

In addition to the 4 way joint connector, there's also a couple places where the metal is held in place by clips, and I guess it can corrode and fail there too.

 

https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/dealership-denied-rusted-brake-line-repair-recall-smoking-guni-269642.html

i've been getting these recall letters for years now while my car is sitting in my driveway... I didn't really think anything of it until reading some of the horror going on in this thread... i better go look at my brakes lines immediately. This and some airbag shrapnel nonsense.

 

One quick check would be to see what the level of the brake fluid is ?

"i better go look at my brakes lines immediately."

 

Tehnation-- Whatever you do, DON'T take your car to the Subaru dealer to have the lines inspected. If they aren't leaking the day you bring it in, they'll daub the lines with "anti-corrosion", will mark your car as "done" with the recall, wash their hands of you, and refuse to replace the lines if they indeed rust through later. In my case, I got all of 15k miles between the brake lines being declared "fine" and their rusting through to the point of endangering my life. And they would not replace them at that point.

 

So a better plan may be, have your own mechanic do frequent inspections (or do so yourself). At the first sign of an actual leak, THEN bring the car to Subaru for the recall. According to the recall notice, if your lines are actually leaking when inspected, they will replace them.

I have heard Subaru has a procedure where they take a tool (similar to a spring loaded glass breaking tool) and if it doesn't puncture your brake line, then they spray the "anti-corrosion wax" on and call it a day.

 

If it punctures or causes a leak, they replace the affected area.

 

It only sounds believable due to the above average number of "I only got X,XXX amount of miles after they inspected before my brake lines failed completely."

 

The crappy part about waiting for a leak to then have it inspected is you cannot have the other recalls performed either as they'll want to do them all at once. (Sticky dash, pass airbag, secondary air pump relay) That's the case for the dealerships near me anyway.

In addition to the 4 way joint connector, there's also a couple places where the metal is held in place by clips, and I guess it can corrode and fail there too.

 

https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/dealership-denied-rusted-brake-line-repair-recall-smoking-guni-269642.html

 

This is the only part of mine that failed. It looks like the recall was actually somewhat effective on the spot they sprayed (wasn't perfect but not bad at all). The lines were completely disintegrated at the clips though, literally broke into pieces when I did get around to changing them. They were seeping pretty bad, I had been wondering where some of my brake fluid was going...

 

I inspected the junction through the little flap in the past and it didn't look bad at all, hadn't realized how bad it was farther back. I only noticed because I could smell brake fluid when I was changing my struts

Edited August 16, 2019 by RecklessWOT

Yeah, the spot they sprayed seemed effective on my car too. I know people aren't fond of how Subaru handled this, I get it, but if treated early enough it seems like the product they used works pretty well. Random pictures of my junction block 4 years after it was treated.

pics

https://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5700495&postcount=54

 

I also tried inspecting the places where the line is held in by the clips.. It's harder to see how bad things are there, and no way I'm pulling the line out of the clip..

pics

https://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5853846&postcount=2

i thought Subaru's were supposed to be fun and safe for the entire family... something you hand down to your children... these commercials are bullshit! !

i thought Subaru's were supposed to be fun and safe for the entire family... something you hand down to your children... these commercials are bullshit! !

 

I agree, total and complete junk. One brake line goes bad and the whole car is worthless!

 

You should probably just get rid of it. I'll gladly take it off your hands for you, I could use a good parts car

Just push the brake pedal really hard when stopped close to a dealer and if it falls to the floor nurse it into the dealer.

It is a design flaw. We cannot blame the dealers or the company it should be their engineers who didn’t think that the problem will exist cause of the bad design. In the first place the joint from the main brake line was covered with plastic. But the parts where prone to corrosion no matter what. Which in the first place they should use a copper tube, and I doubt because mostly of the manufactured cars brake lines are made of steel. I didn’t give up with mine and Thanks God that it didn’t happened when I’m on the road, now since you know that this is a preventive reminder go dig in the problem now rather than hitting someone later I Hope Not.

I agree, total and complete junk. One brake line goes bad and the whole car is worthless!

 

You should probably just get rid of it. I'll gladly take it off your hands for you, I could use a good parts car

 

nice try lol!

Crap, I thought the big plastic thing was the wheel well liner. Oh well, that's off now. The bolts over my skid plate (?)...they are not even 6 sided anymore, just a rusty blob. I think the grinder will have to come out.

 

The good news is that the lines going in & out of the box thingy appear to be in good shape, except for a 1cm length between the box and the brake. I think that is where the leak is coming from, but I'm going to do a leak test before attempting a repair.

I used Vice Grip on mine with WD40 in it. The rest of the line looks good because it was covered with plastic but if you look closer rust is in there so I decided to change the whole line without worries later.

The 1cm you mentioned that’s where the dealers put the Anti-seize that I called a joke, but that thing had a purpose on the design of the car which makes sense I think.

Edited August 20, 2019 by edgemoulic
Wordings

So, some progress: SoA has agreed to include my export Legacy as part of the NHSTA brake line recall. The next step is getting SoC to honour that...right now, they are not even going to do the airbag recall, nevermind the brake lines!

 

I was glad I checked my email, cause I was about 10 minutes away from bashing on with this myself.

 

 

http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48587951442_e2a5d3979c_b.jpg

Lost brake power last Monday and car has been sitting at the dealership since Tuesday afternoon. Right rear brake line corroded at the part where the clip holds the line near the frame.

 

My issue is that the recall was also done (a year ago) and they coated the connector in the waxy component as per the recall. However, after looking at the vehicle today, I can see that the rear brake line was not covered in this same wax as the recall procedure stated it should. Before this, both the dealership and SoA was unwilling to help, stating that the recall was satisfied and now it was up to me to get it fixed.

 

I've brought up the fact that there appears to be no wax covering the line where there should be to the dealership and they stated they will speak to SoA about it.

 

I don't have high hopes. Does anyone have any pictures of what the line should look like WITH the wax on it? Here are some pics of my line where it doesn't seem like any was put on.

 

My break line failed today at the fitting that was recalled. Unfortunately, I never heard of the recall and never addressed it. "Coincidentally" the brake lines failed within blocks of leaving my inspection, which the car passed. (PA inspection is such a racket..a whole other topic).

 

Right now the car is going to be towed to Cherry Hill Subaru. Will see what they have to say. Seems like getting the dealership to take care of this could be hit or miss. Any advice on how to convince the dealership to honor the recall and fix the lines greatly appreciated!

Fortunately, I never heard of the recall and never addressed it. "

 

 

 

Fixed for you

 

 

Had you brought it in prior to the break they would have sprayed it with magic dust and sent you on your way only to deny a claim when the line breaks. You seem to be in a better position than most of us. The recall reads that if the line shows any leakage it will be replaced. The only caveat would be if a prior owner had the recall already done and magic dust was sprinkled

When the line goes like this is it a 100% loss of braking or does the system still work but only two of the four wheels brake and the pedal goes way down?

I believe its just the rears that go.

Yes, it's "only" the rears that goes, but the pedal will go down lower and it's possible that the pedal will bottom out before you get full brake power to the front wheels.

Yeah, my rear brake connector and surrounding lines blew yesterday.

 

I'd say you get 7% braking after it goes, seems like only enough brakes to hold you still without much grade. My pedal basically hit the floor and was only actuating in the last few degrees of travel.

 

Time to go get some nicopp tubing and make a weekend out of it! woo!

I hate to say it but it really seems like if you press they do it - if you don't they don't.

 

Good luck with it.

 

ss

Completely agree. The more i touched those lines, the more they disintegrated.

 

I ended up adding 2 unions under the back seat, deleting the crossover and running new hardlines to the first set of rubber lines.