KRPTONT

So I autocross several times a year. Switching my brake set up to steel brake lines. Past weekend a fellow autocrosser said DO NOT put steel lines on. OEM are the best. Also said that the steel lines can pop off. Any ideas or suggestions would be great. I have a 2011 GS putting StopTech Cryo Treated Rotors and the New HP 5.0's and steel lines. Thanks for any feedback.
Shannon

froggy47

If scca, takes you out of stock/street & really unnecessary on a car that new.

Steel lines don't "pop off".

My 2004 c5z has original rubber lines.

Which I will probably chg b4 next TRACK day.

tytek

I agree about not having to replace the stock rubber ones on a new car like yours. And it would affect your autox class.

People go to SS lines to improve pedal feel and reduce pedal travel for track use, as rubber lines can expand under increased heat and pressure. Older rubber lines can also break and leave you without functioning brakes, so most people preemptively get theirs swapped to SS lines. I did it on my C5Z that I track and pedal feel remains relatively constant (with SRF fluid, particularly).

StKnoWhere

Replacing the lines every couple of years on a track car is more important than stock vs SS.

They fail at the worst possible moment, I know of at least two deaths on track related to brake line failure.

mdaniel

How could those incidents have been avoided?
Is there a procedure to verify the health of the lines?
I manually pull the the pads/rotors to inspect prior to each track day.

WHT

Just curious, stock or stainless brake lines?

Bill Dearborn

Doesn't really matter. All brake lines can be damaged by improper brake maintenance. As for the brake lines themselves there is little difference between rubber and stainless braided lines. The internal portion of the line is a teflon tube which doesn't expand even if the rubber gets old. If you get a brake failure that isn't due to boiling the fluid it is most likely that the hose has pulled out of the crimped fitting.

If that happens the first thing you should do is rapidly pump the pedal to see if you get enough pressure built up in the remaining brake circuit, if that doesn't work then you can think about pulling the parking brake, blow the corner and take the long way through it to gain track distance to give more room to slow the car, downshifting or spinning the car. Or a combination of several of those things.

Bill

Bill Dearborn

All of the SCCA autocrosses I have attended every stock class car might have been running stainless lines and they wouldn't have known. Nobody doing tech inspection ever pulled wheels to check the brake lines.

Bill

StKnoWhere

What Bill said.

I've wondered with full loss of brakes, if it may be better to try to impact the wall head on rather than slide sideways into it.