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

[ehsnils]

Well, we were talking about the Opel, just as unobtainable as the Mondeo.

 

And both have a so/so reputation here in Europe, especially when they are a few years old. Not as bad as French vehicles, but now Opel is part of the PSA group so they'll be there soon.

[subysouth]

And both have a so/so reputation here in Europe, especially when they are a few years old. Not as bad as French vehicles, but now Opel is part of the PSA group so they'll be there soon.

 

So with all those options there in Europe - if you weren't buying a Subaru what wagon would you buy? Audi A6 Avant of some variant is my favorite 2nd choice here - what about there? Audi stopped bringing the A6 Avant here several years ago so a new one is a nonstarter. I have a hunted a used 09+ A6 with the 3.0TFSI off and on for years. Good ones something something hen's teeth.

 

ss

Edited December 23, 2017 by subysouth

[Wasted Potential]

So with all those options there in Europe - if you weren't buying a Subaru what wagon would you buy? Audi A6 Avant of some variant is my favorite 2nd choice here - what about there? Audi stopped bringing the A6 Avant here several years ago so a new one is a nonstarter. I have a hunted a used 09+ A6 with the 3.0TFSI off and on for years. Good ones something something hen's teeth.

 

ss

 

I was looking at one of those with the supercharged v6! Guess they are pretty reliable. Can buy a tune and upgraded pulley and make over 400 ft wheel HP I think. Maybe it was 350whp?

[subysouth]

I was looking at one of those with the supercharged v6! Guess they are pretty reliable. Can buy a tune and upgraded pulley and make over 400 ft wheel HP I think. Maybe it was 350whp?

 

The smart money saying its already making 350 and Audi nerfs their numbers to save the rep of the 4.2 expensive option engine. It should make 400 easy with mods and as important plenty of torques(sic Clarkson.) it handily outruns the 4.2 V8 stock.

 

ss

[subysouth]

On my to do list was to put a period at the end of my version of this topic.

 

Subaru warrantied the brake lines after a bit of spirited discussion. I would advise any of you facing a similar issue to avail yourself of the following linked data.

 

https://subaru.oemdtc.com/62/wqk-47-brake-line-corrosion-2005-2014-subaru/2

 

Short version - if the lines fail later at an area deemed "OK" in the recall inspection Subaru seems inclined to warranty the issue. If you look at their TSB their included pic is the specific location my lines failed. If they agree to replace one line as it states in the TSB they replace them all.

 

Unfortunately near simultaneous to all this we found a 100% leak down failure at cylinder 2 on my OB. I sold the car to a young man anxious for a project. I have pulled and rebuilt three Subaru engines in my shop over the years but my shop and more importantly time is currently otherwise occupied.

 

ss

[Timmonsbm33]

For those that fixed this issue themselves, where were you able to find the brake line diagram in order to help find the brake lines and replace or repair them?

[edgemoulic]

Passenger side close to the Rear Right Wheel covered with plastic splash guard, once you take it off you will see the lines. Or better if you don’t want to go underneath there’s a line in the rear seats passenger side. Just take off the seat and you’ll see it there right away. Edited January 14, 2019 by edgemoulic

[tominator19]

Oh boy, am I teetering on the edge of brake line failure. Check out this picture.

 

Cityside Subaru in Belmont, MA claims that Subaru of America will only honor the recall and cover the cost of the brake line replacement if the lines are ACTUALLY LEAKING, which is terrifying. BRB, let me crash my car due to brake failure to get my brake line replacement covered

 

[solidxsnake]

Oh boy, am I teetering on the edge of brake line failure. Check out this picture.

 

Cityside Subaru in Belmont, MA claims that Subaru of America will only honor the recall and cover the cost of the brake line replacement if the lines are ACTUALLY LEAKING, which is terrifying. BRB, let me crash my car due to brake failure to get my brake line replacement covered

 

 

Sounds about right

 

 

Cityside has been a pretty poor dealer from what I've heard. They did alright with my airbag recall and my dash replacement, but not the easiest to work with and a bit sloppy with the work. I've read plenty of other horror stories about them, too. Plus the guys in the parts dept. that I've dealt with are certifiably braindead. Maybe you'll have better luck at Subaru of Wakefield?

[whitexc]

Go put a wrench on them.....they'll be leaking.

 

That is daunting, sorry. Hopefully you have another dealer you can try? Or call SOA and ask how leaking brake lines are the only way a recall can be addressed. It was after all, a recall.

 

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

[awfulwaffle]

Ugh. Sprung a fuel leak from (probably) the filler neck and saw this when I pulled off the plastic guard to see where it was leaking down from. The entire chassis is almost completely rust free, except the stupid pocket where this joint sits.

 

Looks like I get to do some brake lines when I drop the tank, unless anyone's had luck getting Subaru to replace their lines in bad shape but still holding?

[apexi]

Damn that looks terrible... Seeing what looks like rubberized undercoating makes me think of this vid

[awfulwaffle]

Sure enough, Ziebarted. I'll see about scraping it off when the tank's out.

[awfulwaffle]

Let's go see if the dealer will do anything about it. Not holding my breath. NHTSA complaint if not.

[awfulwaffle]

Whoops double post Edited April 14, 2019 by awfulwaffle

[awfulwaffle]

Dealer service advisor said, and I quote: "Holy crap, that's a brake line?"

 

Turns out the recall was done on my car right after it came out, and the undercoating went on within the last year so I doubt it had anything to do with the corrosion on those lines and the fitting.

 

Told me to bring it back Tuesday for an inspection. Taking bets on whether or not they'll actually do anything about it

 

 

One way or another, lines are getting replaced and that entire pocket is getting knocked clean and coated in POR15.

[08SpecB_DE]

Be assertive and dont take no for an answer. Some dealers will submit when they realize you are serious and aren't leaving until the issue is fixed. This is of course if they say they will not cover it.

[awfulwaffle]

Sound advice. I'll report back how this pans out.

[awfulwaffle]

Wellp, that was worth a shot. Dealer gave me a quote and SoA told me to pound dirt. Oh well, picked up some line and fittings on the way home.

[RecklessWOT]

Hey it was worth a shot, but I'm really not surprised, TBH I'd be really surprised if they did do it for free.

 

I mean as much as it sucks, you do drive a 15 year old car. In the salt belt no less. I don't care what manufacturer, any jap car of that age has the potential end up with rotted brake lines (or anything else for that matter). The fact that it was a knows issue on these cars since day one gives people a fighting chance trying to get the dealer to fix it, but realistically at this point we're just really lucky if we're able to trick them into doing it. 10 years ago, even 5 years ago sure. But can you imagine bringing any other 2005 car to the dealer and asking them to fix rust? These cars are starting to rot doglegs and anything else that wasn't kept clean. I'm actually glad to see that most of them haven't ended up rustier than they have. The first Subaru I ever owned was a 93 Legacy L back in like 2004. When I got it the quarters were rotted, there was a hole in the trunk and one under the carpet in the back seat, I had to replace a couple brake lines and the exhaust, clear coat was peeling from everywhere, and that was only like 11-12 years old at the time. Our cars have held up well, but at this point and this age, getting some rust on a brake line tucked up under the car while living in a salty winter area is 100% to be expected, and demanding a dealer to fix it is ridiculous. You tried, yeah it was worth a shot I'd probably try too, but it really would have been lucky for them to say yes. If someone went in there and threw a fit and demanded they did it because of like a 12 year old recall, that would just make that person look like an entitled brat. You tried, but hey no big deal.

 

Sounds like you're prepared to fix it yourself, and it's really not that hard. Good luck with the repair, use the time to really inspect your undercarriage and address any other potential problem areas.

[awfulwaffle]

Agreed. Shame is that this particular spot is by far the most corroded on the entire chassis. Not for long.

 

On the other hand, I got a really good laugh out of the near $6k quote the dealer initially gave me. Even the $4k it came down to without the "recommended items" was a hoot.

Edited April 18, 2019 by awfulwaffle

[Holla]

I guess I somehow got lucky by not knowing mine were going to break. It’s a little scary though, I had been in CO just a few weeks earlier bombing through the mountains. Luckily, I was coming to a stop at just a few mph’s when the pedal went to the floor. I had known something was up before though, I had to top off my MC a few times in the weeks leading to the failure. My car is clean for a Midwest car, I was shocked that it had rusted through.

 

Initially, the dealer denied the repair. I immediately filed a claim with SOA and they approved the repair pretty quickly. It took a couple of weeks for them to fix it but I’m glad I didn’t have to wrestle with a bunch of rusted brake lines. That does not seem like an enjoyable job.

 

I think the quote the dealer had given me was 2k for the repair. It was about $200-$300 in parts.

[Max Capacity]

Hey it was worth a shot, but I'm really not surprised, TBH I'd be really surprised if they did do it for free.

 

I mean as much as it sucks, you do drive a 15 year old car. In the salt belt no less. I don't care what manufacturer, any jap car of that age has the potential end up with rotted brake lines (or anything else for that matter). The fact that it was a knows issue on these cars since day one gives people a fighting chance trying to get the dealer to fix it, but realistically at this point we're just really lucky if we're able to trick them into doing it. 10 years ago, even 5 years ago sure. But can you imagine bringing any other 2005 car to the dealer and asking them to fix rust? These cars are starting to rot doglegs and anything else that wasn't kept clean. I'm actually glad to see that most of them haven't ended up rustier than they have. The first Subaru I ever owned was a 93 Legacy L back in like 2004. When I got it the quarters were rotted, there was a hole in the trunk and one under the carpet in the back seat, I had to replace a couple brake lines and the exhaust, clear coat was peeling from everywhere, and that was only like 11-12 years old at the time. Our cars have held up well, but at this point and this age, getting some rust on a brake line tucked up under the car while living in a salty winter area is 100% to be expected, and demanding a dealer to fix it is ridiculous. You tried, yeah it was worth a shot I'd probably try too, but it really would have been lucky for them to say yes. If someone went in there and threw a fit and demanded they did it because of like a 12 year old recall, that would just make that person look like an entitled brat. You tried, but hey no big deal.

 

Sounds like you're prepared to fix it yourself, and it's really not that hard. Good luck with the repair, use the time to really inspect your undercarriage and address any other potential problem areas.

 

 

I'm guessing you never had a skiing buddy with a 2001 Toyota Sequoia. My ski buddies had its chassis replaced in 2015, by Toyota, zero cost to him.

 

IMO Subaru should have replaced the brake lines after the recall when they failed. The dealer replaced all the brake lines on the my 05 wagon in 2017. No cost to me. It appears to be a 9 hour job in labor.

[awfulwaffle]

Well that's the condition isn't it? I don't want to wait for mine to fail.

[RecklessWOT]

I'm guessing you never had a skiing buddy with a 2001 Toyota Sequoia. My ski buddies had its chassis replaced in 2015, by Toyota, zero cost to him.

 

IMO Subaru should have replaced the brake lines after the recall when they failed. The dealer replaced all the brake lines on the my 05 wagon in 2017. No cost to me. It appears to be a 9 hour job in labor.

 

Yeah and toyota SITLL has that ongoing frame recall on Tacomas for the last 10-15 years. That is super rare though, and TBH I'm surprised they've been doing it for so long. That's a long standing problem with the quality of steel they used on the frames. This brake line issue is just the result of poor design.

 

I agree they should have replaced the lines when the recall was issued rather than just spraying wax on it, that was a crappy move on their part. But they didn't and now we're stuck with it.

 

But seriously, living in NE for as long as you have I can almost guarantee you've personally seen plenty of brake lines rot out in less than 15 years, and other stuff too. Just because one car manufacturer went above and beyond does not mean they all have to. I mean hell, most of us are not the original owners of these cars, they're high mileage second hand cars that are over 10 years old at the very least. They don't owe us anything, it's not a huge safety issue like the takata airbags. Brake lines failing is certainly unsafe, but they don't just go randomly without warning. Technically it's one's own responsibility to inspect their vehicle and make sure it's in a safe condition to drive. Yeah it's a crappy design that led to these lines rotting, but now that we all know it's an issue we should just accept it and fix the issue. If you see rust, you should get it fixed. 15 years later if you've never once inspected your brake lines and one of them blows due to rust, that's on you.

 

I think they may have replaced your lines because you've had the car since new and obviously take good care of it. You're not some 20 year old with a beat up $3k legacy that you bought a year or two ago. You're an older guy who they're familiar with, they probably made an exception for you because it was worth it. That does not mean anyone is entitled to a free repair.

 

That Mitsubishi I owned a few years ago lost a brake line at high speed in heavy traffic on 84 in waterbury on a friday afternoon, I didn't demand the dealer fix it, I limped it to a buddy's house and put some new lines on it. Part of owning an older car. I've had plenty of brake/fuel lines pop over the years. It is what it is