MOT Hell

[ad318i]

Just took my touring back from the MOT and its failed on the rear brake pipes.....

The centre, nearside and offside pipes are corroded?
they told me its 5 hours labour!!! (cant b that much!!!)

and how much will the parts b...... gonna b skint for a bit now...

also nearside headlights aiming to low... dont think that should be bad to do!

[Ziggy]

The centre one goes over the fuel tank doesn't it? PITA job methinks... Parts won't be much, but the labour will

[fuzzy]

you can buy a complete set of car specific copper brake pipes for the e30 for about £90 from demon tweeks .you can buy lengths of pipe and fittings seperately and make them up yourself,that way you can re route them to make the job easier.

[Globulator]

Just took my touring back from the MOT and its failed on the rear brake pipes.....

They go pretty rusty too - I replaced my swingarm pipes and one just snapped in half when I rested it on the floor..
There is a pipe that runs the length of the middle bit of the car - that goes to two flexies going to each swing arm. Then solids go along each swing arm to the outside flexies, which then go to the calipers. On my cab anyway...
You need to order all pipes and flexies, or a pipe making kit. I think sometimes the tank gets in the way, so its not a pleasant job but doable..

[ad318i]

so how much am i looking at the parts.... i looked on demon tweeks and they only got the parts for an e21....

how much is it at a dealers? any employees got discount that they wanna get for me?

[Gwynleym10]

Firstly ask the MOT garage if you can have a look, both myself and neil 320touring have had dodgy MOT's recently! He was told that his touring had rusty brake pipes, but they were infact copper so they couldn't!

Its also a good oppertunity to look underneath your car to see if its actually worth doing

[320Touring]

Firstly ask the MOT garage if you can have a look, both myself and neil 320touring have had dodgy MOT's recently! He was told that his touring had rusty brake pipes, but they were infact copper so they couldn't!

Its also a good oppertunity to look underneath your car to see if its actually worth doing

amen!

its the "tank out" part that is the killer.

[dobbie82]

my 4dr failed on front and rear pipes and headlights.

was 7 hours labour to do them and a small weld on the sill.

£30 per hour x7 = £210 total bill was about £260

[Widge]

I did the rear pipes on my coupe over christmas, took me 2 days, but then it's not like I was working hard. It's much easier if you take off the old pipes then reroute the new ones. The garage said if they did it they had to put them back where they were before. I bought the flexis from EPC, about £35 worth then used a roll of copper pipe some widgets and the pipe flaring kit to make the pipes my self.
Wasn't too bad. My garage wanted £190+vat+the MOT to do it.

But do check, as has been said they tried to do Niel over somthing rotton, as he had copper pipes!!!!

[Paulsimon8]

Make the pipes yourself - brake line is about 6 quid a roll, and the fittings are about 7 quid a box of 50 and you'll need a flaring kit - about 15-20 quid for a half decent one

Heres a couple I made that sit on the rear wishbones for my restoration project




the old ones at the top, and the new ones at the bottom. Took me about 10 mins to make them

[Brianmoooore]

Total parts cost to replace every metal brake line on an E30 with cunnifer copper alloy would be about £10.
Very difficult to do with either the fuel tank or the rear beam in place, so now would be a good time to change your rear beam bushes or to take the fuel tank out and derust/paint it.
Don't know what people find difficult about taking the fuel tank out, other than rear half of prop has to come off.

[ad318i]

Firstly ask the MOT garage if you can have a look, both myself and neil 320touring have had dodgy MOT's recently! He was told that his touring had rusty brake pipes, but they were infact copper so they couldn't!

Its also a good oppertunity to look underneath your car to see if its actually worth doing

the guy actually showed me it in the test and they werent good at all..... the rest of the car looks good under except for the diff which i think will need to be changed soon