Which brand for braided hoses

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 10:30 pm

Which brand is best for braided hoses

Hella
Goodridge
Black diamond
Earls

The rest of them comes as kits barring the earls one ,which are custom made and are priced individually at 20 for stainless steel ends or 16 for mild steel ends.

Ideally I need just the two rear ones, which join the trailing arms. As when I purchased the WMS front and rear kits it came with braided hoses to the callipers.

Thanks sag

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 10:37 pm

I've fitted many sets of hel performance brake line kits, albeit not to an E30 yet. But quality is great and never had any issues with fitting.

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 10:53 pm

Try to get ones with stainless fittings as well as overbraid. The zinc plated ones ain't to hot. And watch for clearance once fitted, as the ones purchased with my wilwoods wore through against the control arm. I only realised this at 70mph about 50 yds off a roundabout. Thank Christ for diff locking.

Post Tue Dec 18, 2012 8:59 am

maxfield wrote:I've fitted many sets of hel performance brake line kits, albeit not to an E30 yet. But quality is great and never had any issues with fitting.

I bought a HEL kit for the E30:

Really nicely made and I got to pick the colour of the outer sheath, went with 'carbolook' as I didn't want glaring lines and wanted it to look semi-stock.

Full stainless parts, custom made basically. £100 for the full kit (well, £99.99) from an ebay authorised HEL seller/maker.

Post Tue Dec 18, 2012 9:16 am

Earls can make you whatever you reqire 1 hose or a full set.

Post Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:23 pm

If the braided kit does not have a solid plastic outer like the goodridge kits then it's not really road legal.
Kits with just a Teflon liner and an over braid can get dirt trapped under the over braid and chafe through the Teflon liner resulting in total braking loss. (seen it happen with old mtb stuff)
IIRC the road regs require a twin wall hose as well, like rubber hoses when you cut them there is a fabric wrap then a rubber outer for the above reason as well as they bulge instead of burst.
I think to be fully road legal they also need crimped ends.
Just something to be aware of, personally i wont run anything that isn't rubber coated.

Please don't ask me for proof of that though it's something that came up years ago and i cba to find proof.