Fitting braided hoses - how long to fit (aka how much)?

Digital · Post by **Digital** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:53 pm

My car is due to go back into MMC for a warranty fix for the heater, which involves taking the front clam off. I had been thinking of getting them to fit a set of braided brake hoses while it's off, but was wondering how much MMC are likely to charge for this? Anyone know how long should it take them to fit the hoses?

Cheers,
Jamie

woody · Post by **woody** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:11 pm

It Took me about half an hour all in a side at the front. An hour at the rear with liberal use of the angle grinder.

Digital · Post by **Digital** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:18 pm

woody wrote:It Took me about half an hour all in a side at the front. An hour at the rear with liberal use of the angle grinder.

Hopefully MMC won't need to take the grinder to my car! Cheers woody

Post by **campbell** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:31 pm

If you fancy trying them, Tarduff Motors in Linlithgow will probably do the job for reasonable cash. Know their stuff I believe. And does the clam have to come off to do this work? Doubt it, presumably you just meant "since it's at MMC anyway"?

A very sensible tweak, at least on non-servo cars...not sure if you'll feel any difference with a servo but maybe on a trackday...

woody · Post by **woody** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:43 pm

Digital wrote:
woody wrote:It Took me about half an hour all in a side at the front. An hour at the rear with liberal use of the angle grinder.
Hopefully MMC won't need to take the grinder to my car! Cheers woody

As they'll have done it on elises before and have a proper workshop, it shouldn't take as long. Mine only needed ground off because of the car's age and my lack of a 15mm spanner that was actually 15mm. I think I remember reading somewhere that S2's do need the clam removed

I don't know what they/others do P clip wise, but I managed to attain some kevlar banded ones at work the correct (smaller) size to grip the braided hoses.

Got my goodrich lines for £42 delivered on ebay, new and from an ebay shop sale. The quality is excellent.

Rich H · Post by **Rich H** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 7:52 am

Jus padded my P clips with something. S1 clam does not have to come off but the calipers do to stop the hoses getting all twisted. You have to screw the caliper onto the hose, not the other way around.

Took me about 2 - 3 hours or so to do the lot including lots of tea and bleeding after.

mac · Post by **mac** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 8:32 am

K powered S2's don't need to take the clam off.

I've done two cars now and still take me a couple of hours - mainly because it's fiddly.

The brake lines I got were plastic coated and the P clips had rubbers on them to save any chaffing issues.

Mac

Digital · Post by **Digital** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:15 pm

Thanks all, I believe the clam does have to come off to fit them to an S2 Exige - I think Ed had them done on his black S2 a couple of years ago. The main reason I'm considering getting it done is that the clam will be off anyway to fit the new heater motor, so it would make sense to get it done at the same time - hoping not to have to have the clam off again any time soon...

Given that the heater fix is a warranty claim, I suspect MMC will be my best bet? I've been impressed with Tarduff in the past (use them for work on my other car) and they're very handily all of 200m from my flat!

Jamie

Post by **campbell** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:21 pm

Digital wrote:Thanks all, I believe the clam does have to come off to fit them to an S2 Exige - I think Ed had them done on his black S2 a couple of years ago. The main reason I'm considering getting it done is that the clam will be off anyway to fit the new heater motor, so it would make sense to get it done at the same time - hoping not to have to have the clam off again any time soon...

Given that the heater fix is a warranty claim, I suspect MMC will be my best bet? I've been impressed with Tarduff in the past (use them for work on my other car) and they're very handily all of 200m from my flat!

Jamie

In which case I guess you want a regular quote from MMC to do the brake line job "stand-alone", then an indication of what they can take out the quote since the clam will already be off. Don't be fleeced.

Post by ed » Sat Oct 27, 2007 4:32 pm

They wanted to charge me 4.5 hours labour to change them. (not including removal of the clam) I flew off the rails and managed to get that discounted. TBh prob not worth it imho as they are servo assisted anyways. Decent fluid and pagids is probably a better bet! HTH cheers Ed

BiggestNizzy · Post by **BiggestNizzy** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 5:32 pm

4.5hrs for a garage seems a bit much, dunno if thats Lotus's fault as if they are like the major manufacturers they set the times not the dealer.

If you want I will do them, practice on your car before I do my own then if i break something it's on your car and not mine.