I tried to replace the front left brake hose and rounded the flare nut.
I did buy a good flare nut wrench, 11mm, soaked and heated the connection, but still failed to disconnect the hose.

I will try some radical meausures, and will likely need to replace the hard hydraulic line on the front (left side for now). So I have some questions:

- where does it go?? Where is the other end of the line?
- Does it have the same small nut on the other side? Will I face the same problem?
- Where do I get a replacement line? Do I buy it from a dealer or buy a generic line and bend it as the original?
- Are there any other way to repair the hard line, or replacement is the only way?

Thank you,

Yuri

The easiest way to fix this problem correctly is to cut the hard line just before the fitting. Buy a new fitting and a flaring tool. Slide the new fitting on, flare the hard line, and it's good as new.

Hi Yuri,
The other end of the line go's to the brake master cylinder/fuid resivoir.
The nut on that end is very similair but I do not think you will experience the same amount of trouble as the one you have rounded off.
Your best bet is to get a new brake line from a dealer, that way you will have everything match up. You will have to bend the new one as they do not come "prebent" no matter what the parts guy says the book shows, so when you remove the old one becarefull not to put too many extra bends in it. Buy a brake line tubing bender at an auto parts store and do not rush this job it is easy to make the bends incorrect. Use a magic marker to mark the new line as you go from one bend to where the next one needs to be, use a tape measure for this. You can unbend the tubing when you make a mistake if you are carefull. It is better to start a bend and check to make sure it is bending the correct way/angle before you put a full bend in it and discover it was the wrong way/angle.

Volvo of Houston has a parts department that will sell people out of their local area parts at their cost. Search the archives on this site for the phone number.

As a last resort for the rounded nut, use a smaller pair of vice grips on the rounded nut and be sure to hold the hose side nut from turning. This is a 2 wrench process and is a wicked pain in the ____. I have just replaced both of the front brake hoses on my '95 855t and I had to put a torch on the nuts and get them almost red before they would break lose from the hose fitting. Be sure to flush the brake fluid an extra amount at these brakes after all of the new parts are installed,

steve d '94 854 125k, '95 855t 155k. '00 c70lt 85k.

Steve,
So when you finally unscrewed the nut, did you re-use it with a new rubber hose? I guess it was quite mangled by then?
Yuri

I want to complete this trend, in case someone will read it in the future.
The rounded nut was a lost cause, I could not do anything about it. Took the car to a local garage. Most garages have brake lines and hardware to install them. They simply cut the solid line on my car some 3" away from the rubber hose joint and extended it with a new piece. They connected this extension and the existing line with a union with 2 o-rings. The result was very professional, neat, and 100% functional.
The job took an hour and cost $100. But again, very neat job.

I still had to replace the right side rubber hose. This time I had a Mac flare nut wrench, 11mm size. No heating or soaking - the flare nut unscrewed! It took some force, but a good wrench does it all. A regular 14mm wrench is OK to hold the rubber hose side. Then it took 5 min to install a new hose and 10 min to bleed the brakes.

So, most important tip: get a good wrench. Good means Snap-on or Mac. Craftsman and such are not good enough. They have some solt of "lip" on the edges and do not "hug" the nut completely. Whatever you pay for a good wrench (I bought mine used on eBay for $10), even ful price of some $30 is absolutely worth it.

Assuming your 95 is routed the same as a 96 then the pipe actually goes to the abs pump.

basically you will have to put in a new line. I tried and could not get the nut undone. plus you will end up doing so much damage to the hard pipe that i wouldnt feel safe leaving it on the car.

you can go to volvo, or just buy some 3/16 brake pipe and make up your own. get a new nut for the pipe to rubber hose and re-use the one on the abs pump. it probably wont be as tidy as a volvo one but will work just as well.

you will also need a pipe flaring kit, to flare the ends of the new pipe.

i choose not to buy volvo hoses as i was replacing all the hard pipe on my 850r as i was fitting ss hoses allround and going to volvo would have been mega ££££$$$$$