I live in the pit of hell otherwise known as Las Vegas. I believe my braking is currently compromised due to the high heat of the summer months, and am considering a set of steel braided brake lines from IPD. They are now on sale for 20% off.

Is it worth the $86.00 or is it all just hype? Please advise.

Anton, ‘97 Volvo 855R

squishy brake pedal feel can sometimes be attributed to the swelling of rubber brake lines. u can try to make it slightly more responsive by using stainless steel brake lines...just get it and put it on when the next brake fluid is changed. oh, and to prevent sand (as u live in las vegas) from getting into the braiding, u can get some high temp resistant shrink wrap (rubber i think) to cover the line...this should prolong it's life.

Steve -

Thanks for the help and input. I will take your advise and make the purchase.

- Anton

SS braided brake lines don't actually increase braking ability, but do provide better brake feel, which does make braking in extreme conditions easier to control.

First of all, the hottest it could possibly is 150 degrees farenheit. Brakes routinely reach many times that, even 1000 degrees farenheit. I have personally boiled fresh Volvo DOT 4+ before (track racing), which is why I only use Motul now. So don't worry, the weather is not playing a significant role.

If you drive your car normally, don't race it, don't do hard braking on a regular basis, it's not really worth your time/money. Especially considering the possibilities of what can go wrong during the replacement. Foe an example of what can go wrong during an ss braided brake line change, search the archives for one of my old posts.

Sin -

Thanks for the response. I have gone ahead and made the purchase, and will have the volvo dealer add the lines when I get the timing belt changed next month. I'm more interested in a better pedal feel, not performance. I tried looking for your post SS brake lines, but the search engine is having trouble finding anything related to the field. There could be a search engine error.

- What are some the risks of replacing the lines?
- How much is a good price for a timing belt replacement (dealer wants $420)?
- My rotors have warped again, only after 4 months. DAMN. Please see post from 08/12...any ideas?

You seem to be a regular on this site with lots of great input. I would appreciate any feedback you could give.

- Anton
'97 Volvo 850R wagon

The brake line fittings (the ones on the hard lines that screw into the flex lines) are made of brass, and unbelievably overtorqued from factory. Even if you use the proper flare wrench (A 6 point wrench with one of the sides removed slightly, so as to get almost 6 points of contact around such things are brake lines), the brass fittings have been known to seize in the calipers up front, and to the stock flex lines in the rear on the trailing arm from overtorquing from factory. If that occurs, you'll need to cut the hard line as close to the flex line as possible, go out and buy proper brake line fittings, and a double flare brake flare tool, in order to have a working brake system again. After cutting the seized end off, slide on the new fitting, flare the end of the hard line, and you're good to go. What was supposed to be a 2 hour job ended up being a week job. I had to find brake line fittings (thank my lucky stars for UAP), which took days, and re-do basically every hard line to soft line connection.

Well, I can't really say what would be a good price where you are. I've noticed many Americans pay WAY more than us Canadians for example.

As for the warping of rotors, are the lug bolts being torqued with a torque wrench? And are the mating surfaces of the rotor and rim being cleaned when the wheels are mounted?