Not sure if anyone on here uses the HEL BRAKE LINES (i know they make them for the 300zx) but check your brake lines asap.

I normally dont copy paste things from other forums but think this a very important issue.

From another forum:

 

ATTENTION ALL HEL BRAKE LINE USERS!!!!

 

CHECK YOUR HEL BRAIDED BRAKE LINES NOW!!!!!!!

 

This was bought to my attention by my customer when he went for a MOT test.

My customer drives an Accord Type R. I fitted a set of HEL braided brake lines to his car less than 11 months/10,000 mile ago.

During the MOT test visual inspection, the MOT tester points out that his brake lines are cracking, then it went onto the brake roller test, when maximum brake pressure as applied, one of the brake lines burst and squirted brake fluid all over the inside of the wheel. Instant failure.

The old brake lines were refitted to get the car through the MOT.

This is when i got the phone call about the situation.

 

I went to check out the brake lines, and whilst i was there, i thought it would be a good idea to check over 2 other cars that i fitted HEL braided lines to.

 

heres the pics of the offending items on the ATR.

 

The 2 other cars were: Accord Type R and Integra Type R.

 

The ATR had the HEL brake lines fitted less than 9 months ago, with less than 6000 miles on them,

The ITR had the HEL brake lines fitted less than 6 months ago, with less than 6000 miles on them.

 

BOTH of them showed signs of cracking/splitting.

The ATR had 1 brake line (OSF) which was cracking in the same place as the ATR which failed on the mot.

 

the ITR had started cracking on both front brake lines where the brake line support bolts to the suspension.

 

pics of the 2nd ATR brake lines

 

offside front brake line

 

pics of the ITR brake lines

offside

 

nearside

 

The fault seems to stem from the design. namely the support bracket which bolts to the suspension.

the OEM brake line has a bracket which is at a fixed point on the brake line, whereas the HEL brake line has bracket which slides up and down the length of the brake line.

When the HEL brake line is fitted, and the bracket bolted onto the suspension, the problem occurs when you turn the steering wheel. as you turn into the brake line, the brake line does not slide in the bracket, but as you turn away from the brake line, the brake line is pulled tight as it slides in the bracket to stretch as the caliper moves further away from the chassis.

but as you turn back into the brake line, the tension isn't released, the brake line isn't fed back through the bracket and over time, it seems this is what is causing the cracking/splitting, which leads to it eventually bursting.

 

I have sent an email to HEL to see what they have to say on the problem.

 

but in the meantime, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CHECK YOUR BRAKE LINES!!!!!!!

 

i'm relieved that the ATR brake line burst on the MOT rollers and not on the road when braking hard with his baby daughter in the back seat.

but quite suprised that HEL lines would fail after such short duration of usage.

good post, that issue is very serious.

Theres alot to be said about sticking to OEM parts. I keep thinking about upgrading parts, but after an issue with some whiteline drop links, im sticking with OEM.

Although Hel brake lines are supposed to be good lol

That is indeed a very serious failing ... Glad to see the defects were spotted during the MOT and not on public roads! I must say though, I've seen this type of problem with a number os braided brake lines before (not wishing to generalise but they usually came off eBay ...)

 

Looking at the pictures, I can sumise two problems, namely (1) brake lines appear not to be long enough to allow full steering movement and (2) the line locators/brackets seemingly can not freely slide over the plastic sheath covering the braided line.

 

Let me go on by assuring our customers who purchased DTA-Motorsport (UK) braided brake lines that a tremendous ammount of design and testing has gone into our products. To date we have not had a single failure on any of our braided brake lines and we're hoping to keep it that way. During the design phase we decided to extend our brake lines directly to the caliper - not only does this eliminate an additional metal pipe but it also means that our lines are longer than normal brake lines and indeed most other aftermarket braided brake lines on the market. This primarily allows for our lines to have plenty of "reach" between full lock of the steering wheel. Furthermore, you will have noticed that our braided brake lines do not have a plastic outer sheath. There are two reasons for this, (1) it allows the brake lines to move FREELY through the line locators/brackets thus eliminating stretching of the line and (2) it makes it very easy to spot any defects in the overbraid. To protect the overbraid against the elements all that is required is a light coating of WD40 every 6 or so months.

 

Our lines may be more expensive than the average HEL/Goodridge/eBay varieties but you are getting a well designed and thoroughly tested product. All our brake line kits are manufactured by a company that provides various parts to the motorsport and aerospace industries (including F1 and Rallye teams as well as Fokker and BAE aerospace) and each line is pressure tested to 3000psi to ensure there are no leaks prior to shipping.

 

I apologise for blabbing on like this but I thought it important to assure our current and future customers that our braided brake line kits are of the highest quality and backed by a full, A1 customer service.

 

It is a pitty that the HEL product seems to have failed on the above vehicles. Makes me wonder how many people are driving around with nearly failing brake lines.

 

So check your lines periodically!

 

Regards,

didnt mean to affect anyones business but i just thought i was a serious problem i.e no brakes no stopping. Im sure thousands of kits have been sold all over the world and only a certain amount have had problems. I just posted it up so people would check the brake lines.

It's worth noting however that there are a hell of a lot of counterfeit products out there at the moment (especially floating around on ebay), it would be interesting to see if these brake lines were originally soured direct from the manufacturer (ie. HEL) or shipped in bulk to the UK from Hong Kong for example, via a third party, knowing full well that they were poor copies of the genuine part, with the sole intention of making a quick couple of quid.

 

However if these are genuine HEL parts then surely the company need to issue an immediate recall notice before somebody gets seriously injured or worse.

I was looking at these lines when I had my ITR. There was a post on the DC2 forum and a few said they'd had probs with them but majority said they were good to buy.

work on the basis that if its a real bargin and priced much lower than from a reputable dealer or trader then its 99.9% a copy and been compromised in its material quality...a perfect example is stainless steel fixings from hong dong that go rusty ffs:rolleyes:...be very carefull buying products like brakes and stuff from the "Bay Of Pigs"...porn will be fine thou:tt2: