slfan

Hello,

As part of preventive maintenance, I am planning on replacing the brake hoses on my 1987 911 Carrera.

On the Pelicanparts website, I have found two types:

1. Rubber hoses - Ate brand
2. "Dash 3" Stainless Steel braided hoses (DOT approved) - Troutman brand

Can somebody provide me with any insight regarding which one of the two types of hoses is better (and if this Troutman brand is a high quality brand)?

Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks,
SLFan

Ed Hughes

Not familiar with Troutman, but I'd go with the DOT braided over rubber any day, unless you need to keep the car with original equipment.

slfan

Ed,

Thank you for the advice. Would you or anybody be able to recomend a high quality brand for stainless steel braided hoses? This would be greatly appreciate it!

Best regards,
AM

theiceman

Mine are OE rubber hoses that are date stamped. They have been excellent so far but I do not track my car so the brakes never get a real work out. I understand what Ed is saying but I just like the fact i can see what is happening with my brake hoses and fear that i can't see what is happening under the steel braiding.

Different strokes I guess...

wwest

Inside that "braid" is a regular old rubber brake hose. The original idea of the mesh braid was to protect the rubber hose from damage, road debris, etc.

Now it is BLING...!

rusnak

Troutman is one of the OGs of Porsche aftermarket parts. I remember when they were across from the old John Wayne airport in Irvine/ Newport Beach. That was back in the turboprop days when JW had no control tower.

slfan

Fellows,

Thank you for the comments. Since I am not going to be racing my car and as it appears that the steel braided and rubber hoses have the same lifespan, I am going to opt for the Ate rubber hoses. If there is any other issue that has not been considered or if I am making a mistake, PLEASE let me know.

All advice is welcome.

Best regards,
AM

911vet

As already mentioned, the braid can be a simple covering on an OE style rubber hose. What you might be wanting is a teflon-lined hose. They usually have a stainless steel braid on them as well. But if I am correct, it's the teflon-lining that separates them from OE rubber hoses.

In theory, the lining prevents the hose from expanding under pressure... therefore transferring all the hydraulic pressure to the caliper.

That's what I installed. Maybe it's all hype, but since I had to put on new lines, that's what I got. I have great brakes. And of course, they just look way cool.

slfan

911Vet,

Thanks for sharing your experience. Would you mind recommending me a good brand for Teflon-lined brake hoses?

This would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards,
SLFan

911vet

I am no expert and I'm not sure my recommendation should carry any weight at all. I think mine are the Weltmeister lines available from Performace Products at www.automotion.com. Sorry - it's been a couple of years and I'm not sure that's what I got.

I am very happy with my brakes. I'm using Performance Friction pads and Motul fluid for the track. I'm sure the pads are the reason I feel good about the system. But the lines I have are working well. The fitment was perfect, the install was without incident. But be prepared to install some new hard lines if you do it. Taking the old flexible lines off will usually result in destruction of one or more of your hard lines. I had to install 3 new ones (went to AutoZone and bought them pre-made close to the OE length and bent them to shape. Easy. But if you can't find what you need, AutoZone will lend you a kit to make them).

r911

Use the OE or OEM Rubber Hoses - don't put any stainless steel braided hoses on your car unless you will replace them yearly - yes, that is every year.

There are several threads on Pelican about this very topic.

slfan

Randywebb,

Ok & thank you.

Am

theiceman

Just remember OE is original equpment , usually found at the dealer buil to very tight specs
OEM is the same manufacturer but not necesarily built to the same specs. Although probably okay , that point may be important when considering brakes.

slfan

Theiceman,

Very valid and important point that few people realize.

For your info, I work at an automotive manufacturer and each company has their own variations regarding whether "the factory" will accept or not a part from an OEM vendor.

These variations are routinely verified and you end up with three types of parts:

1. Within Manufacturer`s specs: are supplied to manufacturer for production and after-sales distribution (in OE box)

2. Are slightly off the manufacturer`s tolerance or deviation BUT ARE STILL VERY GOOD PARTS. These cannot be sold to manufactuer for production or OE distribution (at brand dealership). Each supplier decides if they will distribute or destroy. Since it is up to the supplier and since the parts are safe and they meet the suppliers "tolerance", these generally end up also being distributed as OEM.

3. Parts that do not meet manufacturer`s and supplier`s tolerances - these are destroyed.

Good example of parts in the second category are brake pads and fuel injectors. Many times the original brake pads on a car will last 30.000-40.000 miles and the next sets from the same OEM supplier never last as long. The same happens with fuel injectors from the best OEM suppliers in the industry: the precision in the spray from the one in the OE box many times tends to be better than the one in the OEM box.

The important thing here is to know what parts it makes sense to pay a premium for the OE box and which ones don`t. I personally refuse to pay the generally high OE premium (factored in to cover manufacturer`s carrying cost, margin and dealer margin) for electronic modules or cooling components when you are buying these from highly regarded OEM manufacturers such as Bosch or Behr. On the otherhand, for regular maintenance items, I always go for high quality OEM suppliers.

One last thing here: each manufacturer has their tolerances or ranges for accepting a part. The same part that is rejected by one manufacturer may be accepted by another. One of the reason that some Japanese and German brands generally have less quality issues is that they many times do not accept what manufacuters from other places accept.

Best regards to all,
SLFan

911vet

You probably need to ask the others here how to get OE hard lines. There was no way I could predict ahead of time which I needed so ordering them wasn't practical. I guess the guys here can explain to you how they handled it.

I recommend you soak the connections with PB Blaster or other liquid wrench ahead of time. Might save you from breaking some hard lines.

And I didn't use OE Boge shock inserts because it seemed the Bilsteins/Koni were better. Same thing on brake pads, fluid, etc. I'm not of the belief that just because Porsche used it OE it's superior. Sometimes they have to compromise for cost and comfort. If they used the "best" on every part, the cars would be out of reach of all but the richest of the rich.

Good luck!