Front brake pipe replacement - Porsche want to charge over £3000

[GTF1]

I have a 997.2 Turbo that is in for a service in the UK. The front brake pipes are corroded and need to be replaced, including the link pipe across the back of the fuel tank. The following is a list of items Porsche tell me they need to remove in order to push the pipe into 2 clips to secure it:-

 

Remove front differential 

remove Cardin shaft

Drain coolant, remove coolant pipes, then refit and fill system on completion

drain the fuel tank

remove both drive shafts

remove steering rack

remove the subframe and lower the petrol tank

 

then they can clip the pipe into place and reinstall all the above. I have called Porsche UK who advised to contact Porsche Germany. They in turn advised me to contact Porsche UK. I have now contacted Porsche Uk again and am waiting for their feedback.

 

it’s seems ridiculous to me that all the above work is required just to push in a pipe into a clip. I would have expected the floor pan to be unbolted and dropped to allow access.

 

It would be very much appreciated if anyone who has had this brake pipe replaced to advise how they did it, or better still, have a Porsche procedure for this work. Thanks very much for any information that you could provide.

 

 

Regards

 

 

[JFP in PA]

Welcome to RennTech 

You cannot even see the brake line until the fuel tank is out of the way, and to get the tank out, the rack has to come out, the front diff, etc. etc.  People seem to forget that the line is pre bent to exactly conform to the bulkhead, it is not just straight tubing.  And the front trunk floor pan does not just "unbolt".  This is not a minor project.....

[GTF1]

Thanks for the quick response. I appreciate your input and am relieved and surprised at the same time - relieved that I am being told the true facts by Porsche UK but surprised that so much work is required for just a bit of tubing. If I had designed such a layout I would have been sacked in my industry but I guess my priorities are vastly different to a car manufacturer and the potential monies to be made from routine maintenance.
 

As a college recently mentioned, Audi start to appear significantly more attractive.

 

Regards 

[JFP in PA]

People need to recognize that plumbing and wiring in cars of all makes try to make use of whatever space is left available, and this is the type of problem that can result.  Even wiring harnesses, which are very flexible, can be a major pain to replace because of what is in the way.

 

If it makes you feel any better, I recently did a full brake hard line replacement on a major American sedan due to corrosion like yours.  We obtained a full stainless steel pre formed hard-line kit specifically designed to fit the car for around $300.  We replaced the two rear hardlines, and the driver's side (US) front with the stainless-steel tubes in about an hour.  The front passenger's side line was a nightmare fit like yours; we ended up dropping the engine, transmission, and their mounting cradle about 18 inches out of the car to snake the last line into place.  The line in question dropped down from the master cylinder, then up over the transmission tunnel, around under the HVAC box, and then down to the wheel area.  Being preformed to fit exactly where the original one was located, and stainless steel not being particularly flexible, there was simply no other way to get it into the space it had to go. We could have cut the line into sections, but too many connections in brake line are a recipe for leaks and would cause the vehicle to fail our version of your MOT here. So out came the engine and transmission cradle. 

 

Having been in this business longer than I'd care to admit, I will say that there is a list of cars whose designers I would like to look up and beat the loving crap out of them.........🤬

[Silver_TT]

On 1/6/2022 at 4:49 PM, GTF1 said:

Thanks for the quick response. I appreciate your input and am relieved and surprised at the same time - relieved that I am being told the true facts by Porsche UK but surprised that so much work is required for just a bit of tubing. If I had designed such a layout I would have been sacked in my industry but I guess my priorities are vastly different to a car manufacturer and the potential monies to be made from routine maintenance.
 

As a college recently mentioned, Audi start to appear significantly more attractive.

 

Regards 

 

Still depends on what kind of Audi.  The Audi 3.0 and up engines are not particularly easy to work on either and are more similar to the Porsche engines (double banks, etc) than the 2.0.  To be honest I have owned Porsche's and Audi's for 20 years and I find a ton of similarities between them -- I don't believe Audi is better at organizing the engine per se.  If you watch TikTok mechanic videos ever you can see all sorts of brands with ridiculously annoying designs like JFP is saying (there's an entire meme dedicated to this if you're into that type of thing).  Things like when you pull the oil plug it drains out down onto the top of a crossbar making the oil spill everywhere in a huge mess.  Generally speaking it's pretty complicated fitting all that technology and hardware into such a tight space with the TT.  It's even hard with the naturally aspirated engines too -- nothing is really easy.

 

Now I would never compare a 2.0T to a 997.2TT...................... but as far as the 2.0T goes, you can do so many jobs on the engine with a few basic tools in 30 mins.  So many "one beer" jobs.....