Over the years I have been around a lot of cars. British, American, Japanese, French, and even Check, but I have yet to see one with copper brake lines, and that includes many race cars including Can Am and Formula 1. The norm here in North America is steel, which eventually rusts through. Any comments?

steel lines can take higher pressures.
copper / copper alloy lines are much easier to flare with DIY tools and easier
to bend.

normal for production cars here in the Uk to.
probably manufacturing costs, copper/nickel pipe will be more expensive.

No.

Pat ;-)

I wish they had (by law) to use copper, I and friends have had brakes fail when driving due to corrosion. One friend who's Toyota pickup burst a pipe took out the whole back of a ford ka, amazing no one was hurt and for what the price of some pipe.

Copper brake lines were banned in many states of he US after a number fatigue failures came to light. Steel "Bundy" pipe was developed specially to overcome the problem. Proper Bundy pipe should come galvanised/passivated however with a number of suppliers product this isn't always the case.

However corrosion resistant alternatives exist.

Kunnnifer --- a Cu Ni Fe alloy used by SAAB and Volvo (Is this still the case now they are US owned ?)
Plastic coated "Bundy" --- as used on most Rovers pre-BMW take over.
Stainless Steel "Bundy"

Of these Kunnifer is the most useful for general purpose use.

Plastic coated bundy requires the exposed steel at the ends be protected from corrosion.

Stainless steel pipe is much harder to flare and bend.
[Edited on 7/2/08 by britishtrident]

[Edited on 7/2/08 by britishtrident]

When I restored my Triumph TR6 I replaced all the steel brake lines with copper ones.

For DIY Kunnnifer is probably the best choice... I agree with britishtrident.. I could'nt bring myself to use copper because of the work-harding problem it has as even with inspection you can't tell if it's going to crack, so Knunnnifer it was. Only problem is you need a good pipe flaring tool, not sure the cheapo ones are upto flaring anything but copper.

At least with steel you can see to corrosion on the outside if you look (this is part of the UK MOT), and the inside should not rust if you service the car correctly (i.e change the brake fluid before it becomes saturated with water).

Also remember you normally have a split dual system so in the worst case of a failure the car should stop (all be it not as efficiently as normal!).

Dan

Agree with that last comment, kunnifer (Copper Nickel) is the best of both worlds softer than steel and easier than steel to manipulate but with high corrosion resistance, not nearly as prone to cracking as copper but slightly harder to work. We used to use Cu/Ni 90/10 extensively for heat exchanger rebuilds in my time in the marine/industrila heat transfer industry.

I always use kunifer, its about £10 for 25ft roll so hardly breaks the bank

My last roll of Kunifer 10 cost £8 and I still have half of it left. Copper, nickel iron mix to resist work hardening and corrosion and make bending and flaring easier.