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Hey guys

My 1043 hatch failed the MOT on thursday due to 'excessive corrosion on rear brake flexible hoses'. I've had a look and to be fair they are pretty corroded, so I've bought some new ones.

They are completely one piece, with no moving unions or anything, but I can see that the moving unions are on the solid (steel or copper) brake pipes, so providing I'm careful with them and proceed with caution when removing them they should be ok, and putting the new ones on shouldn't be a problem, they seem pretty easy to get to.

I'm just slightly concerned with bleeding the brakes afterwards, I've only ever bled a non servo system on a Mini, but after consulting Haynes it's exactly the same procedure, and the order states the rear brakes should be done first.

I'm thinking I shouldn't have to touch the front ones, but is there anything else I should know about bleeding the brakes on a Polo?? Any special techniques or possible problems I may encounter? The same goes for the fitting of the brake hoses themselves too.

I'm going to give myself 3 hours tommorrow night to do the work, will that be enough do you think?

Thanks in advance

Tom

Give everything you need to undo (including bleed nipples) a good soak with WD40 a couple of times during the day.

Buy or borrow proper brake pipe spanners.(Looks like a ring spanner with a bit cut out).

Hold the new hoses up alongside the fitted ones to make sure they look right.

Make sure the bleed nipples will open, not just shear off.

Give the nipple a few good thumps with a hammer, square-on to the head like knocking in a nail. If it still doesn't want to move, try applying some torque with the spanner and, at the same time give the head a bit more hammer.They may still break, but that's life with older cars and by doing this first you can at least still drive it to the factors to get a new wheel cylinder!

As stated in Haynes, fill brake fluid reservoir, lay a poly bag over the opening and screw the filler cap down over it. This helps reduce fluid loss when the hose is removed.

Slightly slacken both ends of the hose. If you remove one end then spend five minutes trying to get the other end off you will lose a lot of fluid. If the reservoir gets too low you'll get air in the top end and will have to bleed the entire system, so you want to get hoseoff/hose on as quickly as possible.

Check the hoses and reservoir daily for the next week or so.

All this applies to pretty much any car. Although I've only ever bled the fronts on my Polo I dont think there are any specific problems.

thanks very much hobs.

I did it! I cut through the old hoses to make them easier to remove, then simply undid the unions, fitted the new ones, rebled the system, and just did a general check over underneath, took just over an hour!

I feel dead chuffed now, it can go for its MOT, and hopefully will pass no problem this time!



Tom