Been reading a lot lately about guys needing to replace rear brake lines, so I took some pics as I changed my left rear steel brake line (1 piece dealership item.)

Some of the bolt sizes actually do vary from neon to neon (steel, or plastic gas tank etc) so just for the record this was done on my 95 highline coupe.

You will need:

Part Numbers For LR & RR steel 1 piece brake lines from dealership:
- LR = CAN27052LT Price: $8.65 (solid steel front to back line pre formed ready to install)
- RR = CAN27052RT Price: $7.25 (solid steel front to back line pre formed ready to install)

1.) (2) wheel ramps (Elevate rear end of car)
2.) (1) hydraulic car jack (Lower & raise gas tank)
3.) Wood (20L x 12W x 1") (Gas tank support on jack)
4.) Gloves (cheap ones will be fine, they will be ruined)
5.) Safety glasses (You will need these for sure, or get rust in your eyes)
6.) Threaded tape, (or similar durable tape 1")
7.) 1 can PB Blaster (or other penetrating agent)
8.) 1/4" & 3/8" drive ratchets (or just use 3/8 ratchet with a 3/8" --> 1/4" adapter)
9.) Utility knife (pocket, or razor is fine)
10.) Standard flat head screw driver (or shorty)
11.) Shorty phillips screw driver (must be a shorty when only lifting rear of vehicle)
12.) T25 torx bit (socket, or screw driver)
13.) 5/16" 3/8" & 1/2" also 8mm, 10mm, 11mm, & 13mm box end wrenches
14.) Dot# (whatever you use) brake fluid
15.) Lug nut socket, or standard neon jack / lug removal multi-tool.
16.) (1) can of brake parts cleaner (brand doesn't matter they all do the same job)

Part 1: Gas Tank Removal

Helpful hints, empty the tank before you try this or you will have an extremely hard time I did it with 3 gallons or less left in the tank. Also spray down all of your bolts with PB Blaster before removal, they will be rusted.

- Back vehicle up onto ramps, set parking brake, shut vehicle off. (block front wheels for added safety if you wish)
- Open hood, & disconnect the negative battery terminal
- Put on gloves & safety goggles at this point and go under the rear of the car
- You will see over the passenger side front corner of the gas tank, a shield which is held on by 3 small bolts. Remove 2 using your 8mm socket, and the larger one using your 10mm socket.
- Under the shield is 1 connector, and 2 gas lines. Pinch the clips with your fingers on the gas lines (one blue one green you may want to mark them at this time) and remove them from the in tank pump. Slide the red lock on the electrical connector to the right, then remove it.
- Open your gas door at this time, and using your T25 torx bit, or driver remove the 4 screws around the gas filler orifice which will release the filler neck (you do this so you don't break the filler neck when trying to slide the filler neck off the rubber hose mating it to the gas tank.)
- Place your hydraulic jack directly under the center of the gas tank, eyeball it straight and put your piece of wood on top of the jack length-wise with the car to support the tank, raise the jack to touch the bottom of the tank.
- Using your 13mm (or 15mm on plastic tank cars I believe) remove the 2 bolts which hold on your straps and allow the straps to hang down.
- Slowly lower the jack until the tank is down a couple inches, and stop. Now with your flathead screw driver losen the clamp closest to the filler neck on the rubber coupler. Once it's loose enough, slide it out of the way and finess the filler neck, and the rubber coupler apart so you can drop the tank. (stick screw driver between rubber and filler neck, squirt in some PB blaster to make this process faster.)
- There is a T fitting on the rear of the gas tank, unhook both lines connecting to it so the gas tank is no longer connected to the vehicle at all.
- Proceed to lower the gas tank all the way, and slide it carefully off the jack onto the ground, then out from under the car. Remove the filler neck from the vehicle as well at this point, because it's probably rusting and it would be a great time to hit it with some rust inhibitor or paint.
- Remove the straps from the vehicle by turning them sideways, they come right out easily as long as they aren't rusted to the car.
- Gas tank removal is complete, set aside all of your hardware and don't lose the torx screws or the bolts.

Part 2: Faulty Brake Line Removal

Helpful hints, spray down both end fittings you are about to remove with PB Blaster and allow them to soak for a couple minutes so you so not risk breaking them if they are rusted, or not it helps.

- Once you have allowed the penetrating agent to do it's job, use your 11mm open end wrench to remove the fitting from the rear brake.
- Looking along the line tracing it's route with your eyes you will notice several clips you revealed by removing the gas tank the easiest way to remove the old line from these clips with out breaking any (I didn't break any at all) is to press upwards on the clip above the line with your index finger, and the line will basically pop right out for you.
- Once you get past the easy clips, you use your shorty phillips screw driver to losen the fastner holding the next section of line in place. Same deal, press the clip apart with your fingers and the line will pop out.
- The next fastener you must remove (4) 1/2" bolts with your box end wrench or socket if you prefer, the foam which protects the lines is fragile so pry it down gently, and cut the tape so you can remove the faulty brake line.
- Next couple are going to be removed with your shorty phillips screw driver again, drop clip down press winter fingers and line will pop out of the clip.
- Once you are to the engine bay, if you didn't already hit the end fitting with some PB blaster (trace your line to the correct one.)
- After it's soaked in, break it free with your 11mm open end wrench from the master cylinder. (catch fluid from reservoir if it's still full with a small container and dispose of properly do not re-use it.)
- Remove your intake assembly. (on my 95 car this included:) 2 flat head screw on pipe from box to throttle body, & 2 1/2 or 13mm bolts on the bracket which holds the entire air box in place.) Once these are removed, gently persuade the box out from behind the engine with out damaging your hoses, and wires in the surrounding area.
- Next remove your coolant over flow bottle by means of (1) 10mm bolt on the upper right hand side of it, and (1) 10mm bolt/nut combo on the lower left hand side. This is hard to get to, but can easily be done with a ratchet and small extension by reaching under the coolant bottle right your right hand.
- Remove the hose from the overflow tank from the rad, and take entire assembly out of the engine bay.
- At this point you have access to the rest of the brake line and the fastners which hold it in place. Going onto the next couple they are foam wrapped in threaded tape - use your knife or blade to cut the tape and remove the brake line from these foam separators.
- Last one should be a phillips clip again, unscrew and pop line out of the clip.
- Your old brake line line is now completely free from the car, bend it how ever you'd like to remove it from the vehicle it's going in the trash.

Part 3: Installing the new line

Help hints, you don't really need any this part is fairly obvious and very easy.

- Slide your new line under the vehicle, and work the front section up to the master cylinder, connecting it with your 11mm open end wrench.
- Place the line back into all of the clips, foam seperators, and retainers it came out of. Remember to tape all the foam back up which you had to cut previously to remove the old brake line.
- Phillips screw driver for the few under the car once they are clipped in place.
- 1/2" 4 bolt retainer plate goes back on
- Clip rear section in place, and connect your end fitting to the rear brake line with your 11mm open end wrench.
- Take a breather, the hardest part is still to come haha. (Putting the gas tank back up, if you have a lot of gas in it, will be very difficult.)

Part 4: Mounting The Gas Tank

Helpful Hints, if you didn't previously empty the tank, do so now or you will end up hurting your neck, back, fingers etc trying to get the tank back up.

- Replace your tank straps, sideways off, same for going back on.. sideways in / on.
- Slide the tank under the car, on top of your wood the same as it came down.
- Wiggle the filler neck back into place, but do not bolt it up yet or you might break it.
- Tilt the tank on your wood, slide the jack under it and raise your tank (making sure not to pinch the pump harness behind it.)
- Once the tank it in place, fasten your tank straps using either the 13mm or 15mm socket / box end wrench until they are fully tightened.
- Move the filler neck around until you get the tube back into the rubber coupler, and fit the coupler to the filler neck it's not easy to do, but again using some PB Blaster it will slide in much easier.
- Tighten the flat head clamp where it was previously once the filler neck is connected to the rubber tank coupler, then plug the 2 small hoses back into the T fitting on the rear of the gas tank.
- Plug your fuel lines back onto the green and blue clips on the fuel pump, then reconnect the harness to the pump and slide the red lock to the left to lock it in place.
- Bolt the shield back on via (2) 8mm and (1) 10mm bolts.
- Using your T25 torx again, replace the screws which fasten the filler neck to the gas door of the vehicle and make sure you put the lower left hand one in the correct place to hold on your gas cap attachment if it's still there.
- you're done, you didn't think you could do it.. but you did it. you got the gas tank back up and on, no problem!

Part 4.5 Get It Started:

- Reconnect the negative battery terminal, get in the car and turn the key to accessory a couple times to prime the fuel line. Start the car, release the parking brake and drive it off the ramps.

Part 5: Bleed The Brakes: (at home with a friend)

Helpful hints, if you don't have a compressor or a bleeder, have a friend help you by sitting in the car and instruct them when to pump the brakes, and when to press and release the brake pedal.

- Fill your brake fluid reservoir with your brake fluid to the fill line. Have your buddy pump the brakes.
- Starting with the corner you just replaced the brake line for.. jack 1 corner of the vehicle up at a time if you are doing this in your back yard, if you have a lift well you already know what you are doing.
- Remove the wheel, hit the bleeder valve with some PB Blaster allowing it to soak in for a minute.
- Have your buddy place their foot on the brake, and hold it there, you open the valve and then close it. Tell them to pump up the brakes again, then hold it.
- Once they are on the brake open the bleeder again and close it. Repeat this process until no air only clean fluid comes out the bleeder valve, then close it / cap it / spray it down with brake parts cleaner and put the wheel back on.
- Refill the fluid reservoir between each corner, making sure to keep it at or about the full level.
- Repeat this process for all 4 corners of the vehicle, until all fresh brake fluid is in your system and there are no air pockets causing you a spongy pedal feel or low brake pedal. Pedal should be fairly firm when the process is complete.

Pics For Reference:


Some tools

car on ramps

tank down with hardware

remove fitting

line clips

separated

phillips clip

plate

air box and coolant res removal

access to lines with out that stuff in the way

cut the tape

blast all rust before turning bolts

removal from master

new line in place


This how to is meant to be complete and comprehensive. If you have anything to ad to it, by all means go for it. I wanted to give everyone who has some tools and some free time the chance to learn how to do these jobs at home with minimal amount of equipment and relative ease of procedure. Cost is extremely low for anybody especially when compared to having all this done at a shop (hundreds.)

- Brett

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