What Are Brake Lines Made Of?

Brake lines perform the critical function of delivering the command of the brake pedal to the wheels. So, what are brake lines made of? Let’s take a look.

The brake system of most cars is primarily located at each wheel. That is where you’ll find the brake pads or shoes, the rotors, calipers and, well, you get the idea. All those mechanisms, however, don’t mean much if the driver can’t communicate with them. To do that, there needs to be a method for the pressing of the brake pedal to activate the brakes. This is one area where brake lines come in.

Brake lines obviously run from the master cylinder to the brakes. In some cars, they run from the driver compartment to the master cylinder as well while on others a wire system does the trick. Regardless, brake lines are critical because they contain the pressurized brake fluid that runs the hydraulics of the brakes. Lose brake pressure and you lose the brakes. That’s obviously not a good situation.

So, what are brake lines made of? All brake lines are steel running to the wheel area, but that is where things change. Run of the mill brake lines at the wheel are made of rubber. The pressure involved in the brake system is not too much for rubber to handle, so many manufacturers use it for pricing reasons. That being said, rubber is really not a good solution in the long term. As you know from the rest of your car, rubber will eventually fail. With your brakes, that can be catastrophic. A subtler problem is the rubber starts to go soft and your brakes become slowly less responsive. Over time, it can get bad and you don’t really notice it because of the slow onset.

Most serious car owners upgrade their brake lines as soon as possible. Quality brake lines are made out of stainless steel. This makes them nearly impervious to the ravages of heat, moisture and pressure. Whereas you’ll eventually need to replace rubber brake lines, you’ll never need to replace steel versions. I’ve done it on my last two cars and definitely recommend it.

What are brake lines made of? Most OEM lines are made of rubber. If this is the case with your car, upgrade to stainless steel as soon as you get the chance. You can find them for your car here:

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