Cost of rear brake line replacement

First you might want to look at the situation with your own eyeballs in your driveway without somebody breathing down your neck are you leaking from the little ferrule that screws into the caliper that's the thing that squeezes the rotor to stop your car with the pad sandwiched in between the rotor or does the leak look like it's coming from further inside that caliper where there's a seal and a rubber that can well wear out shouldn't be in this early stage of the game but it's possible or are you in a rust belt Do you see physical rust on the break tube It's a little eighth inch looking piece of tubing that screwed into the brake caliper and then it takes off up the chassis of the car I think going up above the gas tank and running in a plastic raceway that runs all the way up to the front of the car and curves up the firewall so that brake line will be pretty lengthy and go from way up front of the car all the way above the gas tank and then shoot over to the right or left side depending upon which wheel the line is going to. I'm banking the calipers leaking or you live in a rust belt and there's rust on the brake lines and literally a line is dripping but if that was the case you'd be starting to lose fluid pretty quickly or the leak is microscopic only you can look and see this stuff or you can drive it around to a few mechanic shops and meineke brake places and whatever and see how many different stories you get replacing the brake line will be costly with the tank drop undoing the raceway pulling the line out of the raceway and undoing it from the block of aluminum which is either your actuator or the other part of your brake system that has the lines connected to it and then pulling it down on doing it from the rear wheel getting it off of all the little clips and guides and getting it to the ground without further bending it and damaging it too much and then you have to buy a straight piece of brake line I think and you'll bend the brake line to the shape that's laying on the ground of the old line now you'll use a brake line bender to do this It's not very complicated You want to make sure you're using the bender so you don't kink the line without having done this before you will definitely need the bender it's a handheld circular thing with stops on it It has an instructions You can look at people doing it on YouTube so when you think about the steps involved $2,000 doesn't seem too too unreasonable pretty quickly I would say with the tank drop and that sort of thing it's an easy four to six hour job possibly I can get the tank out reasonably quick but then getting the line out getting it undone from the brake part up in front of the car from the caliper in the rear getting it out reasonably smartly without destroying it so I can bend up the new one I'm not sure whether you can buy the line from Toyota pre-bent if that's the case I would imagine that's about a $200 line You should check with the Toyota dealer He can point it out to you on the computer It's pretty clear I'm not sure if there are sublines that go from the chassis of the car with a fitting right to the caliper but there may be subflexible hoses so are you leaking from the flexible hose or actual metal line so there's some things for you to look at and do if that's a thing.

 

IMHO: I'd tow it someplace else to get a second opinion & estimate.

The metal brake lines don't break
1. unless: they're loose and rubbing against something - rubbed a hole into it
2. Rust or manufactures defect, rarely see that, usually a pin hole leak. I've only seen one in 30 years.
3. The rubber brake lines that allow for suspension articulation and caliper/piston seals are the most common brake fluid leak areas.
4. Running over road debris that severs those lines. If you have comprehensive auto insurance, it would be covered

Hope this helps

 

If it's rust issues, it's often best to replace the entire line. If it's just localized damage, any mechanic can cut out the damage and splice in a replacement length of tubing. I've done it 3 or 4 times. Regardless, the dealer quote will typically be 2x or more what a non-dealer mechanic will charge.

 

Since the Prius has a LOT of brake sensors, I've always disconnected the 12v battery prior to doing any brake work. In this case, I would disconnect the 12v, do the repair, bleed that section of brake lines using a vacuum pump to pull fluid into the line and remove any air, then restore the 12v power. Most likely the car ecus will never even know anything happened. Drive away happy..

And yes, any decent mechanic should be able to do this, especially at a brake shop. Again, for a Prius, the key (for me) is to disconnect 12v power. If the 12v is left connected, it's likely the ecu will detect there's a brake fluid leak and will isolate that section of brakes. Not all shops will be familiar with or have techstream software to restore it.

 

Any time you are trying to bleed air out of a brake system, letting the reservoir get too low and air get sucked in sends you back to start, without collecting two hundred dollars. Doesn't so much ruin anything, other than maybe your schedule or your mood.

If you've been replacing a line at the rear and using the shorter bleed procedure that can work for a limited job like that, if air gets into the actuator under the hood, you have to start over with the longer bleed procedure that works for that.