Day 1 of our NC500 road trip last week showed the van running really well on the cruise up to Inverness.
But on the short and doglegged offramp my more than normal hard braking blew one of the rear brake pipes! Fortunately I had enough fluid to get us to the campground with no issues, as the blow out wasn't apparent at first. When we went to go for a post-tea drive, sure enough the brake pedal just went straight to the floor. Happily Kwik-fit Inverness was open on a Sunday and did the repair quickly and all friendly-like. (really impressed!)
The pipe blew because the T-piece screw had rusted out/fallen out and allowed the whole rear pipe assembly to fall down just enough for one line to rub against the gearbox mount. No idea for how long but long enough to thin the wall where a really hard brake blew a hole.
Once up on the lift I had a proper look around at everything and took photos and realized that I hadn't known what I was actually looking at for things that are not right - especially for the brake pipes. I'm missing brackets, holders everywhere. Loads of zipties have kept things together but it was plain to see that remedial action is now needed.
first pic: hard to see but pipe has worn away in a line - this is where it blew. Located above the gearbox mount so very hard to see or check... Pic 2 - leaking fluid helps to diagnose the problem - T-piece not secured but covered in fluid... Pic 3 - other end of pipe fine (note ziptie)
So I'm posting just to remind everyone if they haven't looked at their brake pipes etc to do so and check that nothing is rubbing and that youv'e got proper holders etc (easily ordered from BW/HP and cheap). We were just fortunate that the brakes didn't fail on the A9 and that we were able to get them fixed quickly and only missed a day's itinerary on our 9 day NC500 trip.
