WhoAteMySoup
Full Member
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2011
- Messages
- 349
I have been debating on whether I should put this post in the Problems: Brakes section, but given that I am fairly confident this is related to my lift kit I am going to leave this here:
In the beginning of this year I got my Avalanche lifted with a 6? Fabtech lift. I went with the Fabtech as it one of the few lifts compatible with the autoride shocks found in the LTZ models. A few month after the kit installation, as I was driving to a camping trip weekend I noticed that my brake fluid pressure was dropping, pulled off at the first available exit and found that my brake fluid is spewing out of the rear brake line junction (right over the axle, from where it separates into rear left and rear right). I was towed to a Chevy dealership I found in the area, and they told me that the lift kit puts extra stress on the brake lines and thus it ruptured one of the fittings at the brake line junction. At the time I was not completely convinced because the junction is attached to the axle and I don?t see how extra suspension travel should make any difference on the wear of brake lines. Anyway, the dealership fixed the brake lines and re-routed them to supposedly ?relieve? extra stresses. A couple of month after this happened my brake lines tore again, I mean the brake line was snapped out clean from out of the junction. Again, I was stranded far away from my house and my destination, and this time I got quite a scare because I only noticed the problem as I crested over a pass, and actually needed my brakes to work. The place that worked on the vehicle (not a Chevy dealership), told me the same thing: the lift kit is putting extra stress on the brake lines. They did a much better job of rerouting the lines then the dealer could.
Here is my situation: there was no mention about having to reroute your brake lines when installing the lift kit in Fabtech documentation to my knowledge; I could not find any information online pertaining to this problem; the owner of the shop that installed the lift kit is somewhat baffled by this situation; Ignoring the trouble I went through by being stranded far away from home, and the dangerous situation of having your brakes give out on mountain roads, I am now out of nearly 2K I had to pay for the diagnostics/repair/fabrication of custom brake lines.
I am looking to recoup the full or partial cost I had to pay for the repair of the brake lines. What do you folks think I should do? I was planning on talking to the owner of the shop that did the install, and asking him to recoup the cost of at least one of the repair jobs I had to undergo, or alternatively giving that money as credit towards future mods.
In the beginning of this year I got my Avalanche lifted with a 6? Fabtech lift. I went with the Fabtech as it one of the few lifts compatible with the autoride shocks found in the LTZ models. A few month after the kit installation, as I was driving to a camping trip weekend I noticed that my brake fluid pressure was dropping, pulled off at the first available exit and found that my brake fluid is spewing out of the rear brake line junction (right over the axle, from where it separates into rear left and rear right). I was towed to a Chevy dealership I found in the area, and they told me that the lift kit puts extra stress on the brake lines and thus it ruptured one of the fittings at the brake line junction. At the time I was not completely convinced because the junction is attached to the axle and I don?t see how extra suspension travel should make any difference on the wear of brake lines. Anyway, the dealership fixed the brake lines and re-routed them to supposedly ?relieve? extra stresses. A couple of month after this happened my brake lines tore again, I mean the brake line was snapped out clean from out of the junction. Again, I was stranded far away from my house and my destination, and this time I got quite a scare because I only noticed the problem as I crested over a pass, and actually needed my brakes to work. The place that worked on the vehicle (not a Chevy dealership), told me the same thing: the lift kit is putting extra stress on the brake lines. They did a much better job of rerouting the lines then the dealer could.
Here is my situation: there was no mention about having to reroute your brake lines when installing the lift kit in Fabtech documentation to my knowledge; I could not find any information online pertaining to this problem; the owner of the shop that installed the lift kit is somewhat baffled by this situation; Ignoring the trouble I went through by being stranded far away from home, and the dangerous situation of having your brakes give out on mountain roads, I am now out of nearly 2K I had to pay for the diagnostics/repair/fabrication of custom brake lines.
I am looking to recoup the full or partial cost I had to pay for the repair of the brake lines. What do you folks think I should do? I was planning on talking to the owner of the shop that did the install, and asking him to recoup the cost of at least one of the repair jobs I had to undergo, or alternatively giving that money as credit towards future mods.