anyone running braided and notice any difference? did some reading and found this quite interesting
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The most widely publicised advantage of braided stainless steel brake lines over conventional rubber hoses is reduced bulging when heavy brake force is applied. David Malkin of Maltech (one of Australia’s largest braided brake line manufacturers) says this results in improved brake response and pedal feel and can reduce stopping distances.
Unfortunately, we have yet to see any documented evidence to support these claims – so we asked Maltech to compare the distortion and bulging of rubber brake hoses and braided stainless hoses using their pressure test machine.
This out-of-car test involves installing the ends of each hose to a dedicated brake pressure test machine. The machine uses a mix of corrosion inhibitor and water to pressurise the inside of the hoses and, typically, the operator uses the machine to identify leaks. However, for our purposes, we used a pair of digital calipers to measure the outer diameter (OD) of the hoses in static and pressurised condition. The bigger the difference, the more the hose expands under pressure.
Note that these tests were conducted with the brake hoses pressurised to 3500 psi, which is considerably more than you’ll generate in a car – David says you might generate 1500 psi pressure in a hard brake application. This means the hoses will expand more in our tests than in a real-world application.
So how did the hoses compare?
Well, the first hose we tested was an old and worn rubber hose (which appears to be the original part from a ’65 Ford Mustang). In static conditions, this hose had an OD of 10.76mm and, when pressurised, it expanded to 11.02mm. An increase of 2.4 percent.
Next, we tested a brand new rubber hose. The new hose had a 10.47mm OD which expanded to 10.65mm when pressurised. An increase of 1.7 percent.
The final test was a new braided steel brake line. In static conditions, the braided line had an OD of 6.45mm and expanded to 6.49mm when pressurised. An increase of less than 1 percent.
So what can we conclude from this?
Well, yes, a braided steel brake line does give less expansion under pressure than a rubber hose - but the margin is extremely small. And keep in mind that these tests were conducted at more than double the pressure you might generate in a real-world situation. So the difference between braided steel and rubber brake hoses is extremely, extremely small...
