My #$%#% 2004 Ram Tried to Kill Me Today

[1 Wild R/T]

The second line your seeing probably goes to the ABS unit... They bleed off pressure to release the brakes... Some early Fords had two lines to the calipers & thats how they were done....

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Bubble flare or DIN/ISO flare
View attachment 1293347

NAPA will likely have pre-made lines with ISO flare ends... Plus adapter fittings to work with assorted size fitting on the truck...

 

[moparedtn]

For my good friend @khryslerkid , I went back out and took a couple more pics:

Master cylinder, showing the now-vacant rear port where the hard line in
question was connected.


Top view of the ABS unit, with two lonely lines connected...and a
possible reset button or some such?

 

[moparedtn]

The second line your seeing probably goes to the ABS unit... They bleed off pressure to release the brakes... Some early Fords had two lines to the calipers & thats how they were done....

Perhaps, but if that's the case - how does the right front get fed then?

NAPA will likely have pre-made lines with ISO flare ends... Plus adapter fittings to work with assorted size fitting on the truck...

Oh yeah, I'm gonna wear out the town looking to match stuff up for sure.
We have both a small NAPA and an older, "real" auto parts store here, along
with the usual OtterZone and Advance Oughta Parts.

 

[moparedtn]

The main thing is you’re alright! We’ve all looked at things (whether it’s automotive or numerous other situations)where we say or think, WTF! Glad you used ye old jack stand too!

Thank you. Yes, that thought has not left me since it happened - it could have been
so, so much worse...
I'll admit I use stands a lot more these days, too. The last time I had one fall on me, it
made an impression - both mentally AND physically.

 

[gdrill]

Glad you are ok Ed.

 

[moparedtn]

Glad you are ok Ed.

I very much appreciate that.

This morning doing some more research on the thing, it's now confirmed I have two wheel ABS;
the ABS unit and types/numbers of lines on the truck say so.
I just find that odd for some reason, but ok...

 

[67440chrg]

Glad you are ok. I have a 2003 silverado that had the brakes go out completely twice. The lines rusted through in so many places that I ended up putting all new lines, hoses and new master cylinder on it. Now I have a $2000 truck with $1500 brakes. I bought all stainless and dont agree how the factory saved enough to not put stainless on it to start with.

 

[Hey-O]

I thought it was going to be "I didn't bother to use jack stands" again thread.

You said hole in the brake hose. Looks like the steel line? Anyway the material being use for the last ten plus years is garbage, no matter what part we're talking about. The whole brake line for your truck is available from front to back. I'm not too keen on the compression fittings but I've seen them being used. Myself I'll go with a double flare with the correct fittings. They sell the individual sections of lines as long as you can get to both ends. This is what happens when you find someone has used a compression fitting as one end wasn't easy to get to.

Glad you escaped any tragedy, physical or personal property damage. That's the brakes!

X2, new brake line front to back! I did a compression fitting once, as an emergency repair and got lazy about replacing it all. It lasted for years till I just could take it anymore, a time bomb that fortunately never went off.

 

[moparedtn]

X2, new brake line front to back! I did a compression fitting once, as an emergency repair and got lazy about replacing it all. It lasted for years till I just could take it anymore, a time bomb that fortunately never went off.

Yeah, it's about brake time for the old guy as it is (I always do new rotors and pads, using factory stuff).
I'll be visiting all parts of the system as I go and I bet you're right - this isn't the only corroded "weak link"
I'll find.
Good Lord - why do makers insist on using crap parts anymore?

 

[joe smith]

Glad you are ok. I have a 2003 silverado that had the brakes go out completely twice. The lines rusted through in so many places that I ended up putting all new lines, hoses and new master cylinder on it. Now I have a $2000 truck with $1500 brakes. I bought all stainless and dont agree how the factory saved enough to not put stainless on it to start with.

Planned obsolesence.... Do you think anything in this world is designed to last 20 years? I know NONE of our home appliances are...

 

[moparedtn]

Planned obsolesence.... Do you think anything in this world is designed to last 20 years? I know NONE of our home appliances are...

True, but damn....brake lines??
Those suckers should ALL be stainless or some such!
Put it this way - the original lines on my '68 GTX were still serviceable when I got the car a dozen years
ago - and it had been sitting on its' belly in a pasture for years!
Of course, I replaced them all with new stainless ones - but the originals were structurally sound.

Come to think of it, in my 60+ years on the planet, I've NEVER run across a blown out brake line on
anything!

 

[Hey-O]

Good Lord - why do makers insist on using crap parts anymore?

If you save 10 bucks times a few hundred thousand vehicles, money in their pocket. They don't want it to last forever either.

 

[moparedtn]

If you save 10 bucks times a few hundred thousand vehicles, money in their pocket. They don't want it to last forever either.

Sort of reminds me of reports I've read over the years of corporations (and yes, sometimes even governments)
weighing the "cost per human life" of a decision vs. the cost of the premium increase on insurance rates....

Reckon car manufacturers KNOW these items will fail in a certain time frame and make their decisions similarly?
Probably so, sadly.
There was a time when the driving belief of manufacturing was to make the best you could make and the quality
would sell the product. That time is long, long gone...

 

[beanhead]

WOW Ed thanks for sharing...I'll be checking my '04 Ram today!
Glad you stayed shiny side up!

 

[moparedtn]

WOW Ed thanks for sharing...I'll be checking my '04 Ram today!
Glad you stayed shiny side up!

Thanks, brother. A thrill ride I'd just as soon have passed on.

 

[Dave P]

I know it's a Mopar site, but about every truck GM made in the early 2000s have had ALL their brake lines, transmission and fuel lines rust off.
Talk about sucky cheap *** materials.
Went to look at a used 2006 3/4 ton Chevy a couple of years ago, clean, low mileage but showing some rust under it. It was at a dealer and the sales guy was kinda a pain in the ***. Started it up sitting in their lot and without showing it basically tried to leg press the brake pedal through the floor.....yup...pop and it went to the floor. Brake line running along the driver's side frame rail. Made the an offer for the truck if they changed all the brake lines...nope.

 

[moparedtn]

I know it's a Mopar site, but about every truck GM made in the early 2000s have had ALL their brake lines, transmission and fuel lines rust off.
Talk about sucky cheap *** materials.
Went to look at a used 2006 3/4 ton Chevy a couple of years ago, clean, low mileage but showing some rust under it. It was at a dealer and the sales guy was kinda a pain in the ***. Started it up sitting in their lot and without showing it basically tried to leg press the brake pedal through the floor.....yup...pop and it went to the floor. Brake line running along the driver's side frame rail. Made the an offer for the truck if they changed all the brake lines...nope.

Funny you telling that story.....Ed mini-story time!
Today, I went about trying to find both the caliper hose as well as the mangled hard line in town, expecting to encounter
some hardship (or outright failure) in doing so...

Fred the 1968 GTX became the parts chaser for the 2004 "modern" Ram. Irony much?

I actually have LUCK! I found the specific, correct hose at the local "real parts store" place!
Of course, that same place (who had told me they had the hose in stock on the phone already) didn't have any metric
hard line, even though the fella also told me on the phone they had that, too....and didn't.
Needless to say, I know the owner, so that was duly reported.

Stopped by the dealer on the way back on the long shot of getting the pre-bent hard line.
No dice, takes a week and $65+tax. Nope to that...

So, back down the highway I go in Fred, in search of elusive metric hard line PLUS the even longer-shot weird-assed
flare nut ends. I wind up at the owners' main parts store in town and sit down in front of him, holding out the broken
old line...and expecting the worst.
"That's metric, Ed - did you know that?" he instantly blurts out.
(He says that upon first glance at the sorry thing!)
Yup, Mark, it is. Don't suppose you have any bendable line I could cobble one out of, do you?
"Gimme that" and he runs off with it...

The next 10 minutes sees much chaos and people in and out, stories and jokes told, the usual stuff a small town parts
store sees every day. I've learned to mind my time and just sit there and wait, so I do...still not knowing what had
actually happened to my old part, which Mark had supposedly taken in back to match up some adapters or what have
you.
Well, after a while I finally look at Mark and say "did you forget me?"
He looks up at me over his glasses, sort of annoyed and said "he's about done with it Ed, patience".
Uhhhh - done with what exactly Mark?

About that time, a fella comes out of the machine shop with my old busted hard line - and a brand-new line, shiny and
identical in all bends and shapes to my original!
It has the flared ends as original (one flare type, another "ball" type) and the original flare nuts from the old one installed
on it already!
I'm dumbfounded...uhhh, Mark??
"Didn't have the adapters and I wasn't gonna let you mangle a new stick of line by yourself..." he grunts without looking up.
How much is that work of art gonna cost me, Mark?
"Put yer dang card in the reader there and hush".
I did as I was told and without protest...

That $65 part at the dealer cost me $15 at the local auto parts store.
This town - and thousands like it across this country, I'm sure - will be losing these "real parts stores" in the near future.
We'll all be the worse for the loss of all that wisdom, all that experience, all that level of service.
More's the pity....

Oh, and after all that...I forgot to get any brake fluid.
What DOT were they on in 2004, anyways?

 

[khryslerkid]

What DOT were they on in 2004, anyways?

Dot 3 is what came in it. Dot 4 can be used.

Your local dealer should carry it.

 

[Photon440]

So Ed, did you ever determine why the dual circuit system failed you? Was part of it already broken and you were running on half the brakes for awhile, or what?
I liked your above post about the small town shop fabricating a new matching brake line.