HEL brake lines - E85 rear, fitting issues

[nfo]

Evening,

I've recently been doing some work on the brakes (330i fronts, new discs and yellowstuff pads all round). As part of this I bought a set of HEL braided brake lines for good measure - not interested in getting into the debate as to whether they make a difference here

Anyway, the front hoses went on easily, rubber grommet fitted nicely into the bracket, no problems. Today I attempted fitting the rears and ended up giving up and re-fitting the original parts on the side of the car I attempted.

The HEL kit comes with 6 lines. The rear pair are identical in length to the OEM lines, but do not feature the rigid section of the BMW lines. The short line reaches from the caliper to the bracket on the suspension arm nicely. The longer line then routes cleanly to the fitting on the car. So I'm 99% confident that I've got the lines identified correctly (the kit has no instructions and no identification of the lines!)

I had a couple of issues with the HEL kit:

1) The 14 mm hex part of the fitting at the caliper end of the shorter line fouled on the caliper body before bottoming out on the conical sealing surface. It seems that the threaded section is too short. Anyone else installed these lines at the rear, are there caliper variations?

2) The fittings making up the joint at the bracket on the suspension arm don't locate nicely in the bracket like the OEM fittings. To get positive retention it looks like some kind of spacer will be required to get any force on the spring clip that holds the fittings against the bracket with the OEM lines. Has anyone else encountered this and how did they deal with it?

Also, there is a small packet of plastic clips and brass washers which are not explained anywhere.

Any ideas, anyone successfully fitted these lines?

Thanks in advance!

[nfo]

Photo of caliper end fitting

[nfo]

OE fitting. Note the dirty (exposed) section of the threads.

[nfo]

I tell a lie, there *are* instructions (and I did read them) but they are not vehicle-specific.

[nfo]

In case it helps anyone else, I got a reply from HEL themselves this morning, having sent an email last night (!):

1. Yes that’s correct, the fitting into the caliper seals between the caliper face and on the copper washers enclosed in the bag.

2. Yes, if you don’t have any OE spring clips we can supply some to solve this.

3. The plastic clips are to place on the front hoses spaced sensibly between the mid hose locator to stop the hose moving excessively lock-lock.

Unfortunately I think fitting attempt take 2 will have to wait...

[Justino]

Photo of caliper end fitting

I know this is an old thread which I found whilst doing my research. I asked my pal who runs single seaters in a race team - he said the copper crush washers are a better way to seal than the oe - just use a new washer every time they are removed, although can't imagine that would be very often.