What are the pressure numbers on the high pressure side of the SLS systems in these cars? Having issues on a hard line repair.

[Ascension]

Got into a can of worms on the 300 TE when I had to cut the high pressure line because the fitting to the front hose was absolutely frozen in the rubber hose. I strongly suspect that the system in the 500E's is going to be very very similar to the rear SLS in the TE. The issues I have had will be the same in both designs.

I had the car at a local shop and were doing a bunch of suspension work so had them cut the fitting off and replace the line. That has opened the door to a mess.

So far have not be able to get the flair and fitting to that hose to hold. Keeps leaking so have to wonder just how much pressure is in that high pressure line to the self leveling block and also what are we doing wrong on the type flair because so far it's not holding?

I intentionally dropped this here instead of in another section because I am pretty certain if you had to repair a damaged high pressure hard line on a 500E you will have the exact same challenges as we are. My car has the Vickers dual pump not the ZF.

 

[gsxr]

The flare should be an ISO metric bubble flare, which is not common. If the shop isn't using the right tools to create this specific flare, the connection will leak. I repaired a damaged SLS pipe on the 500E years ago using this method.

The tandem pump will show the pressure rating on the metal tag. Probably around 150 bar (~2200 psi).

You can buy pre-cut lengths of pipe with the proper flare/fitting on both ends, although that may not help with what you describe. I bought the SPX / OTC Stinger tool shown below, which is decent quality. SPX supplies dealer/factory tools for Chrysler:

 

[Ascension]

Thank Dave and was about what I thought. I didn't have the proper flair tool and while it was there had them do it. had been a mess since. Will act accordingly thanks for the info. Those pressure number are about twice what I though it was running so makes a huge difference!

 

[dionphaneuf]

I've had this exact issue myself and not yet resolved it - I was trying to replace the rubber line/reservoir and the rubber hose was literally locked onto the hard line, and in pulling it off I put a minor gouge in the hard line. No solution attempted yet but I may try smoothing the gouge w sandpaper as a first pass. If anyone has that ISO Metric flair tool to borrow (esp in the SF Bay Area) I'd love to borrow it.

Leak on SLS Hard Line | Brakes, Suspension and Steering

A while ago I installed a new SLS reservoir, filter, sticker, and replenished the fluid in the reservoir. I also replaced the braided line (114-997-04-82) going from the reservoir to the hard line that lives below the front right head light (see below picture from @RicardoD ). The old line was a...

www.500eboard.co

Edit: tool looks fairly inexpensive on Amazon w free returns....

https://www.amazon.com/OTC-4504-Stinger-Bubble-Flaring/dp/B0015PMZMU/

 

[Ascension]

Ive had this exact issue myself and not yet resolved it - I was trying to replace the rubber line/reservoir and the rubber hose was literally locked onto the hard line, and in pulling it off I put a minor gouge in the hard line. No solution attempted yet but I may try smoothing the gouge w sandpaper as a first pass. If anyone has that ISO Metric flair tool to borrow (esp in the SF Bay Area) Id love to borrow it.

Leak on SLS Hard Line | Brakes, Suspension and Steering

A while ago I installed a new SLS reservoir, filter, sticker, and replenished the fluid in the reservoir. I also replaced the braided line (114-997-04-82) going from the reservoir to the hard line that lives below the front right head light (see below picture from @RicardoD ). The old line was a...

www.500eboard.co

Edit: tool looks fairly inexpensive on Amazon w free returns....

https://www.amazon.com/OTC-4504-Stinger-Bubble-Flaring/dp/B0015PMZMU/

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Be careful with the cheap tools as most won't do a real bubble flair on a steel line well. This is what we ran into on my car and looks like we finally got it done with a higher end tool. The cheaper tools just couldn't get the flair right on a steel line and it would not seal at the pressure levels these systems run. Hopefully my issue is now solved as the fitting is so far holding pressure. Was a real PITA to do a seemingly simple job though! Thanks Dave for the insight bro! Wound up cutting the line lower where we had more room to work with it on the flair then using a section of pre cut line with the proper fittings and a flair to flair connector. So far this is holding pressure with no leaks. Would have been an absolute nightmare to have to replace this entire line as it runs almost the entire length of the car then over the top of the rear subframe on my TE to the leveling valve.
Hope my experience can save some others some grief with this!

 

[dionphaneuf]

Thanks for the heads up. Can you share what tools you used?

 

[Ascension]

Thanks for the heads up. Can you share what tools you used?

Had a shop do this one as the car was already there for front Suspension work I didn't have the facilities to do. Just know they had to buy a flaring tool to get it right. What they had would not seal on the flare. Dave may can help with this one as he has more experiance than I do on this. I would not have had a flaring tool to do a proper European bubble flare here ether. Looked into the kits and saw warnings in several reviews on the inexpensive kits that they had problems with bubble flares on steel lines. That's what happened to these guys at that shop their tool was not giving them a proper flare on that steel line.

 

[gsxr]

I wonder if the shop's original tool was meant for ISO bubble flares. One reviewer on Amazon was claiming that a standard flare tool could be 'made' to work somehow to produce a bubble flare. I think the reviewer was completely wrong, and you need the specific metric, bubble flare tool. Now, if the shop had one that didn't work well, it would be interesting to know the brand/model to avoid!

 

[Ascension]

I wonder if the shops original tool was meant for ISO bubble flares. One reviewer on Amazon was claiming that a standard flare tool could be made to work somehow to produce a bubble flare. I think the reviewer was completely wrong, and you need the specific metric, bubble flare tool. Now, if the shop had one that didnt work well, it would be interesting to know the brand/model to avoid!

Will try to find out what they used. Thanks for the heads up on the flare type and that kit Dave. I may grab one of those as have never tried to do a bubble flare and only have a conventional flare kit. I'm learning on these cars!

 

[Sebastopol]

Will try to find out what they used. Thanks for the heads up on the flare type and that kit Dave. I may grab one of those as have never tried to do a bubble flare and only have a conventional flare kit. Im learning on these cars!

I was able to find lengths of tubing for my SLS on my 300TE-24 at my local NAPA, good quality and a bubble glare.