catmandoob

So I had an interesting day sunday, I was sitting at a stop light and was stopped only to notice seconds later oh crap I'm rolling. I was like well aren't I a dodo not pressing the brakes apparently hard enough. Fast forward to later that night and I notice a puddle of liquid under my driver rear tire.

The cogs clicked and I immediately knew I had a brake issue. So I go under it Monday and see where the issue is, the first bend in the metal brake line going to passenger rear brake caliper is corroded and rusted through. Obviously not a simple fix knowing it's a solid line front to back from ABS modulator, so I decided to cut just that section. Upon further looking the whole line all the way across is heavily corroded and you can see where there is already slight seepage through the metals pores. So I just replaced that whole stretch of about 61" of metal brake line, couldn't mimic the stock bends but got it close enough and even fitted in the stock rail guides.

My question is has anyone known this to be an issue, surprises me with it only being 10 years old.

Second thing is how in the world do I bleed the brakes with confidence? I have read varying methods concerning the W204 and many say no STAR needed and vacuum will be fine.

I vacuum bled but I still don't feel that I am getting the initial bite from the first 1/4" push of the pedal. I went back and teflon tapped the coupling just to be safe in case my flares didn't seal perfect but no change. Keep in mind I am using a hand pump extractor for the vacuum so I do lack the exact pressure reading but I feel good being at or above 10psi.

And finally, can or does anybody have a way to see what part # the passenger rear steel brake line is that goes from the ABS to caliper. I'd like to replace it with the correct OEM part at some near future point. I'm sure I have more questions but those are the ones I am most worried about, I think I have it driveable but the lack of bite has me reserved in being fully confident.

Thanks to any and all who might be able to chime in and help.

atraudes

I won't be much help with specific advice on this car, but I've had much better luck with .It's basically a check valve you clamp onto the bleeder valve. Crack open the valve, and go slowly pump the brakes, making sure the reservoir doesn't run dry. I used a Mityvac type pump for a number of years but never had terrific luck with it (and a few times, really bad luck). I even resorted to teflon taping the valves like you did but no change, ultimately.

catmandoob

Thanks for that tool tidbit, never hurts to try new idea's and tools. I finally got with my local Benz dealer and he notified me there is a coupling along the driver side brake line run so it's just a rear piece. For MB tax it was still only $50.00 so i had the dealer order it. I located what looks to be a diagram of the w203 brake lines but it's from an old post in the respective forum post , anyone by chance have a diagram of it for the w204?

I'm hoping it may be similar in nature which means it might not be bad to replace with correct line.