Hello everyone,

I'm considering upgrading my brake lines to enhance performance and reliability. I've come across several options featuring braided hose fittings for the 2023+ GR Corolla.

I'm curious to hear from those who've made similar upgrades. What improvements did you notice in braking performance? Were there any challenges during installation?

Additionally, how do these braided hose fittings compare to OEM lines in terms of durability and maintenance?

Looking forward to your insights and experiences with the an hose fittings!

thanks in advance for any help

 

I have upgraded brake lines on my other two track cars but I wouldn't be doing brake lines for a while. I recently had a friend of mine braking a brake line during hard braking and he went into the dust. Luckily neither his car got damaged nor he got injured. He was using brake lines from a very reputable brand, I would say this brand is top 3 brands in motorsports in the USA. I saw the letter of litigation between my friend and this company and they silenced him by offering a new set.
Apparently this company sent a letter telling the vendors to remove certain brake lines due to expiration dates and this vendor did not do it and sold the lines (expired) so after this incident I personally don't want to deal with it.

As far is my personal experience, I currently have 3 cars that I track, I have a 8Th Gen SI with krafwerks S/C and I am using wilwood BBK and it comes with their own stainless braided lines. So far no issues. I also have Neuspeed stainless steel braided lines on my Audi RS3 and I tracked it with no problems either but I have upgraded pads and brake fluid. After that I have been heavily tracking two GR86s and now the GR Corolla and I decided to not do the brakes lines.

If you want firm pedal and firm bite your best bet is using a high wet and boiling brake fluid, something like Castrol SRF. I also used Motul RB660 but is not as good as Castrol SRF in my opinion.

If you are not tracking the car and just driving around town you wouldn't need line at all and if you decide to hit the track you will be better off picking a right set of brake pads and good brake fluid, that is what will dissipate the heat. A good brake compound of brake pads will absorb a lot of the heat. The stock rotors are already huge and they come slotted so I just don't see an issue there. The factory hem lines are decently good and they have high standards of safety with DOT certification.

As far is the installation. I personally haven't had any issues. Occasionally some people run into small leak on the banjo style connector. Some lines comes with pre-applied teflon paste to ensure good tight fitment.

Finally and in summary, if you don't plan on even tracking the car at all I can assure you that the OEM lines will be probably one of your safest options and definitely reliable due to the dot standards-certification.

 

This.

Swapping fluid alone would probably give you the result you want. Adding steel brake lines will provide minimum benefit for most use cases while adding risk.

Another thing to consider is that if you live the the rust belt the connection between the hard brake line and soft will likely rust.

If you do end up changing lines make sure you use an actual flare nut wrench and patience, because if you end up bending the hard line you probably won’t have a good time.

 

I went with Spiegler brake lines on my 25 GRC purchased at Limit+1. I have not, however, used the car on track yet and while I noticed a slight bump in brake pedal firmness it has not been significant during street driving.

 

Yes, Spiegler brake lines which I've used on multiple cars for the track. Endless RF-650 is the best brake fluid as it doesn't overwork the master/slave cylinders because the fluid has low compressibility (esp compared to SRF) in addition to high wet temps. The brake pedal feel will improve considerably over multiple laps and really improves the margin of safety. You won't notice difference on normal street driving.

 

Modern brake lines are internally reinforced with an aramid fiber weave, making them surprisingly robust. Gone are the days of basic rubber brake lines that just swell under pressure. If I were to “upgrade” I’d consider Speigler first. But I’ve not noticed the night/day difference brake line manufacturers claim. The bling factor is fun, aftermarket lines do look good.

Biggest problem is mostly the mess it makes with brake fluid and the possibility for installing something incorrectly. Kinking a hard line, rounding off a flare nut, cross threading a caliper, forgetting a banjo washer.. The performance benefit/pedal feel is marginal at best. I’ve had the outer sleeve get stained and brittle and crack on some lines from frequent bending. The outer sleeve is just an abrasion protection, but I wrapped the damaged spots with a self-fusing silicone to offer some protection until I could replace them. Its not a difficult job, but as others have said the juice isn’t worth the squeeze like it used to be.