Thank you both for your very kind comments . Well, the devil is in the detail. Little excursion into the garage this afternoon to have a more detailed look at brake hose and pipe mounting. As the Brembo is on the opposite side of the hub, my nearly new Hel brake hoses might make an artistic statement but are going to fall short of their primary role of transmitting hydraulic fluid from rigid pipe to caliper. In other words, the buggers are too short. However, Epytec have come to the rescue in the form of some bespoke hoses with the correct fittings for the caliper and the solid brake line. Their rescue does , however, come at a price, €125 to be exact. I know . .............pause for bursts of Anglo Saxon expletives . Right.Moving on. One end of the hose is designed to fit into a neat angle bracket on the side of the subframe . Verkline supply a pair and I have a pair from an old subframe. I have no idea what Verkline were copying when they made their bracket. Could have been a Ford Mondeo but it was not a Mk5 Golf. See the first photograph
On the left is the Verkline, centre is VAG and on the right is the AWB ( andy Wright bracket ) . Does the hose end fit the Verkline bracket? Does it knickers? Does it fit the VAG bracket? Like hell it does . The problem is that Epytec have made the end of the hose fitting circular, no flats, no notches, no groves for a clip, so I am not quite sure how they imagine their hose end to be located , hence the need for an AWB ( Oh, just in case you are wondering , does the o.e hose fit the Verkline bracket? Nope. In fact , it passes straight through its supposed location hole , rendering said bracket about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.
Back to the plot. The AWB has a hole just the correct diameter to take the hose end, and then I very carefully I put a couple of grooves on the fitting to take the VAG spring clip. Seems to work, so as my Cipper/nickel brake pipe has arrived, I can now crack on with doing what I thought was a 15 minute job and lay in some solid pipe across the subframe .
And I guess this is the lesson.,Stay with o.e exactly as God and Volkswagen intended, and everything fits. Sometimes the jobs are difficult ( rust, access , those sodding stretch bolts that seem to be done up to about 1000 ft.lb ) etc, but everything will work. Start down the route of modification and one quickly learns why car manufacturers spend years and millions designing and developing a car prior to going into production.
However, trying to improve on the original and compensate for the inevitable compromises that mainstream manufacturers have to make is all part of the fun. ( although at €125 for a pair of brake hoses that did not fit , the sound of my laughter was not echoing around Ashbourne )
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