08/17/2008
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Staff photos by Jim EvansStaff Writer
Auto-repair shops report being busier than ever with replacing corroded brake lines.
That is spurring all sorts of speculation over the materials used to combat icy roads during the winter and whether brake lines are being built or coated these days with less durable substances.
But don't tell state Department of Transportation officials it's because of switching from salt to calcium on winter roads. That's the typical complaint they get, and isn't true.
"I always tell them that we haven't bought calcium since May '05," says Brian Burne, state highway-maintenance engineer.
The state uses mostly rock salt on roads in winter, said Burne and Herb Thomson, DOT's communications director. Small amounts of salt brine, sand and a product called "Ice-B-Gone" are used only in small amounts and under special circumstances. Ice-B-gone is a corrosion-inhibited magnesium-chloride blend that the state Department of Environmental Protection recognizes as appropriate for snow and ice control.
While all materials used on roads contribute to vehicle corrosion, Thomson and Burne say, the surge in deteriorating brake lines appears to be caused by a change in materials used to coat them.
Auto makers, they say, are moving away from using hexavalent chromium on brake lines because it has been determined to be environmentally unsafe. It has been used as a corrosion-resistant coating on brake lines and other auto parts.
"We understand that this change has occurred and it's what we feel is responsible for any difference we've seen," Burne said.
The DOT started getting complaints about brake lines deteriorating more quickly than usual in the winter of 2006-07, he said. Complaints came largely from the Bangor and coastal Belfast areas.
In trying to figure out the reason for the surge, Burne said the problem appeared not to affect all types of vehicles equally.
"I've got a 1994 Honda and I've got the original brake lines on it," he said. "As you talk to people, only certain makes of cars are affected, and that kind of pointed toward a manufacturer's issue as well."
Thomson said DOT officials annually discuss the best materials to use on roads. The state used liquid calcium on roads in the late 1990s and into 2000, and from about 2003 to 2005, it used calcium in some places and some magnesium chloride, Burne said.
Randy's Auto Repair on Madison Avenue in Skowhegan has seen a large increase in the number of vehicles requiring break line replacements in the last three years, said business owner Randy Bruce.
"I'd say it has probably tripled," Bruce said Thursday.
"I'm getting '03s in here needing brake lines. They should make stainless-steel brake lines."
Bruce also thinks manufacturers should design cars specifically for the northeast.
"They're manufacturing all the cars for the southern part of the country," he said.
Tracy Morrison of Morrison's Garage, located on Cambridge Road in Harmony, also is replacing more brake lines than before. The numbers have doubled in the last three years, he said.
"We do a lot of them. We do them daily. We replaced two lines three or four years ago and we're already replacing them again."
But Morrison sees the increase as partly due to stricter state-inspection laws requiring brake lines to be replaced that previously would not have required replacement.
He said he has started using brake lines considered to be of higher grade and coated with a nickel material.
More durable materials should be mandated on brake lines in new automobiles, he said.
"I think that should be a requirement for automobile manufacturers," he said. "We'd lose out, but isn't safety the main thing?"
Like Morrison, Bruce Judkins of VIP Parts, Tires & Service, of Augusta, says VIP also is replacing more brake lines than in previous years.
But he doesn't place blame. VIP sells steel brake lines with a special coating that makes them more durable and protects vehicles from salt and weather, he said.
"The cause is speculative, isn't it? Is it that car sales are up? From the VIP standpoint, the more the better. The cause of it, we don't know."
Waterville Public Works Director Mark Turner says mechanics in his department have noticed that brake lines are not as durable as they used to be and have to be replaced on large and medium-sized trucks every other year or so.
"They're noticing it on the police cruisers more and more because of that," Turner said.
While higher-quality brake lines are more costly, the city buys them when possible. The city uses salt and sand on winter roads and has not received complaints, according to Turner.
He surmises that people are not washing their vehicles in the winter as frequently as they used to because of the cost and inconvenience, but doing so would help to preserve brake lines longer.
And don't just wash the top and sides of the vehicle, he said.
"You really have to get underneath if you're going to clean your car properly," he said.
Amy Calder -- 861-9247
acalder@centralmaine.com
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