tunnel brake line replacement

Normally the brake line does not run in the tunnel. They usually run along side the tunnel on the drivers side.

The fuel line does run inside the tunnel and it exits the tunnel through a hole in the left frame horn. Are you sure its a brake line leak?

If someone did run it in the tunnel it would be a pain to replace. I would either run it down the side of the tunnel inside the drivers compartment or run it under the car. I ran it under the car with my Manx and Avenger and its just fine.

Must have been done by the origial builder. I have never seen a brake line run inside the frame. Does it come out the left or right frame horn? Is the fuel line on the other horn or did they run the fuel line somewhere else?

I ran a new fuel line in the tunnel for my Avenger project....but I had 16" of tunnel removed while I was relocating the shifter. It still wasn't fun.

I give up. I made an appointment with a Volkswagen dealer/service center to have all new brake lines put on. As some one said, the car has to stop!!!!

Ouch! And I would make a modest wager that it isn't going to be run in the tunnel!

Odds are your vin is the original Beetle vin, problem today is all VIN's follow a specific 17 digit format. They are full of information and follow a specific mathematical formula to stop people from making their own.


Your dealer's system probably does not recognize anything other than a proper current vin.

Add that to the fact that most people that work in the trade as parts or service counter people are young and clueless. The computer is always right, if it is not in the computer it must be wrong or not possible. Most cannot help you out unless the part you want has a specific application.
How many times have you went looking for a part that you know exists but do not know what year and model it came from? The first thing they ask is year and model, 76 Bradley is of no use to them.

I was in Princess Auto last week. They had 2 racks of 2 wire horns. The signs said "12v electric horn $2.99". Perfect, I need a few so I grabbed them. While waiting at the cash I noticed they were all factory stamped 24v. I went back and checked them all. All were 24v. I mentioned to the employee from that section that the sign was wrong and they should change it to read 24v, so that future customers will realize why the "12v horn" they just bought and returned 10 times does not work.
Her reply to me was "That is what it scans in the computer it is right" and would not change the sign.


I cannot believe they are charging you for a brake inspection. That should be free.
$105.00 is enough to buy all of the lines and many of the brake parts.
Enough of my rant.


VIN info

The first three characters uniquely identify the manufacturer of the vehicle using the World Manufacturer Identifier or WMI code. A manufacturer who builds fewer than 500 vehicles per year uses a 9 as the third digit, and the 12th, 13th and 14th position of the VIN for a second part of the identification. Some manufacturers use the third character as a code for a vehicle category (e.g., bus or truck), a division within a manufacturer, or both. For example, within 1G (assigned to General Motors in the United States), 1G1 represents Chevrolet passenger cars; 1G2, Pontiac passenger cars; and 1GC, Chevrolet trucks.

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in the U.S. assigns WMIs to countries and manufacturers.[5]

The first character of the WMI is the region in which the manufacturer is located. In practice, each is assigned to a country of manufacture, although in Europe the country where the continental HQ is located can assign the WMI to all vehicles produced in that region (Example: GM Europe cars whether produced in Germany, Spain, UK, Belgium or Poland carry the W0 WMI because GM Europe is based in Germany).

In the notation below, assume that letters precede numbers and that zero is the last number. For example, 8X-82 denotes 8X, 8Y, 8Z, 81, 82. In particular this does not include 80.
[edit] Country codes
A–H = Africa J–R = Asia S–Z = Europe 1–5 = North America 6–7 = Oceania 8–9 = South America

AA-AH South Africa
AJ-AN Ivory Coast
AP-A0 not assigned
BA-BE Angola
BF-BK Kenya
BL-BR Tanzania
BS-B0 not assigned
CA-CE Benin
CF-CK Madagascar
CL-CR Tunisia
CS-C0 not assigned
DA-DE Egypt
DF-DK Morocco
DL-DR Zambia
DS-D0 not assigned
EA-EE Ethiopia
EF-EK Mozambique
EL-E0 not assigned
FA-FE Ghana
FF-FK Nigeria
FL-F0 not assigned
GA-G0 not assigned
HA-H0 not assigned


JA-JT Japan
KA-KE Sri Lanka
KF-KK Israel
KL-KR Korea (South)
KS-K0 not assigned
LA-L0 China
MA-ME India
MF-MK Indonesia
ML-MR Thailand
MS-M0 not assigned
NF-NK Pakistan
NL-NR Turkey
NS-N0 not assigned
PA-PE Philippines
PF-PK Singapore
PL-PR Malaysia
PS-P0 not assigned
RA-RE United Arab Emirates
RF-RK Taiwan
RL-RR Vietnam
RS-R0 not assigned


SA-SM United Kingdom
SN-ST Germany
SU-SZ Poland
S1-S4 Latvia
TA-TH Switzerland
TJ-TP Czech Republic
TR-TV Hungary
TW-T1 Portugal
T2-T0 not assigned
UA-UG not assigned
UH-UM Denmark
UN-UT Ireland
UU-UZ Romania
U1-U4 not assigned
U5-U7 Slovakia
U8-U0 not assigned
VA-VE Austria
VF-VR France
VS-VW Spain
VX-V2 Serbia
V3-V5 Croatia
V6-V0 Estonia
WA-W0 Germany
XA-XE Bulgaria
XF-XK Greece
XL-XR Netherlands
XS-XW USSR
XX-X2 Luxembourg
X3-X0 Russia
YA-YE Belgium
YF-YK Finland
YL-YR Malta
YS-YW Sweden
YX-Y2 Norway
Y3-Y5 Belarus
Y6-Y0 Ukraine
ZA-ZR Italy
ZS-ZW not assigned
ZX-Z2 Slovenia
Z3-Z5 Lithuania
Z6-Z0 not assigned


1A-10 United States
2A-20 Canada
3A-3W Mexico
3X-37 Costa Rica
38-30 Cayman Islands
4A-40 United States
5A-50 United States


6A-6W Australia
6X-60 not assigned
7A-7E New Zealand
7F-70 not assigned


8A-8E Argentina
8F-8K Chile
8L-8R Ecuador
8S-8W Peru
8X-82 Venezuela
83-80 not assigned
9A-9E Brazil
9F-9K Colombia
9L-9R Paraguay
9S-9W Uruguay
9X-92 Trinidad & Tobago
93–99 Brazil
90 not assigned
[edit] Vehicle Descriptor Section

The 4th to 9th positions in the VIN are the Vehicle Descriptor Section or VDS. This is used, according to local regulations, to identify the vehicle type, and may include information on the automobile platform used, the model, and the body style. Each manufacturer has a unique system for using this field. Most manufacturers since the 1980s have used the 8th digit to identify the engine type whenever there is more than one engine choice for the vehicle. Example: for the 2007 Chevrolet Corvette U= 6.0L V8, E= 7.0L V8.
[edit] North American Check Digits

One element that is fairly consistent is the use of position 9 as a check digit, compulsory for vehicles in North America, and used fairly consistently even outside this rule.
[edit] Vehicle Identifier Section

The 10th to 17th positions are used as the Vehicle Identifier Section or VIS. This is used by the manufacturer to identify the individual vehicle in question. This may include information on options installed or engine and transmission choices, but often is a simple sequential number. In North America, the last five digits must be numeric.
[edit] Model year encoding

One consistent element of the VIS is the 10th digit, which is required worldwide to encode the model year of the vehicle. Besides the three letters that are not allowed in the VIN itself (I, O and Q), the letters U and Z and the digit 0 are not used for the model year code. Note that the year code is the model year for the vehicle.

The year 1980 was encoded by some manufacturers, especially General Motors and Chrysler, as "A" (since the 17-digit VIN wasn't mandatory until 1981, and the "A" or zero was in the manufacturer's pre-1981 placement in the VIN), yet Ford and AMC still used a zero for 1980. Subsequent years increment through the allowed letters, so that "Y" represents the year 2000. 2001 to 2009 are encoded as the digits 1 to 9, and subsequent years are encoded as "A", "B", "C", etc.
Code Year Code Year Code Year Code Year
A = 1980 L = 1990 Y = 2000 A = 2010
B = 1981 M = 1991 1 = 2001 B = 2011
C = 1982 N = 1992 2 = 2002 C = 2012
D = 1983 P = 1993 3 = 2003 D = 2013
E = 1984 R = 1994 4 = 2004 E = 2014
F = 1985 S = 1995 5 = 2005 F = 2015
G = 1986 T = 1996 6 = 2006 G = 2016
H = 1987 V = 1997 7 = 2007 H = 2017
J = 1988 W = 1998 8 = 2008 J = 2018
K = 1989 X = 1999 9 = 2009 K = 2019

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed rule NHTSA-2008-0022 in April, 2008, with several changes to the VIN requirements to all motor vehicles manufactured on or after April 30, 2009. There are three notable proposed changes in the new VIN structure that affect VIN deciphering systems:

1. The make may only be identified after looking at positions 1–3 and another position, as determined by the manufacturer in the second section or 4–8 segment of the VIN.
2. In order to identify exact year in passenger cars and multipurpose passenger vehicles with a GVWR of 10,000 or less, one must read position 7 as well as position 10. For passenger cars, and for multipurpose passenger vehicles and trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) or less, if position 7 is numeric, the model year in position 10 of the VIN refers to a year in the range 1980–2009. If position 7 is alphabetic, the model year in position 10 of VIN refers to a year in the range 2010–2039.
3. The model year for vehicles with a GVWR greater than 10,000 lb (4,500 kg), as well as buses, motorcycles, trailers and low speed vehicles may no longer be identified within a 30-year range. VIN characters 1–8 and 10 that were assigned from 1980–2009 can be repeated beginning with the 2010 model year.

[edit] Plant Code

Another consistently-used element (which is compulsory in North America) is the use of the 11th character to encode the factory of manufacture of the vehicle. Although each manufacturer has their own set of plant codes, their location in the VIN is standardized.
[edit] Check digit calculation

If trying to validate a VIN with a check digit, first either: (a) remove the check digit for the purpose of calculation; or (b) utilize the multiplicative property of zero in the weight to cancel it out. You should later compare the original value of the check digit with the calculated value. If the two values do not match (and there was no error in the calculation), then there is a mistake in the VIN. However, a match does not prove the VIN is correct because there is still a 1 in 11 chance of any two distinct VINs having a matching check digit: an example of this would be the valid VINs 5GZCZ43D13S812715 (correct with leading five) and SGZCZ43D13S812715 (incorrect with leading character 'S').
[edit] Transliterating the numbers

Transliteration consists of removing all of the letters, and substituting them with their appropriate numerical counterparts. These numerical alternatives (based on IBM's EBCDIC) can be found in the following chart. I, O and Q are not allowed, and can not exist in a valid VIN; for the purpose of this chart, they have been filled in with N/A (not applicable). Numerical digits use their own values.
Transliteration key: values for VIN Decoding A: 1 B: 2 C: 3 D: 4 E: 5 F: 6 G: 7 H: 8 N/A
J: 1 K: 2 L: 3 M: 4 N: 5 N/A P: 7 N/A R: 9
S: 2 T: 3 U: 4 V: 5 W: 6 X: 7 Y: 8 Z: 9

S is 2, and not 1. There is no left-alignment linearity.
[edit] Weights used in calculation

The following is the weight factor for each position in the VIN. The 9th position is that of the check digit. It has been substituted with a 0, which will cancel it out in the multiplication step.
Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Weight 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 10 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
[edit] Worked example

Consider the hypothetical VIN 1M8GDM9A_KP042788, where the underscore will be the check digit.
VIN 1 M 8 G D M 9 A K P 0 4 2 7 8 8
Value 1 4 8 7 4 4 9 1 0 2 7 0 4 2 7 8 8
Weight 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 10 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Products 8 28 48 35 16 12 18 10 0 18 56 0 24 10 28 24 16

1. The VINs value is calculated from the above table, this number will be used in the rest of the calculation.
2. Copy over the weights from the above table.
3. The products row is a result of the multiplication of the vertical columns: Value and Weight.
4. The products (8,28,48,35..24,16) are all added together to yield a sum of 351
5. Find the remainder after dividing by 11
351 MOD 11 = 10
351 ÷ 11 = 31 10/11
6. The remainder is the check digit. If the remainder is 10 then the check digit is X. In this example the remainder is 10, so the check digit is transliterated into X.

With a check digit of 'X' the VIN: 1M8GDM9A_KP042788 is written as: 1M8GDM9AXKP042788.

Straight-ones (seventeen consecutive '1's) will suffice the check-digit. This is because a value of one, multiplied against 89 (sum of weights), is still 89. And 89 divided by 11 is 8 with the remainder being the fraction "1 over 11," thus 1 is the check digit. This is an easy way to test a VIN-check algorithm.

a vw repair shop would do it for way less .
If I was any where need you I would do it for nuthing but parts .
#1 reason I wrench on my owne stuff

3 hours max...including bleeding the brakes. And its not in a bad spot at all. 2 bolts from inside the car and remove it from behind the front left wheel.

They are hosing you with that quote. I bet they realized they can't run the brake line in the tunnel so they are trying to make some cash. Where are you located ?

I agree with Gary. For $1500, trailer it down to sunny florida, spend a week with my family and I, and you and I can fix it for way less than the repair shop wants. You get your car fixed, your wife and you get a vacation, and you still got money in the bank.

Hi, Leonard,

Gary's got talent and he's a good guy. Take him up for sure.

I just had my dual master cylinder replaced and it cost less than $150, parts and labor. My local ACVW guy is awesome.

As for your tunnel line, the easiest solution would be to ignore the tunnel option and just run a new line -- outside and alongside the tunnel on the driver side -- where it belongs. End of problem.

I'm not a mechanic and I don't want to be one. I love building anything I can get my hands on and I do everything on my Bradley myself, except tie-rod, spindle, steering box and brake issues.

A stuck engine gets you coasting to a stop. Failed steering or brakes gets you hurt - or worse.

Sorry you're having such a sh*tty time with your car.

Warmest...

Hi Leonard,

Sorry to hear Sharon is sick and in the hospital. Hope she recovers quickly.

Gary Hammond,

Hi, Leonard,

Outside and alongside the tunnel, not the pan. All one thought, no comma. Sorry if it was vague, but "where it belongs" should have made that clear - inside the car, next to the tunnel, just like the original.

Sorry I missed the line about Sharon. Please give her my best for a much quicker fix than your brake troubles!

Warmest...

thanks SteveVW. My master is in the center of the car and not at all like the skematic. It looks like I need to start from scratch with it. I retreived the Brad from the VW dealer and he all but admitted he had no idea what to do with it. He suggested I go to a local shop and get it fixed. Most honest thing he said. I am not at all sure the master is bad. I cannot see any leak at the master, and of course it will not hold if there is a break in the rear line. $114.95 for a verdict I really don't believe.

There is no reason why you cannot run the lines under the car if it is easier to do. Your master sounds like it is not in the stock location. Any pics? All cars produced today run the lines under the floor on the outside. It is easy to run them inside the outer floor pan lip where the floor bolts to the body. Even if the fuel and brake lines were fastened to the outside of the floor under the tunnel, they would not get pinched or damaged.

The law states that fuel lines cannot enter the passenger compartment, Only VW has a "sealed" tunnel, other RWD cars that had the "tunnel" used it to cover the driveshaft so it had no bottom, that meant all lines followed the perimeter of the floor.