Thought the old brake lines were good enough

[femtnmax]

So I left the old lines in place.  Installed the wheel cylinders about 18 months ago.  Now, The other day go to bleed the brakes, and the NEW rear wheel cylinders are leaking.  Take them apart, there is a pile of rusty crap in each wheel cylinder, the seals drug over the crap, and promptly started leaking.  So much for trying to save a buck.   Now were buying new brake lines and another set of wheel cylinders.

Maybe it was the car and prior maintanence, or lack of.  My work truck is 7 years older than the dodge, and never replaced any brake/fuel lines...never had a problem with the truck, and it has twice as many miles on it.
Oh well, the dodge will have new brake lines. 

[Challenger III]

Thanks for this post Phil. I will not repeat your mistake! 

[Cooter]

Brake fuild absorbs moisture. If left sitting as many of these type musclecars are left to do, the moisture sits in the lines and rusts 'em from the inside out...The reason your work truck didn't is most likely because it gets driven and every time you hit the brakes, the moisture in the fluid gets boiled off due to pressures in the braking system...

[brads70]

Bummer!
I blew mine all out with compressed air before I installed new calipers and cylinders. Hope that was enough!

[femtnmax]

Brake fuild absorbs moisture.

I know about the moisture, and hear what your saying about boiling off the moisture, thats why I'm trying DOT 5 fluid in the dodge.  That old truck, It's run about 10,000 miles in the last 18 years.  I switched to an out-of-town job so the thing sat for 6-12 month stretches then would get little use before sitting again.  In all that time the battery is still the same Caterpillar battery that was in the truck before that.  Great battery...its still going strong.

[ntstlgl1970]

Just make sure to get all the dot 3 and 4 out of the system before going with dot 5, they don't mix.