I recently bought some 1996 Escort RS2000 front brakes to fit to my 1995 Fiesta 1.6 Si, having read on this site and fiestaturbo.com that they are straightforward to fit and will bolt straight on. Unfortunately, there seems to be less information on what flexible pipes are needed to connect them up. I have now tried three different standard Ford pipes - none of which are suitable. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has done this conversion - what flexible pipes did you use? Any help would be much appreciated.

I have some more details of the problems, and some photos below...

The first problem is that the Escort caliper has a different fitting to the Fiesta one.
Fiesta pipe has an M10 male thread:


Escort uses an M10 banjo fitting:


Initially I was unaware of this difference, as I only had the calipers. It looked like the Fiesta pipes would fit the Escort calipers, as the hole uses the same M10 thread. Closer inspection of the calipers showed that the threaded hole in the Escort caliper is deeper than the fiesta one though. This is important because it relies on the tapered surface at the bottom of the hole to make a seal, and to prevent the pipe coming loose. I tried fitting with the Fiesta pipes, and the thread on the pipe appeared to be just long enough to enable the pipe to seal and hold hydraulic pressure. Everything seemed to work ok initially, but on checking, the pipes had started to come loose after less than 10 miles of use.

Having found that there was a problem, and done some more research, I realised that I needed pipes with a banjo fitting. I was able to obtain the flexible pipes from the same RS2000 that the calipers came from, so I knew the fitting on the caliper would be correct. Unfortunately, the fitting on the other end is wrong (a female thread attached to a bracket, not a male thread).



I searched on eBay, and it looked like there may be pipes available with the correct fittings at both ends. A trip to the local scrap yard turned up a pipe from a K reg Mk5 Escort with a banjo fitting at the caliper end and a male thread at the other end.






This pipe looked ideal, but on fitting, I found that there is an additional bend in the rigid part of the pipe near to the banjo end. This bend forces the pipe inwards underneath the inner wing. If the car was lowered to the ground, the inner wing would break the pipe off the caliper.



After all of the problems, I needed to use the car, so have now refitted the standard brakes.

I did a bit more searching, and found these pictures on eBay:



These appear to show a suitable pipe, without the extra bend in the rigid part, and with the correct fitting on both ends. Can anyone confirm if these pipes will work, and what models of Escort they are fitted to? Could do with a bit of help here, and some confidence it will work, before putting the RS2000 brakes back on. I know I could have some pipes made to order, but it's supposed to be a cheap upgrade, so I don't want to spend more on the pipes than the calipers, discs and pads combined.
Thanks for reading.
Ben

Hi there,

How about using the Fiesta pipes and putting some threadlock on them as the only problem I can see that you had was that they worked their way loose?

Just a thought, rather than over engineering a solution?

Paul

Thanks for the suggestion. While I can see the logic behind your idea, I understand it is generally bad practice to fit hydraulic pipes with threadlock. The caliper is obviously intended to have a banjo fitting, and I'm not prepared to take chances on something like this that affects safety.

I got the impression that this is a popular modification, so someone must know how it's done?

hmm looks like i will have this problem soon with mk5/6 escort brakes.

Dam i thought it was gona be straight forward -.-

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I now have some pipes that seem to work ok. They are from a 1994 Escort 1.3 registration M895RFV.
Note that the bracket on this pipe attaches near the bottom of the strut on the Escort. This is ok with my Gmax suspension, but the standard Fiesta Si shock absorbers don't have a bracket in this location. The loop of pipe above this bracket forms quite a tight bend when the car is lowered to the ground (and the -35mm lowered suspension doesn't help here), but it seems to be ok.

EDIT:
Definitely a worthwhile improvement, but make sure the rear brakes are well adjusted or you may get a lot of pedal travel.

Some photos below...

Standard Fiesta Si brakes:


Wrong Escort pipe - bends too close to inner wing:


New pipe:


New pipe - note mounting at bottom of shock absorber:


New pipe - note car is jacked up: (This section of pipe bends quite tight when car is lowered to the ground)


Standard Fiesta Si shock absorbers don't have mounting point for bracket: