Brake hose gasket-crush washer

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I bought a new brake hose at Advance Auto and replaced it. It came with new crush washers as I expected but not a new banjo bolt. I tried to replace the washers with the new and it would not fit over the inside shank on the banjo bolt. I had to reuse one of the old washers. The ID of the new washers(made in China) seemed to be just a few thousandths under the bolt diameter. The old one seems to be holding up but i am concerned about longevity. Is it worth my time to go back to the store and complain and try to get new correctly sized crush washers?

2

Just keep an eye on the connection for a while to make sure it doesn’t leak. If it does start leaking, you could always take the new gasket washer and open the ID up with a tapered hand reamer so it fits over the banjo bolt.

Tester

3

Tester.

Your absolutely right. If I had such a tool I would have done while doing the repair. If I am going to go out and buy something to correct the situation I might as well buy new crush washers from a reputable source and be done with it. It is just a pain to have to replace it and rebleed the system.
I have just had it with poor quality auto parts and the wasted time and energy resulting! Who says Americans can make things right.

Thanks for listening.

4

If the old crush washers are copper you can also reuse them.
With a pair of pliers, hold the washer over a flame until it’s very hot.
Dip the washer in cold water and it will blacken in color due to scale forming.
Brush the scale off and the washer should be softened up just like new.

And you’re correct. There are some pretty loose manufacturing tolerances in some of these Chinese made parts.
A couple of years back while trying to replace a pair of ball joints in a Chevrolet with a pair of aftermarket joints (one each from 2 different parts houses) I found that one of the joints would not fit no matter what.

After dragging the caliper out, the measurements showed that one of the new joints was about .008 of an inch larger than the other. That may work on barn building but not in the automotive world.