The Advantage of Prebent Fuel Lines and Brake Lines

What Does ‘Prebent Fuel Line or Brake Line Mean?’

If you have been shopping for new fuel lines or brake lines, then you’ve probably noticed fuel lines that are advertised as “prebent” or “formed”. When you hear about “prebent brake lines” or “formed fuel lines”, it means that the line has been precision bent to make sure it fits your vehicle.

Prebent lines offer car and truck owners a huge advantage. When a line has specially tailored for your car, truck, or SUV, it cuts down on installation time by saving you the hassle of doing it yourself. These lines have been designed to go around the obstacles in your vehicle, and you can easily install them without having to remove essential parts like your exhaust system or transfer case. If you need new stainless steel fuel lines, brake lines, or transmission lines, then these custom-made lines are a must-have for any vehicle owner.

How to Fit Your Own Fuel or Brake Lines

As convenient as prebent lines are, prebent fuel lines or brake lines aren’t always available for your model of car or truck. If you’re not able to find custom-fit lines for your vehicle, you can also fit them yourself.

Fitting a fuel or brake line on your car or truck is more complex than it sounds. Bending lines requires the use of special tools for it to be done safely and effectively, and the manual labor required to forcibly bend one of these lines is intense and requires a lot of physical effort. One specialized tool you can use is a brake line bender. These are designed specifically for bending steel and stainless steel brake lines. Brake line benders include two handles: one for holding onto the tool, and the other handle is on a pivot that allows you to manually bend the tubing. These tools also include a gauge that lets you know how far you’re bending the line, usually between 0 to 180 degrees. To use a line bender, feed your line between the pivoted hand and the gauge, then use the pivot handle to fold the line to your desired rotation of degree.

We don’t recommend bending fuel or brake lines by heating them. Heating might weaken the lines or cause scaling on the inside, which narrows the tubing and makes it less effective. To avoid damaging your lines, use a line bender instead.

Is There a Difference in Cost?

Prebent lines sound more convenient, but does that convenience impact the cost? The short answer is yes: prebent brake lines and prebent fuel lines are more expensive because they’ve already been fitted for your vehicle. When you buy prebent lines, you’re not just paying for the product, but also the customization service.

Knowing prebent lines are more expensive than regular lines may seem discouraging, but the convenience of prebent lines cannot be overstated. You can buy tools, such as brake line benders, to do the job yourself. However, bending lines by hand requires an intense amount of effort and skill. You also need an existing brake or fuel line to use as a template and make sure you’re bending your new line in the right places. Bending brake lines by hand also risks kinking or restricting the line by accident. If you’re not careful you can render your new lines useless, turning your new purchase into a huge waste of money.

If you want to avoid ruining your brand-new lines, you can always pay for an auto shop to bend the lines for you. This means that you’ll have to pay service costs. When you factor in the cost of hiring someone else to bend your new lines, it would be much cheaper and faster for you to buy prebent lines instead.