Extended Brake Lines for 5th Gen 4Runner: 3″+ Lifts and Long Travel Suspension

Braided Extended Brake Lines by Crown Performance, Made in the USA – pick them up at Metal Tech 4×4

I thought at first Metal Tech 4×4 made these brake lines but it turns out a company called Crown Performance makes them right here in the USA.

These brake lines are DOT approved, compatible with all brake fluids, feature a five-layer stainless steel brake hose, and are Kevlar reinforced. They also contain a Teflon inner core to minimize internal friction and volumetric expansion.

They are a one-piece design with steel fittings shipped with washers and brackets. They are made to be extremely durable and reliable.

If you are looking at these brake lines on Metal Tech 4×4, they come in a single silver color. If you head over to Crown Performance directly, they come in nine colors and multiple sizes depending on your lift.

Color options on the 4Runner probably won’t much matter as they are tucked up underneath your axle and out of sight.

Find it online: 

• YotaMafia Brake Lines: Check Price

Why Extended Brake lines?

The Crown Performance extended lines are great for long travel suspension systems allowing for greater axle movement due to the increase overall length of 17″.

These brake lines add quite a bit of travel. At full droop on the driver side, these lines were still showing plenty of slack with the 3″ Icon overland spring in.

Eventually, we are going to the Metal Tech long travel spring in the rear so I wanted to be prepared with these brake lines.

These lines are more durable than the factory installed lines offering a stronger soft line and protection from breakage. They are also supposed to give you a firmer brake pedal feel which is debatable.

If you are long travel or going long travel, consider extending your brake lines.

Rear Brake Line Installation 5th Gen 4Runner

Two bodies will help for a couple of reasons but it can be done with one person. If you have a second person, actually removing and reinstalling the lines as well as bleeding the brakes will go a little smoother.

Jack truck and remove tires + spare

Start by jacking the truck, remove your rear tires along with the spare tire to give you more room to work underneath.

Locate Brake Lines

Remove Metal clip brackets

Using pliers or bent nose pliers, remove the four silver brackets that are holding the soft brake lines in place.

Remove the Brake Lines (WEAR EYE PROTECTION)

Put on some safety glasses, you don’t want brake fluid in your eye. To start, you may want to block the line from brake fluid leakage. This is where two people come into play. If you have two people, one guy can plug the leakage while another guy swaps in the new line.

You need a 15mm to remove the old line. Combine this with a flare nut metric wrench set (like this one) over the top of the line which is in a tricky spot on top of the lines. A set of four hands does help with this install.

Re-Installing the Brake Lines

The re-install requires an 18mm along with the same 10mm flare nut metric wrench. While your second person is holding the brake line closed, you can quickly slip on the new brake line and tighten it down. Repeat this on both ends of the soft lines connecting to the hard lines.

In the picture above, you can see how stretched out our factory brake lines were. At full droop, they were hyper-extended and on the edge of failure.

Re-Connecting the Brackets?

On the factory brake lines, you have the brackets only (no washers) and they are much thinner than what comes in the kit.

We found that you can either utilize one of the two, but not both. Either the brackets or the washers. We threw the washers on, threaded the braided lines to the hard lines, and then tried to squeeze the new brackets in place. It wasn’t happening.

We ended up using the factory brake line brackets to hold the braided lines in place. They were snug as a bug in a rug. Factory brackets with the new washers should keep your lines in place, no problem.

Bleeding the brake lines

To ensure you have no air in your brake lines after your install, you need to bleed your brakes.

We initially thought that a traditional brake bleed was in order.

Jimmy Jet from Snail Trail 4×4 has his method and Tyler from My Off-Road Radio has his method which was a water bottle, a zip-tie, and a long rubber tube.

Both methods would have worked but the 5th Gen 4Runner’s engine control unit (ECU) won’t allow fluid through the system until the ignition is on and the brake pedal is depressed. It took us a few minutes to realize this. On many trucks, you need to pump the brake pedal or create a vacuum in the bleeder valve in order for the brake fluid to pressurize through the system.

To bleed your brakes properly on the 4Runner, you need to turn your ignition on and then pump the brakes. The computer will then pressurize the system for you and ultimately bleed the brakes as long as you have the bleeder valve open.

Bleeding Brake Line Process

1. Connect bleed tube from the brake valve into bottle/container
2. Ignition on
3. Pump brakes three times and hold
4. Open bleeder valve
5. Wait until you see no more bubbles in the line
6. Close the valve

If you still have bubbles, repeat steps 3-5.

Conclusion

Having two people will give you a leg up here. Everything about the install process was pretty simple, though.

Make sure to grab some extra brake fluid, wear eye protection, and ensure that you have the right tools for the job, like a set of metric flare nut wrenches.

You don’t need a brake bleeder vacuum kit as the 5th Generation 4Runner ECU will pressurize the system for you if it senses air (at least this was the data we gathered as we tried a brake bleeder kit).

Hope this helps someone out there looking to extend those lines.