Originally Posted by macdoe

Yes, the steel reinforced hose worked with the old fittings....or at least I can tell you so far, so good.

I should also mention that I put all those little plastic pieces back into the replacement hose. I figured that they should be there for whatever reason they were put there in the first place.

Before replacing with the new steel reinforced line, I did patch together the old hose with a couple of hose clamps and a double ended barbed fitting until I had time to properly replace the old hose. I removed all the plastic bits when I did the temporary fix. I did drive the car like this for awhile and I think the rear suspension was actually better without those plastic bits in the line. (could be that my nitrogen sphere's are getting worn out?)

In hindsight, if I were to do it again I am not sure that I would put those plastic bits back in the line. I never did get a straight answer as to why those plastic pieces are in the line. If they are there for backflow prevention, fine ...but if they are meant to prevent the line from collapsing.... then with this newer steel reinforced line they are not necessary as you cannot compress the newer steel line.

As far as bleeding the system....what Kerry said. I did not bleed my system on any of the repairs. I am now wondering how to tell if the system needs to be bled.

To put it another way...What symptoms would one be experiencing if there was air trapped in the system?