A few notes for anyone thinking of doing this job as part of planned maintenance or 'emergency maintenance' as in my case having failed an MOT.

The hoses can be bought from Advanced Factors at around £25 each and they are OE (identical to original). To make sure I didn't need them I also bought a pair of Brembo bleed nipples and the securing clips for the chassis end fitting.
And yes - sure enough didn't need them

No special tools required except perhaps an 11mm flare nut spanner:



You could use an ordinary open ended spanner but there is more chance of it slipping.
One of the three brackets holding the flexi to the suspension arm is secured with a Torx head bolt so you'll need a set of Torx keys. Apart from that, if you have a set of combination spanners and a socket set you'll be fine.

I found despite the rusty appearance everything came unbolted quite easily after a quick spray with WD40/GT85 and left to soak during a tea break.



The most stiff was the inner caliper nipple and the way to deal with these is take extreme care working them back and forth a little at a time with more spraying of the above. If the worst happens and they snap off you might need to have a local engineering shop drill out the remains for you.

It was possible to unbolt the three brackets and bolt on the new flexi without disturbing the unions at either end and then quickly swop over to the new flexi.

To minimise fluid loss I just sealed the brake fluid reservoir (using a piece of polythene and the cap off the pressure bleeder).

The securing clip at the chassis end is not very accessible and I found the best way to remove it was with a loop of strong line with the other end wrapped around a tommy bar and just pull:



This bit of line is kevlar reinforced and also useful when pulling up that clip thing to remove headlights.

To push the clip back on a metre length of broom handle given a firm smack with the palm of a hand seemed to work well (it is very tight).

Pressure bleeding is my preferred method of purging the air from the system and an aged Gunson's Eezibleed kit hooked up to an old spare wheel at 15 P.s.i works just fine. When bleeding Brembo calipers with twin nipples a 'Y' piece and three lenghts of polytubing makes the job a lot less messy as you don't have to keep swapping the tube from one side to the other.

Chalk up another victory for DIY and a couple of hundred quid saved  2008 MY Java Black TDV8 HSE

Nice little write up. Well done.  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

excellent write up this is next on my to do list