dime1622

so suddenly last night i get in my car and the brake goes near the floor, whereas it had been working perfectly the previous time i drove it. to get any sort of good braking power its gotta hit the floor then i have to press harder. the pedal does come back up though. i opened up the brake fluid resivoir and it was empty, so i put in 12 oz of fluid with my girlfriend pumping the brake pedal, and all sorts of air was coming out, but there's no change. i just replaced my slave cylinder last thanksgiving weekend, and the clutch still works fine, and there's no brake fluid dripping on the ground...

any ideas? what do i check?

Ian Carr

Hole in your brake line?

dime1622

i would have guessed that, but it happened all of the sudden and there's no leakage.

rk

You might want to check the drivers footwell area. If the master cylinder is leaking it can run down the brake booster and find its way through the firewall around the steering column area. It then runs under the carpet...

MHT

if there are no external signs of leak, it probably is leaking into the booster from the back of the master cyl. If that's the case you will need to replace both parts. Once you get air into the system, you will not get a good pedal until you push it all the way through . You need to bleed the entire system, just pumping the brake pedal without opening the bleeder screws will gain you nothing.
Good luck

dime1622

where can i get the booster at? i can find the master cylinder at paragon but not the booster...

PorscheDoc

If you were that low on brake fluid, it means you are losing it at a pretty good rate. Dont let it get low enough to starve the clutch.

dime1622

also, how can i verify whether or not the master cylinder has gone bad?

Kesepton

Well, try this. Start the car and depress brakes slowly.... If its soft, then try pumping the brakes hard and fast and see if it gets hard again like normal. If thats the case, youve got air in your brake lines.

Though, do NOT depress your brakes all the way to the floor. Though you might be okay with your car since you replaced the master cylinder. But, normally you wouldnt because, alot of times rust/other things build up in it and the rubber seal inside will scrape on it because it isnt normally there. (you dont normally depress your brake to the floor).

Also, maybe water got into it? Thatll make the brakes loose too. Id try bleeding the brakes.

Peckster

If there's no leakage, what do you think happened to the missing fluid?

It's leaking somewhere, you just have to take the time to find out where.

And you can't just add fluid to a system with a dry reservoir, you have to bleed all four wheels.

If you haven't done this before, you have to read up oh the basic procedure, any decent manual will tell you how.

Do NOT drive the car until you're sure you've found and fixed the problem

Kesepton

Also, are these cars dual or single? As far as the master cylinder goes.