No Brakes.... Now fixed!!!

[TimboSHO]

I was driving to a friend's house tonight, and the brake pedal seems to be getting softer and softer until it's all the way to the floor and i'm hardly slowing down! It also pulls violently to the left at the same time. eek! Now, i looked at some other treads, but my brake light never came on and i didn't see any fluid on the rims at all. I checked the fluid and it was 4 oz. low, so i filled it, but it didn't seem to help. Now would this be a brake line? The master cylinder wouldn't make it pull to the left, would it? I will check it more out tomorrow morning when it's light out. Thanks for any suggestions!

<small>[ June 17, 2003, 12:58 PM: Message edited by: TimboSHO ]</small>

 

[RI-SHO]

From my understanding of the SHO brake line setup, one line runs fr/left-rr/right calipers and the other fr/right-rr/left calipers. Somewhere in there you have lost hydralic pressure to cause your pedal to bottom-out.

Your brake light is either burnt to not register this loss in hydralic pressure or you have some other wiring issues related to your hydralic pressure loss as well. It could be many things, a brake line, bad bleeder screw or even somewhere in the master cylinder, because a brake system should not be leaking a hydralic fluid at all.

BTW when the car was pulling left did the pedal vibrate at all to anything like a ABS stop?

<small>[ June 09, 2003, 02:09 AM: Message edited by: RI-SHO ]</small>

 

[TimboSHO]

Nope. Pedal did not vibrate. I don't have ABS anyways.... So what should i check for?

 

[TimboSHO]

Well, i checked all of the brake lines and the master cylinder, and the only fluid i noticed was a little on the seam of the plastic resevour of the master cylinder. So where could the leak be that i missed?

<small>[ June 10, 2003, 06:21 PM: Message edited by: TimboSHO ]</small>

 

[TimboSHO]

I inspected everything again, and there seems to be no leaks, and the rotors aren't stuck or anything. When i have the car up in the air and spin the wheels, all of them are stopped by brake pedal being pressed. Still goes to the floor. The only think i found was the brake pressure control valve was not bolted to the rear control arm like it should be, but i know this has been like this awhile because there is no bracket at all on the control arm. But i don't think this would cause any of this anyway, would it?

 

[Jr's Sho]

I've had the same experiences in times past when it was the master cylinder that went bad. There are seals in there and when they go bad, the fluid bypasses the brake line circuits and is not under enough pressure to stop your vehicle. As for your vehicle pulling to one side, it almost sounds like a little fluid is getting to that one side only. I'd say master cylinder.

 

[TimboSHO]

It was the master cylinder, but there were other things too. I couldn't get the bolts undone (even with a flare nut wrench), so i took it in to be done. They found that my back lines were rusted shut and the rear calipers and rotors were rusted up badly. I thought they looked a little rusty, but didn't realize it was from no use! Wow! So i've had no rear brakes for quite awhile! Good thing i stayed safe! All in all, they had tons of trouble finding the right parts (the common SHO owner knows this), and they did the rear brake lines, calipers, pads and machined the rotors, and gave me the master cylinder for free! Not bad!