Brake Problems

shersta@ilstu.edu shersta@ilstu.edu
Tue, 13 May 2003 09:37:40 -0500


The front pass.-side caliper (ad22vf) began getting a little sticky on my 93
b13 (136k) so I replaced it with a reman'd one. I thought everything was fine,
but when I got in the car the next day, the pedal was really soft. I thought I
needed to do a better job of bleeding the system and (foolishly) drove on.

The pedal got softer and softer and I turned around and headed for home.
Before I reached home, the brake light had come on and I had almost no brakes.
Upon reaching home, I jacked the car up and sure enough, a leak had developed
where the brake line bolts onto the caliper and the resevoir was drained.

I finally got the brake line bolted on with no leaks, and although I bled the
hell out of the system, the pedal would not firm up at all. I limped over to
the local brake and muffler shop where they confirmed there were no leaks.
They also pinched off all four lines and said the pedal still had no
resistance. Their diagnosis: bad master cylinder.

My questions: 1) does this seem like an accurate diagnosis? 2) did I damage
the mc by draining it with a leak while driving? 3) do rebuilt mc's exist and
are they okay to use?

Thanks a lot
Scott '93 classic

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