my brakes loose pressure after it's been held down for too long. I have to pump them whenever I try to stop, it's the only thing that works for now. They have been gradually loosing pressure and now it's pretty much like I barely have any brakes. what's going on?!? master cylinder? leak in the line? brake line expanding? I've checked my brake fluid, everything's . someone help me, i'm scared that everything will give way and I'll crash

 

Check your master or slave cylinder. I just had a blast E-braking through 3 hours of traffic with a busted master cylinder.

 

you have a busted master cylinder.

 

More than likely it's the seals in your MC that are going.

You have to replace the MC to fix that problem.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you have a busted master cylinder.</TD></TR></TABLE>

COuld be the ABS system. I seem to preach this during problems that sound like this while everyone else says it is the MC. WHich it very well could be. A master cylinder is very easy to change out. If that doesn't fix the problem I would look to the the ABS system/Accumulator.

Is the car under warranty still?

 

how do I replace my master cylinder? expensive? easy to change? is there a step by step somewhere on line?

thanks time for an other night project.

edit: found all the info I needed on H-T search... my favorite website.


Modified by jr_istheman at 3:06 AM 6/20/2003

 

Not for me to assume, but when you said checked the fluid, what do you mean?

Did you do a full flush of your fluid? Or just bled for air?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by davidnyc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Not for me to assume, but when you said checked the fluid, what do you mean?

Did you do a full flush of your fluid? Or just bled for air?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Good question David!

And the obvious one that I would have asked especially since my experience at the Expo.

Have you EVER changed your brake fluid? Or has anyone changed/flushed your brake fluid?

If not, then you may very well have a Master Cylinder seal issue, in which case a new Master Cylinder is in order.

If yes to brake fluid flush though, then you may have gotten air in the lines which will also exhibit the same symptoms at extreme conditions, and all you'd need to do is another careful flush with something like a Tilton bottle and a can of Brake fluid.


A.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jr_istheman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how do I replace my master cylinder? expensive? easy to change? is there a step by step somewhere on line?

thanks time for an other night project.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

If you have a set of flare end wrenches, it should take you about an hour w/ a brake bleed. If you dont, borrow a set from someone who does

Its really not that hard to do, it really is an 'unbolt the old put in the new' operation. They can be had pretty cheap at autozone/pepboys/advance/etc as remanufactured units.

RJ

 

I recently bought this car. (6 months ago) so I don't know the brake fluid change history. I personally haven't, never knew I needed to change it regularly I should of thought of that when I saw the brake fluid look nasty. I should get this done to my civic too. what brake fuild do you guys recommend? is ther some sort of high performance one?

I'm going to change the master cylinder since I found one in the classifieds for 100$. upgrade to steel braded lines too.

thanks RJ for the lowdown on the swap, it looked easy from the look of it, glad to know there's no troubles.

 

Just dont forget the flare ended wrenches and to bleed the lines afterwards, good luck!

 

i have the same problem... its not air in the lines , ive already bled my breakes and its the same , one of my friends told me it was a ABS system. ive checked for leaks and everything and everything is the brake fluid is even normal.. this brake **** is scarey too...
my first assumption would be the ABS then the MC