Scary Brake Problem

[Fleeingpepper]

Well I got new tires yesterday (Yokohama Geolandar A/T-S 285s), and they replaced the ball joints, tie rods, etc.
My brakes had always very slowly had a leak somewhere, not sure where. I would just top it off every few months. But tonight I was driving and the brake pedal went all the way down and I had to push really hard for them to work, and just barely. I parked and there was absolutely no brake fluid left! I guess tomorrow I'll get down there and look at where a leak may be, but my question is, could the Hibdon guys have hit a brake line when working down there and made it leak or something?

 

[Swims350]

very easily, they had to take off the caliper to do a ball joint change, could have left one hanging or casued the front flex line to seperate or start leaking.

 

[Fobroader]

Ive damaged my own flex lines while working on my own brakes, the caliper was hanging off the shock, fell of and cracked the freaking line when it hit something. Saying that, if youve had a slow leak for a while, whatever was leaking could have finally given up the ghost......Pretty **** yourself moment when your brakes go to the floor though, good thing you werent hurt man.

 

[Fleeingpepper]

There was a pool of brake fluid next to my passenger front tire this morning so I brought it back in. He tried to say it wasn't their fault, blah, blah, I said you had to take the caliper off to change the ball joints (thanks for that tidbit) and he said well maybe depending on the car. So we go "so it was just a coincidence that you worked in that area and the next day there's a leak right where you worked?"
They checked it out and apparently the connection to the caliper or the hose came loose, I forget which, but one of the connections got loosened somehow, but they don't know how. I think it was when they were screwing with the caliper. But whatevsies, maybe the leak is gone, they fixed it fo free.

 

[Fobroader]

Sweet, good to hear a shop that is standing behind their work.

 

[eck95z71]

anyone know how to tighten the parking brake line into the driver side rear brake? do I just need to replace the whole line and fitting. the fitting going into the back of the drum is loose and i'm leakin fluid. i've never had to replace rear brake lines before so i'm pretty much clueless.

 

[Loss4wrds]

Parking brake is adjusted by a cable with a nut on a long threaded connector where the two rear cables join together. This is located under the truck body against the frame close to where the bed and cab meet.

If your leaking fluid from the line or where it ataches to the back of the drum it is probably a wheel cylinder problem. They cost $15 or so and are not too bad to change.
Take off rear wheel and outter brake drum. When I did mine last week I was able to use the brake adjuster to move the pads out away from the wheel cylinder without removing any of the springs or clips. Remove the hard line (you need to cap this line or it will dump all your fluid and be a pain in the ass to bleed, I used a plastic bag and a rubber band), and the 2 bolts on each side of the line and the cylinder should come right out. Install the new unit and move the adjuster back to a position that just allows the drum to go back over the brake assembly, put on the wheel and bleed the lines. Took me about an hour and a half to do including a trip to the parts store and bleeding the lines. There are 2 diffrent size wheel cylinders so you may want to take the leaking one to the parts store with you to get the proper one.

 

[eck95z71]

alright thanks man..I wasnt sure if the cylinder and the line was connected or not. From what it felt like yesterday, the line is loose going into the drum and it's on the bottom side of it. I thought it was an Ebrake problem cuz my BRAKE light came on today on the dash and not the ABS light. I'll replace the cylinder tomarrow and see what it does...thanks again!

 

[Loss4wrds]

brake light will come on if fluid is low. May want to check that before you drive anywhere.
line should connect directly into the wheel cylinder and should have the bleeder screw very close. (mine was directly above the hard line connection)
May want to make sure both are tight before going to the trouble replacing the wheel cylinder if one or both were loose. (will need to bleed brakes to ensure no air bubbles)
If the threads are messed up on the hard line I think NAPA carries pre-bent hard lines or pick one up at salvage yard for cheap.

 

[Fleeingpepper]

When my fluid was out the brake light didn't come on til I pushed the pedal all the way down trying to stop. Then it turned back off when the pedal went back to where it rests.