Weird story, but I'll proceed.
On Thanksgiving night, I had my FJ62 broken into. They damaged the lock cylinders on the hatch and the driver-side door, and eventually entered by breaking the rear, driver-side door window. Long story,short, I booked an appt with A Touch of Glass for the window replacement. My car has a bunch of issues, but brakes wasn't one of them, until I took it to the window replacement shop.
I pulled up to the shop yesterday afternoon, and parked in one of the driveways, leaving keys in car, as instructed. I am always a bit dubious of other drives, because my FJ has a 4-speed manual transmission (converted it from automatic in 2008- thanks José Rivera. Great job!), but the emergency brake has never worked, so I put it in 1st, when parking, so that it being in-gear prevents any rolling... Anyhow, I leave it, after the attendant/mechanic says "he's got it". I'm told it'll take about an hour to replace window, so I head out to the street, on foot to kill time. I walk a few blocks, and pop into a nearby auto store for a few mins, then walk back toward the window repair shop, to sit in their waiting room. As i approach, I see that my car being reversed into the street, which leads me to think it's about to be worked on.
I go to another nearby deli, grab a juice, and stroll back over to the shop. The repairman does his job, without issue (other than my pain in the butt, electric window not rolling down, however, he jumps the switch somehow, and proceeds with the fix.)
Upon completion, I tip him directly ($10, as he didn't have to jump the switch, and could have left me high and dry (this is NYC- remember?), with no window until I got the switch fixed.), pay the receptionist the the $138 cost, and head out to my truck.
By this point, the repairman has driven out of the garage, where the repair was performed, into the street, waiting for me to receive my vehicle. I thank him again, get in and see the brake light is on. I think odd, but I also see the non-working, emergency hand-brake is in the pulled-up position. I figure that is the cause of the brake light. I put it down and the brake light stays illuminated. I pull over to the side walk, to get out of the double-parked position in the street, to see if I'm low on brake fluid. I pull up the hood and low and behold, it's below the "minimum" line. I have some fluid in the hatch area, so I pour some into the brake container. It's literally drinking the fluid, and not filling up at the rate I would expect. I keep pouring and finally get it to the acceptable level. Go inside the truck and the light is now off, but the brake are still very weak and mushy. I'm able to press the brake pedal to the floor.
Any ideas on what happened? I'm the second owner of the truck. As far as I know, the master cylinder is the original one. it's very rusty, but I don't see any leaks. The ball joints, by the front wheels are very gucky and greasy, but I'm not positive that guck is related to a brake-line. Or is it the brake booster?
Any thoughts? I don't have a lot of money, and I use this car occasionally, for family needs and short errands, so I'm hoping to be as economical as possible on this fix. I have some tools, and would love to work on this myself, but I do not have access to a garage to do this.
Thanks for any feedback. This car means a lot to me, but I don't have the space to give it the attention it needs, however I do have the tools and the desire.
kwest
On Thanksgiving night, I had my FJ62 broken into. They damaged the lock cylinders on the hatch and the driver-side door, and eventually entered by breaking the rear, driver-side door window. Long story,short, I booked an appt with A Touch of Glass for the window replacement. My car has a bunch of issues, but brakes wasn't one of them, until I took it to the window replacement shop.
I pulled up to the shop yesterday afternoon, and parked in one of the driveways, leaving keys in car, as instructed. I am always a bit dubious of other drives, because my FJ has a 4-speed manual transmission (converted it from automatic in 2008- thanks José Rivera. Great job!), but the emergency brake has never worked, so I put it in 1st, when parking, so that it being in-gear prevents any rolling... Anyhow, I leave it, after the attendant/mechanic says "he's got it". I'm told it'll take about an hour to replace window, so I head out to the street, on foot to kill time. I walk a few blocks, and pop into a nearby auto store for a few mins, then walk back toward the window repair shop, to sit in their waiting room. As i approach, I see that my car being reversed into the street, which leads me to think it's about to be worked on.
I go to another nearby deli, grab a juice, and stroll back over to the shop. The repairman does his job, without issue (other than my pain in the butt, electric window not rolling down, however, he jumps the switch somehow, and proceeds with the fix.)
Upon completion, I tip him directly ($10, as he didn't have to jump the switch, and could have left me high and dry (this is NYC- remember?), with no window until I got the switch fixed.), pay the receptionist the the $138 cost, and head out to my truck.
By this point, the repairman has driven out of the garage, where the repair was performed, into the street, waiting for me to receive my vehicle. I thank him again, get in and see the brake light is on. I think odd, but I also see the non-working, emergency hand-brake is in the pulled-up position. I figure that is the cause of the brake light. I put it down and the brake light stays illuminated. I pull over to the side walk, to get out of the double-parked position in the street, to see if I'm low on brake fluid. I pull up the hood and low and behold, it's below the "minimum" line. I have some fluid in the hatch area, so I pour some into the brake container. It's literally drinking the fluid, and not filling up at the rate I would expect. I keep pouring and finally get it to the acceptable level. Go inside the truck and the light is now off, but the brake are still very weak and mushy. I'm able to press the brake pedal to the floor.
Any ideas on what happened? I'm the second owner of the truck. As far as I know, the master cylinder is the original one. it's very rusty, but I don't see any leaks. The ball joints, by the front wheels are very gucky and greasy, but I'm not positive that guck is related to a brake-line. Or is it the brake booster?
Any thoughts? I don't have a lot of money, and I use this car occasionally, for family needs and short errands, so I'm hoping to be as economical as possible on this fix. I have some tools, and would love to work on this myself, but I do not have access to a garage to do this.
Thanks for any feedback. This car means a lot to me, but I don't have the space to give it the attention it needs, however I do have the tools and the desire.
kwest