I know this seems to be coming up lately in the forums (from searching), but I didn’t want to hijack other threads.
Today, got in the truck (06 LX, 330k) and started to back up. Immediately knew something was wrong and when I hit the brakes, they went to the floor. Traveling for Thanksgiving tomorrow, great. But I suppose I should count my blessings this happened in my driveway (had my 2 kids in the truck too).
(No prior symptoms, no warning lights, etc. Looking back, when I got an oil change a couple of days ago they said the brake fluid a little low so I added some. There aren’t even warning lights or buzzers/chimes on now, is this common? I find it scary that a major system can just go catastrophically bad and still have no dash lights on. I don’t really care if my tire pressure is low but I sure as heck want to know that my brakes have failed catastrophically. I cringe thinking if I was going down the highway at 80 with my kids in the snow and this happened.).
Stepped out of the truck and noticed a puddle of brake fluid looks like coming from driver front caliper. Fluid was now below min line in the reservoir. This leak didn’t all happen at once, it was Overnight and looking back the day before too, I just thought the ground was wet but now know it was brake fluid. After pressing the brake pedal a bunch of times just trying to get something besides nothing, looks like the passenger front caliper now had fluid dripping also. Layman here so forgive me if this is normal in these circumstances, just giving all info.
Front calipers were replaced early spring. Non-dealer, non-OEM just FYI.
Questions so I can get an idea of what I’m getting into when I tow it somewhere (probably dealer to be honest):
- If a bad master cylinder (or accumulator, or pump, or motor), would there be leaking brake fluid from the calipers? Brakes go straight to floor pretty easily. I don’t believe I hear the pump working either.
- I know the dealer would probably say swap the whole assembly, but as you all know it’s expensive. The problem is I have no idea how to do the work of removing the motor etc etc. At this mileage it’s probably time anyway. What is the labor cost I should be looking at for this job? I’ve seen OEM assemblies for about 1800. What other costs will I be looking at for bleeding etc. Anybody have a ballpark fair number I can shoot at them to make a deal (assuming the assembly costs approx 1800) for it all to just get it done? That assembly is freaking expensive. I guess I’m looking for the master cylinder version of “timing belt job at dealer should be 800 bucks all in. 600 if you got a deal.”
- Last thing because maybe this can help others. Are there easily-defined symptoms of the differences in failure between the:
- master cylinder
- accumulator
- pump
- motor
I know they kind of all get grouped into one, but are we, for instance starting to discover that it’s the motor that fails 80 percent of the time and everything else just gets replaced because it’s one assembly (from the dealers perspective). For those of us who have zero knowledge of commutators? and brushes and motors, it’s daunting. Some of you guys can say things like “I just took out the motor got it fixed and yay 300 bucks” but others like me are kind of at a major disadvantage, and this costs 3x that for us because we don’t know where/how to start. It’s not like it’s heater tees, ya know!
Today, got in the truck (06 LX, 330k) and started to back up. Immediately knew something was wrong and when I hit the brakes, they went to the floor. Traveling for Thanksgiving tomorrow, great. But I suppose I should count my blessings this happened in my driveway (had my 2 kids in the truck too).
(No prior symptoms, no warning lights, etc. Looking back, when I got an oil change a couple of days ago they said the brake fluid a little low so I added some. There aren’t even warning lights or buzzers/chimes on now, is this common? I find it scary that a major system can just go catastrophically bad and still have no dash lights on. I don’t really care if my tire pressure is low but I sure as heck want to know that my brakes have failed catastrophically. I cringe thinking if I was going down the highway at 80 with my kids in the snow and this happened.).
Stepped out of the truck and noticed a puddle of brake fluid looks like coming from driver front caliper. Fluid was now below min line in the reservoir. This leak didn’t all happen at once, it was Overnight and looking back the day before too, I just thought the ground was wet but now know it was brake fluid. After pressing the brake pedal a bunch of times just trying to get something besides nothing, looks like the passenger front caliper now had fluid dripping also. Layman here so forgive me if this is normal in these circumstances, just giving all info.
Front calipers were replaced early spring. Non-dealer, non-OEM just FYI.
Questions so I can get an idea of what I’m getting into when I tow it somewhere (probably dealer to be honest):
- If a bad master cylinder (or accumulator, or pump, or motor), would there be leaking brake fluid from the calipers? Brakes go straight to floor pretty easily. I don’t believe I hear the pump working either.
- I know the dealer would probably say swap the whole assembly, but as you all know it’s expensive. The problem is I have no idea how to do the work of removing the motor etc etc. At this mileage it’s probably time anyway. What is the labor cost I should be looking at for this job? I’ve seen OEM assemblies for about 1800. What other costs will I be looking at for bleeding etc. Anybody have a ballpark fair number I can shoot at them to make a deal (assuming the assembly costs approx 1800) for it all to just get it done? That assembly is freaking expensive. I guess I’m looking for the master cylinder version of “timing belt job at dealer should be 800 bucks all in. 600 if you got a deal.”
- Last thing because maybe this can help others. Are there easily-defined symptoms of the differences in failure between the:
- master cylinder
- accumulator
- pump
- motor
I know they kind of all get grouped into one, but are we, for instance starting to discover that it’s the motor that fails 80 percent of the time and everything else just gets replaced because it’s one assembly (from the dealers perspective). For those of us who have zero knowledge of commutators? and brushes and motors, it’s daunting. Some of you guys can say things like “I just took out the motor got it fixed and yay 300 bucks” but others like me are kind of at a major disadvantage, and this costs 3x that for us because we don’t know where/how to start. It’s not like it’s heater tees, ya know!
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