I'm getting fed up with this Truck. It hates me. I have been dealing with the abs light flash speedo drop thing. replaced sensor on rear diff pulled battery cable for 1/2 hour to clear , runs great for 2 or 4 trips about 8 miles each then its back. Whatever. Today the wife takes it and the brakes go to the floor with no stopping power. Thank god she did not smack anybody and drove around the block back home. Now the pedel just goes to the floor. Its late and crappy outside, snow and slush ,so I cant see much if there is a leak. Also the brake fluid res. is about a 3rd full. IE low. I started her up and pumped it like crazy level did not go down anymore,I marked it, and still no Brakes. ABS light flashes when pedel has hit almost bottom. Any ideas????
thanks for all the help
Dave

 

I've heard the metal brake lines rust and rupture on the rear axle due to the road salt used mostly in the Northeast US. I wonder if this is what has happened? I recalled a member here in the forum had that happened while towing and someone cut in front of him. Luckily, his trailer brakes helped slow him down.

 

You're losing the fluid from a leak somewhere - don't take chances, have it towed in to a dry place where you can take a closer look.

 

Definitely losing fluid from somewhere. Need to take a close look at the hard lines and each connection. If those are ok - you may have a problem with one of the soft lines or the calipers.

 

check thoroughly for leaks I'd look at caliper seals if youre slowly loosing fluid. but that wont make your pedal drop. I had similar issue. pedal went to floor. i changed master cylinder and nothing pedal still went to floor (pissed me off). turns out my pass front hub bearing is bad and wheel has enough movement to compress caliper slightly so when i hit brakes piston has to come out alot to compress pads. Also, this caused my steering to pull to driverside if i hit the brakes fast. check those hub bearings. your abs sensor is in there too. could fix both your problems. jack up your tires and pry up the tire with a board to see any movement. it helps to put a block on the floor for leverage when doing this. you might find your ball joints are worn this way too.

 

This also happened to me. Not a good situation.

 

You can lose a lot of fluid in a hurry through the calipers...

Somehow I managed to not notice the "low pad" indicator squeal in the rear brakes last summer. When one of the pads (the backing material) decided it had had enough and moved out of the caliper, one of the caliper pistons tried to run away with it.

Same basic scenario as the original poster after that, brakes were good, then brakes were not good on the next press. Pedal all the way to the floor, front brakes non-functional as well.

There was a post about a year and a half, maybe two years ago, a respected forum member described losing all brakes when the rears ( i think) failed and he was led to believe that many people didn't believe him. He ended up using a pole to stop instead of the broadside of a car with a family in if I remember correctly...

I found the easy way to locate the leak, even in crappy weather.

1) fill the resevoir with brake fluid.
2) start the truck, leave it in park, and ask someone to step on the brake pedal.
3) look for gusher of brake fluid

 

Hi all thanks for the tips. I found it! Its on the frame rail just in front of the fuel filter. It SUCKS but I'm glad it happened out of the driveway and not towing my camper. I'm off to repair!!

 

Glad you found it! Look at the rust on it!

 

Wow - that's a lot of rust! A shop can typically splice into that using a repair kit - just make sure they are using good line. I'd get them to bleed the entire system while you have it there since I'm sure you have some air in the lines at this point.

 

Consider replacing all the steel lines - by the look of that rust I'm guessing you're 6 months from the next leak. You might not be in the driveway next time. IMO Steel line is pretty cheap compared to a wreck...

 

I'm gonna check mine this weekend.

 

Well I was right it sucked. I cut about 6' foot of the old line out. It got cold and dark so I moved into the garage to make the new line. Things were going good then I ran out of Beer!!! I'll put it in tomorrow then bleed them all. wpnaes I will change them all even if they look o.k. on the outside. I'll just wait till its a little warmer I'm about 10 miles south of Chicago and its still pretty cold here. Have a good night
Dave

 

Wow man, glad nobody got hurt. That's some crazy rust... Gotta love road salt, eh?

 

i from wisconsin and that is a common problem up here to. the highway department pours salt on the roads as soon as they get a chance. i have had 3 vehicle that i have had to replace brake line on due to rust!!