Hey!
I am doing general maintenance on a '99 D1 That I have had for about a month. just a couple of days ago, my brakes suddenly went mushy, very mushy. I checked and noticed that my brake fluid was almost completely dry (should have checked earlier, oops). So i refilled the reservoir with DOT 4 and have not had any improvement, I'm assuming that I need to bleed the brakes. Could someone give me a walk-through on the process of doing this or provide a link to a good walk-through. Also, feel free to tell me if something else could be going on. P.S. I'm in North Dakota where the wind chill has been getting down to -50 F. I have access to a heated paint shop to do work but i still have to park it outside overnight. It starts right up every morning despite frozen fluids. the oil thins out after a few minutes but the brake fluid could remain frozen or gummy. Thanks for the help.
-Dom

 

Well if your pedal went mushy and your fluid was gone you've got a leak somewhere. Need to find and fix that first. Then refill fluid and bleed. Bleed sequence is passenger rear, driver rear, passenger front, driver front.

 

After my brakes would go down only during cold weather, they finally got bad enough to find the leak.

I found a leaking line right below drivers door, one of the rear lines had rusted through. I ended up replacing the line from the ABS down to just i front of the rear wheels. Patched in the line using a bubble flare and a connector.

I used a hand vacuum on the rear right caliper to draw the air bubbles out and it has been working great ever since. I learned that if you open the bleeder too far, it will pull air past the threads so only open it a bit.


similar to what I used to bleed the brakes

 

So the other day, my brakes went completely dry and I refilled them. this time they would only work after about 5 or 6 pumps, but then they would hold pressure. I took it down to the local repair shop that does reasonably good work, and they spent 2 hours bleeding the brakes. When they were done, I drove about 6 blocks and the BRAKE light on the dash came on... i found the brake reservoir only 1/2 full. I refilled it and made a few stops, then got home. Fluid level did not change. They told me I had a worn brake rotor on the right rear and that was causing the trouble but they got all the air out of the right front brake line. (exactly why I work on my own stuff)

Since I seem to only have this problem when the weather gets below 20 degrees outside, I am thinking the master cylinder is the culprit and leaking on the ground (or should I say snow) I can get a MC from O'Rieleys for less than $100, but have heard I should stick with an OEM one. Thoughts??


Brake pedal was low when I left the repair shop, but came right up after adding fluid to reservoir.

 

I’ve always heard oem for our trucks. Bunch of problems reported with other brands. It’s about twice the price for oem but mine just went and it’s what I got. It was leaking from the bottom of the reservoir. Small crack in the plastic.

 

Go OEM on brakes. I got screwed over with AllMakes brake parts every time.

 

For what it was worth, repair shop did not find any leaks (but then they didn't even refill the fluid before handing it over to me)

Good to know about AllMakes

 

Inspect beneath the reservoir for leaks. The reservoir seals are known to leak after the years and leak faster in cold weather. I needed to replace mine last year. Rebuild kits are relatively inexpensive and often no need to use all the included parts. https://www.ebay.com/itm/LAND-ROVER-....c100677.m4598



......

 

Decided to go with a complete Master Cylinder. I only want to do this once, and it is supposed to be somewhat warmer next week. only in the lower 40's...

 

Got the master cylinder. The cost for a complete Master Cylinder was only about $25 more than the rebuild kit for the seals. I figured running it dry a few times probably wasn't good for the internals, and the fact that it is getting a bit long in the tooth, could be the best way to go. Now waiting for a bit warmer weather, say above 30 degrees to install it.