My 2006 LR3 4.4K when not driven for a few days starts off with a hard brake peddle making stopping difficult at first but after a couple of stops works fine and will continue to work fine until left idle for a few days. I did have the rear brakes replaced recently and notice the brake fluid is above the max refill line. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

I would start by correcting the fluid level but it sounds like the booster on master cylinder may be going bad. One cheaper thing to do before changing parts would be to flush the brake fluid, you could have air in one of the lines. I also wouldn't take it back to that shop if they can't do something simple like make sure the fluid isn't over filled after changing pads.

 

Thanks for the information. When i checked the fluid level again it was slightly below min this time. I assume it had air in the lines. I filled it up to the max level. The fluid was a little dark so I will have the
lines flushed and bled and hopefully that will solve the problem. I sure don’t want to replace the master and/or booster unless it’s necessary. How do you determine which needs replacing or do you just replace both if your replacing one?

 

You can replace them separately. After you have your brakes flushed, to test the master with the engine off press and release the the brakes about 10-15 times until the pedal feels very stiff and doesn't move much. This will bleed off any vacuum assist from the brake booster. Once the brake pedal feels nice and firm press and hold the brake pedal for about 20 seconds. You want the pedal to stay in about the same spot from your initial application of pressure. If during the 20 seconds the pedal slowly sinks towards the floor the master is probably leaking internally. There is a small chance of a caliper or hose leak if the pedal goes down during the test but if that was the case you would probably get the low brake fluid warning at sometime in the past. I'm sure there are YouTube videos that show how to do a basic master cylinder test if you still aren't sure.

As far as testing the brake booster I would recommend looking up the factory service manual and see what they show for testing. I haven't heard of boosters being a common issue for the LR3 so I wouldn't worry too much about that until you bleed/flush the brakes and do a quick test of the master.

 

I’ll run the tests on Friday. Thanks for the information.