ShopTalk Forums | Aircooled VW Tech & Restoration Help

I fill up the resivoir and a few days later it is pretty much empty. There is no sign of leaking that I can find, and the brakes contuinue to work well. I do not have to pump them, and they never get so low that I get air in the line. Its just that the resivoir gets down to about 1/8 full and stays there.

thanks
Ron

Ron,

I had a very small leak in my MC when I first got the car. The brakes seemed to work well, but at a stop light, the pedal started moving toward the floor very, very slowly. I thought about looking for leaks, but had none that I saw. I was told the fluid can go into the center tunnel and you would never see it. You might want to check that out.

Kelly (Cohibra)

Ron,
Kelly is right. The wall by your feet where the M/C bolts is doubled walled. If the M/C is leaking it will run down between the two walls and work its way into the tunnel. If so you might see some dampness under the car between the tunnel and the floor pans..If you are sure you have no leaks anywhere else my bet it is the M/C. Strange the reservoir does not go below an 1/8.. Are you sure there is no leak in the reservoir?

Lee

the resivoir area is very clean and dry. I did notice though when I changed the throttle cable that the area around the pedals was a bit oily looking, if you pull up the carpet.

How do you explain the fluid never getting low enough to cause a problem? I guess the leak is high enough that it never sucks air. As a matter of fact, the resivior always has a little bit left in it, so the leak WOULD have to be in the resivior. But, like I said that area is clean. I detailed all the electrical. Its not one of those "under the hood rats nests" If the resivoir leaked it would show up in a minut.

Ron

Ron,

This is another 'opinion'/'guess'. Possibly the reason your resevoir never got too low:

1) You check your fluid level regularly
2) The leak only happens when you use the brakes (Static system)
3) Your cap on the resevoir is air tight and it leaks enough to for a vacumm.

In other words, I have no clue why your resevoir never falls below a certain level.

Take care and change the MC. I think this might solve the problem. I also had to change several rubber brake lines. They were getting hard and cracking.

Kelly (Cohibra)

I think I have more detective work to do.

Thanks
Ron

I had brake problems for a long time before I found the problem, and I had a leak in the hard lines between the driver's seat and the tunnel... even with a leak in the hard lines my resivoir never went dry.

peterericb wrote:I had brake problems for a long time before I found the problem, and I had a leak in the hard lines between the driver's seat and the tunnel... even with a leak in the hard lines my resivoir never went dry.

Was it actually a problem? In my case I never have lost brakes since the MC stays full.

I just thought of something. Maybe I always have some in the resivoir because it is impossible to drain it. If the outlet is raised into the resivoir to keep sediment out of the brake lines, some fluid would always remain. Maybe I just have not lost my brakes YET.

Ron

my main problem was that my rear brakes would lock on. I would have to go back to the rear cylinders and turn the valve to relieve pressure just to get it home (it would squirt really far) because the fluid would not return to after it actuated the brakes... I dunno how this happened. The rust was blocking the return fluid way more than it was blocking the outgoing fluid... my pedal never even really got very squishy, of course I never pushed it very hard because my car would stop on a dime (it was just hard to get it to start back up again); a good way to wear through brake shoes.

Anyway I had this exact same problem on my super beetle and (more recently on my Ghia) it is truley a strange problem, and it requires new hard lines to fix... luckily they are only like 30 bucks and 3 hours or so.

I had a similar problem. Park the car with the nose elevated overnight. Next morning look at the hole in the rear portion of the tunnel for leaking brake fluid. I replaced the M/C and fixed the leak. Good luck.

The reservoir will not drop all the way down, if the master cylinder "returns" fluid back to it when you part the car.

Works in theory.

Anyways, change your master cylinder and go over all of the lines Ron. I would get a can of carb cleaner and spray it very, very thick inside the front firewall, then vaccum it out as much as I can. You don't want the fluid to gather moisture in there and causing remature rusting in the bulkhead/frame junction.

The o-ring for the cylinder piston may be worn out(specially if it' the original mater cylinder) and when you depress the pedal, you get the nasty juices all over. I have this on my super. replaced it, and never suffered again.


Ephry

peterericb wrote:my main problem was that my rear brakes would lock on. I would have to go back to the rear cylinders and turn the valve to relieve pressure just to get it home (it would squirt really far) because the fluid would not return to after it actuated the brakes... I dunno how this happened. The rust was blocking the return fluid way more than it was blocking the outgoing fluid... my pedal never even really got very squishy, of course I never pushed it very hard because my car would stop on a dime (it was just hard to get it to start back up again); a good way to wear through brake shoes.

Anyway I had this exact same problem on my super beetle and (more recently on my Ghia) it is truley a strange problem, and it requires new hard lines to fix... luckily they are only like 30 bucks and 3 hours or so.

I have had the same thing. The car sits for a couple days, When I move it I hear a clank when the rear brakes free themselves, but that could be a parking brake issue.

Ephry, Do you mean inside the car for the carb cleaner? Is there a choice of MCs? any to stay away from?

Thanks
Ron

I mean use the brake cleaner of carb cleaner(brake cleaner will be better as it evaporates completely) inside the firewall. You may have some of that fuild trapped in there accumulating rust and humidity. I am using a replacement Ghia MC, and it has been working great for me. I also have upgraded to CB disc brakes in the rear.




Ephry

Well I did find where it has been going. Its all being stored under the carpet, and under the floor mat on top of the carpet. Somehow I've got to get this all cleaned up without buying a new carpet kit. I don't think I want to spray brake cleaner on either side of thre carpet. It would probably desolve it.....I have some scraps I could try it on though.

Ron

Ron,

Not really sure how much MC's are, but like I said earlier, after replacing it, be prepared for a couple other things in the brake department that needs attention. I had to have a couple of my rubber brake lines replaced as they were cracked and I didn't want to risk failure.

Brakes are something I believe in very strongly. Anyone can go fast, but as one of my favorite caracters in the movie 'Kelly's Heros'; Oddball said "You see, we like to be able to get out of a situation faster than we got into".

Kelly (Cohibra)