Sick of Master Cylinder Failures
06-28-2011, 12:35 AM
#1
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Sick of Master Cylinder Failures
Seem to be putting in a new MC every 2-3 years. The longest one that lasted was a GM unit that went 4 years. Having spent way too much on that one, I bought a United at NAPA with the lifetime warranty. I'm about to put in my 3rd of those. Anyone else have better luck? I'm willing to buy something different if it'll last longer and still have a lifetime warranty.
Didn't know it was bad until after replacing both wheel cylinders (1 leaking), hoses, shoes, and steel lines from the drivers door back to the LR hose, and bleeding the brakes.
Never have done brake fluid flushes. Can anything prevent this not made in the USA crap from premature failure? My fluid tends to all get replaced when the rear wheel cylinders go out anyway.
Didn't know it was bad until after replacing both wheel cylinders (1 leaking), hoses, shoes, and steel lines from the drivers door back to the LR hose, and bleeding the brakes.
Never have done brake fluid flushes. Can anything prevent this not made in the USA crap from premature failure? My fluid tends to all get replaced when the rear wheel cylinders go out anyway.
07-07-2011, 01:47 AM
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What I'm about to suggest is real close to voodoo, superstitious behavior.
Years ago, a wrench shows up in a thread about a master cylinder failure. He asked two questions..
"Did the MC failure occur within 2 or 3 weeks after you did the front brakes?"
"When you do the brakes, do you just remove the MC cap, pull out a little fluid just-in-case...clean things up, then reset the cylinders in the calipers. Slap everything back on, replace the fluid and cap the MC and you're good to go?"
The answer was "yes" to both questions.
The wrench responded "When you reset the cylinder in the calipers, you are pushing some really nasty dirt particles back into the fluid, particularly from the rubber cover. You have to bleed a bit of the line to get it outta there. If you don't, you might get lucky once, but it will wreck the MC in fairly quick order.
You could hear the hooting from 100 ft away from your display. Until, about 15 or 20 guys show up and say "Hey my MC went, just a few weeks after I did the brakes." I would lose my MC on the '95, the next brake change around (no bleed). The next MC I lost was on the '96, following a brake job by my longtime friend, with 35 yrs at his own garage. i told him about it, and he made one of those faces that he always does.. as in "ya know there might be some truth to that, but in the real world, I've done a million brake jobs. Unless I see a mechanical flaw, I just move on. they don't go bad". We revisited that comment 3 weeks later, when I brought the car in to replace the MC.
With 3 Bonnevilles, I now have about 17 car-years total, without an MC replace.
Maybe it'* just a curse if you talk about it. Sorry, I mentioned it.
Years ago, a wrench shows up in a thread about a master cylinder failure. He asked two questions..
"Did the MC failure occur within 2 or 3 weeks after you did the front brakes?"
"When you do the brakes, do you just remove the MC cap, pull out a little fluid just-in-case...clean things up, then reset the cylinders in the calipers. Slap everything back on, replace the fluid and cap the MC and you're good to go?"
The answer was "yes" to both questions.
The wrench responded "When you reset the cylinder in the calipers, you are pushing some really nasty dirt particles back into the fluid, particularly from the rubber cover. You have to bleed a bit of the line to get it outta there. If you don't, you might get lucky once, but it will wreck the MC in fairly quick order.
You could hear the hooting from 100 ft away from your display. Until, about 15 or 20 guys show up and say "Hey my MC went, just a few weeks after I did the brakes." I would lose my MC on the '95, the next brake change around (no bleed). The next MC I lost was on the '96, following a brake job by my longtime friend, with 35 yrs at his own garage. i told him about it, and he made one of those faces that he always does.. as in "ya know there might be some truth to that, but in the real world, I've done a million brake jobs. Unless I see a mechanical flaw, I just move on. they don't go bad". We revisited that comment 3 weeks later, when I brought the car in to replace the MC.
With 3 Bonnevilles, I now have about 17 car-years total, without an MC replace.
Maybe it'* just a curse if you talk about it. Sorry, I mentioned it.
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