Over the past couple of months, my brakes have been the source of alot of head scratching.

At first, everything was fine. They worked good, and I had no problems. Then they slowly started giving me problems. If I sat at a stop light too long with my foot resting on the brakes, or if I rested my foot on the brake pedal the pedal would slowly lose pressure, eventually going right down to the floor. I checked everything, there was no leaks on the lines, and the fluid level stayed constant no matter what.

It didn't happen to awful often, so I didn't look into as much as I should have. Well this past week, it has gotten worse, and just this past Friday, I lost any and all brakes that I had. There is no resistance at all in the entire movement of the pedal... it just goes straight to the floor. Again, no leaks, fluid level is staying constant.

What could the deal be here?

If it means anything, the car has 220,000 miles on it... so parts aren't exactly brand new on it anymore.

Any and all help is appreciated.

-Casey

Anyone?

I would check/replace both front hoses (at the wheels), check the rear wheel cylinders and then consider that the master cylinder may be bad. It really sounds like a master cylinder, does pumping them up help at all?

Thats the thing... the pedal is giving me no resistance. There is no visable leak of fluid, and the pedal is not spongy like it has air. Pumping does not help. Fluid level in the resivior stays constant. I'm confused thus far.

An MC will typically pump up..but I suppose it could be that bad that it won't. It'* probably one of those things were you need to be there or make the call and aim for the best.

Nope... I tried pumping the pedal on many occasions, I still get nothing. That'* the thing that is getting me... the pedal gives me no resistance, but yet I don't lose fluid from anywhere, and there are no noticable areas where a leak is present. Whatever failed, did it gradually over time, slowly getting a little worse, and then finally there was nothing.

I want to try and have a good idea of what it could be, so I don't just go throw a bunch of money I don't have at the car, not fixing the problem. The car isn't worth that much of a hassle to me.

Would a bad/frozen up wheel cylinder be a possible cause?

It could be..it'* tough to say for sure. I'd check the front lines to ensure they aren't ballooning or anything like that.

Something like this happened on a buddy of mines for truck only his brakes went out suddenly. you could push the pedal to the floor and get nothing, yet no leaks. it turned out that where the pedal linkage meets up with the back of the master cylinder on the master cylinder itself, the plastic where the cylinder actually pushes forward was broken through or something like that. thats why he had no pedal feel but no leak. do you kind of get what im saying? if you want to see yourself, see if you can kind of take the master cylinder off without taking off the lines and maybe peak behind it and see if you can see or feel if something is broken. hope this helps

Thing is, it has done this before, it just wasn't as frequent/severe. That leads me to believe that there was nothing that broke suddenly, but yet it was something wearing down over time.