Hi everyone,
I'm tired of fighting with seized brake line fittings on my 32 year old VW GTI with about 16" - 18" of space underneath it on jack stands so I'm going to be towing it to a garage to have all of the hard brake lines replaced by someone who will be able to do it much easier then me with the luxury of a lift and a much better brake flaring tool.
Well, that means that at that point I will have to cut the front flex lines (fittings are seized and rounded so I can't just put the new flex lines off to cap it off and the Master Cylinder will inevitably go dry at that time.
I know that this will introduce air into the fluid and the Master Cylinder will need to be bench bled but is there any other cause for concern in doing that?
It's an 84 not a 2014 so there is no ABS on the car to be concerned with.
Should I have anything else to worry about? Like seals in the MC drying up, etc.?
Problems can arise from long term storage of a dry master cylinder (internal corrosion namely). But that generally takes a few years of sitting on a shelf in a dampish shed.
No problems or damage in a vehicle sitting there dry for a few days/weeks while you work on it.
That said, many a master cylinder dies from being bled after the work. You push the pistons further than they've gone in a long time when you bleed the master cylinder. Pits in the bore down low tear up seals, goo and gunk gets kicked up and blinds orifices or lifts seals. So don't be surprised if you find your old master cylinder not to work right after you bleed it.
I've seen old seals go from 'fine' to 'mush' after being exposed to air for a couple weeks. Over the course of a day or two, you're probably good. If you're going to bench bleed the MC anyway, you might consider rebuilding it or throwing in a reman.
foxtrapper wrote:
Problems can arise from long term storage of a dry master cylinder (internal corrosion namely). But that generally takes a few years of sitting on a shelf in a dampish shed.
No problems or damage in a vehicle sitting there dry for a few days/weeks while you work on it.
That said, many a master cylinder dies from being bled after the work. You push the pistons further than they've gone in a long time when you bleed the master cylinder. Pits in the bore down low tear up seals, goo and gunk gets kicked up and blinds orifices or lifts seals. So don't be surprised if you find your old master cylinder not to work right after you bleed it.
That's a good point. We're also talking about a 30 year old car so I have no idea if it's ever been replaced to begin with. I managed to find a NOS ATE master cylinder for sale online so I think I might pull the trigger on that just for the reassurance. I'd hate to have all this work done and then have the MC fail afterward.
