On my way home from work today I noticed my brakes felt very spongy and thought maybe I was just crazy. Well sure enough about 2 miles from my house the Brake & ABS light came on. I checked the fluids as I know absolutely nothing about the brakes except routine maintenance. They seem to go almost all the way to the floor now.

Any ideas on what could be causing this?

 

Maybe get out...walk to each wheel and look for any brake fluid leakage. Check out the master cylinder.

hunch?

 

Brake line running over the gas tank to the rear end. They love to rust out and break.

 

Thanks guys, I will check the brake lines. However I don't seem to be losing any brake fluid is what is odd to me...

 

I had the same thing happen to me tonight. I was coming to a stop at a red light, had normal pressure on the pedal then both ABS and brake lights came on and the pedal went to the floor. Almost like something let loose. When I got home, I checked all four wheels and didn't see any sign of leaks but it was getting dark and couldn't do a thorough check. Will look in the morning with better light. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Right above the gas tank. have someone else pump the pedal, while you look for fluid dripping. (make sure there is fluid in the master cylinder TO drip though....)

 

Alright I will try that this evening, should this be a noticable amount of fluid drippage or will we have to put the pedal for a couple minutes.

 

Found and fixed my problem. Left rear wheel cylinder went out. I had brake fluid all over the inside of the wheel well. When I took off the drum, more fluid poured out. Got the new one in and all is good.

 

Have found no fluid leakage at all. Should my next step be replace the master cylinder?

 

Has the level in the M/C gone down? (significantly...)