Hey all, I went and got safety and emissions done on my truck, it ended up failing safety because my rear passenger cylinder is leaking brake fluid, I was wondering how hard is this to fix myself? I hate paying a mechanic for an easy fix, anyone have any knowledge that they could share?

 

Pretty easy to change, just soak it with chemicals for a while before actually trying to remove it. Otherwise, the line, and bolts, tend to break..... (yeah, such fun.) You will have to bleed your brakes when you are done as well. Having two people for that exercise is pretty much a requirement.

 

Ok that doesn't sound too bad, can you help me locate the problem that he is referring to?

 

What problem? The wheel cylinder? It's behind the drum. Take off the tire, take off the drum, there it is, right at the top. Held in by two bolts, and a brake line from the other side. You don't have to disassemble the brakes to change it either.

 

Right on, thanks for the help hey you!

 

Hey you, I've taken the wheel off, taken the drum off, taken out two bolts and disconnected the line and the cylinder won't move at all... Am I forgetting something?

 

It's just rusted in place. Tap it with a hammer a couple times. It'll come out.

 

Wow that turned into a giant mess... You were right though , it just needed a little love tap and it popped out. I put the replacement cylinder in and put everything back together, as I was bleeding the line, the bleeder screw snapped off inside of the cylinder, so I had to take it all back apart and take the part back to the store I got it from. They replaced it though , they said it was most likely a cracked bleeder screw that came from the factory. Got the replacement and all is good now. What started as a 2 hour job turned into a 5 hour job... Oh well. At least it's done and I gained some knowledge!

 

Thanks for all the help hey you!

 

That's actually typical. I 'budget' X amount of time for a job, and then double, or even triple it, because that's usually just the way it goes. (and why I hated working flat rate.)

Got good brakes now? No lites on?