1999 Dodge Caravan

Last Wednesday I took a bit of a long distance drive and when I arrived at the destination my break pedal went to the floor due to a lack of break fluid.
I refilled the reservoir twice and the fluid remained with no problems.

Today I had to break hard and when I checked the break fluid level it had gone down and the master cylinder reservoir was wet at the filler tube union.

On hind site, during the drive last Thursday I had to break hard a couple of times including the time when the break pedal went to the floor.

Looking at the pictures of the master cylinder reservoir in the Haynes manual, I notice that the tab that is on the filler tube rests inside a slot on the reservoir. My reservoir does not have that slot and it appears that the filler tube would be able to turn if it did not have the tab that is at the bottom and in front of the reservoir.

To better clarify this:
It appears that the reservoir requires a turn to remove filler tube
while the filler tube on the reservoir is the press to release filler tube.

My four questions:
1. Is this a mismatch between the reservoir and filler tube?
2. Will this mismatch cause the fluid leak that I am experiencing?
3. Is there a gasket between the filler tube and reservoir that can
be replaced to repair this leak?
4. What size would such a gasket be?

Thanks for any information you can give on this.

Scott

 

this is what the fill tube should look like and here are the removal proceedures. The seal is an o-ring.


MASTER CYLINDER FLUID RESERVOIR FILL TUBE

The master cylinder fluid reservoir filler neck is removable from the master cylinder fluid reservoir. The filler neck if required, can be replaced as a separate component of the fluid reservoir.
The filler neck is removed and installed using the following procedure.
REMOVE

1. Check brake fluid level in master cylinder fluid reservoir to be sure brake fluid is not in the filler neck. If brake fluid is in filler neck, lower fluid level before removing filler neck from fluid reservoir
2. Grasp filler neck at cap end and push straight down. This will cause the filler neck to pop out of the fluid reservoir

INSTALL

1. Wet the O-ring on the reservoir end of the filler neck with fresh clean brake fluid.
2. Position the filler neck in the opening on the fluid reservoir. Ensure tab on filler neck is in the groove on the front of the fluid reservoir.
3. Push down while slightly rocking filler neck until filler neck snaps into the fluid reservoir opening.
4. Install cap on filler neck.
5. Check and/or add brake fluid in reservoir to ensure it is at the correct level.

 

Thanks for the image.
This is similar to the picture shown in the Haynes repair manual I have.
I'll have to take a picture and upload it so people can see what I'm
talking about in regards to the reservoir and filler tube being mismatched.

Scott