A
Alfonso Gomez
Guest
Currently, I'm not using my '87 Coupe very much because of the price of gas in Puerto Rico (on average, 72 cents a liter for regular unleaded and close to 80 cents for premium. So, I put $20 worth of regular and drove around doing some errands.
While driving back home, I noticed the brake pedal was a bit higher than usual but paid no attention to it. After taking off from a traffic light, I got real close to the car in front and started braking when the pedal went to the floorboards. NO BRAKES!!!!!!
I immediately swerved to my right and frantically pumped the brakes but to no avail. Since I was doing about 30 MPH, I shifted from Drive to first gear to slow the car down before the next traffic light.
I was about a mile from my house so I crawled VERY SLOWLY home.
As soon as I parked the car I opened the hood and found that the brake fluid reservoir was full. But it was very hot. Also the front brake hoses were very hot. I could not find a leak in the front hoses or fluid leaking from the front calipers or the rear ones. So I must conclude that the master cylinder is shot.
This item was replaced about 3 years ago with an EOM unit which I purchased from a GM parts dealer.
Maybe the heat damaged the rubber parts inside but I have to wait until I disassemble it to be sure. If I find the rubber parts damaged I will replace the whole unit but I have to do something about the heat.
My questions are: Is it normal for the master cylinder to get very hot? What can I do to reduce the heat in this item? Will a home made heat shield work? Has anyone experienced this situation? The coolant temp reading was about 190 degrees at the time but I understand this is normal for these engines. Also, I do not have headers in my car and the factory heat shields are installed.
Any help will be appreciated.
P.S. Before submitting this thread, I went to my car and tested the brakes and they were OK. The incident was two days ago, so now the car was cold.
What is the matter?????????
While driving back home, I noticed the brake pedal was a bit higher than usual but paid no attention to it. After taking off from a traffic light, I got real close to the car in front and started braking when the pedal went to the floorboards. NO BRAKES!!!!!!
I immediately swerved to my right and frantically pumped the brakes but to no avail. Since I was doing about 30 MPH, I shifted from Drive to first gear to slow the car down before the next traffic light.
I was about a mile from my house so I crawled VERY SLOWLY home.
As soon as I parked the car I opened the hood and found that the brake fluid reservoir was full. But it was very hot. Also the front brake hoses were very hot. I could not find a leak in the front hoses or fluid leaking from the front calipers or the rear ones. So I must conclude that the master cylinder is shot.
This item was replaced about 3 years ago with an EOM unit which I purchased from a GM parts dealer.
Maybe the heat damaged the rubber parts inside but I have to wait until I disassemble it to be sure. If I find the rubber parts damaged I will replace the whole unit but I have to do something about the heat.
My questions are: Is it normal for the master cylinder to get very hot? What can I do to reduce the heat in this item? Will a home made heat shield work? Has anyone experienced this situation? The coolant temp reading was about 190 degrees at the time but I understand this is normal for these engines. Also, I do not have headers in my car and the factory heat shields are installed.
Any help will be appreciated.
P.S. Before submitting this thread, I went to my car and tested the brakes and they were OK. The incident was two days ago, so now the car was cold.
What is the matter?????????