No Brake Fluid, No Leak

I got a low brake fluid alert on the way home from work last night. When I stopped. The reservoir was completeley dry. I filled it up, by the time I got home (2 miles), it was completeley dry again and I was hearing air leak sound from the master cyclinder and brake booster. There are no other visible leaks coming from my truck. I took the master off and I dont see any excess fluids from first sight. There is a rubber gasket that looks to broke around the rod in the booster. Any help please of the next steps of what you might do to figure out the problem. Thanks.

 

The fluid is almost certainly somewhere. That somewhere is most likely the booster. I'd be pulling that next.

Do you have ABS? If so- you need to be very careful not to drain the ABS module. There is a process to do it, but it's kinda in the dealer-only realm.

 

thats what I was thinking. No, its not abs, I changed the booster a couple years ago. not oem as I cant afford $1800 for an oem booster. Ill going to go take off the booster now

 

if it is in the booster. Is it now contaminated? will I need a new one?

 

If you heard an air leak from the booster it's toast anyway. I suppose the brake fluid could have been sucked back into the intake manifold too...

 

im almost positive the leak was coming from that bushing in the pic.im going to take off the booster and tell you what I find

 

welp, took the booster off and its filled with brake fluid. So, I know I need a new booster. Does this say anything about the master cylinder? does it need to be replaced as well?

 

Personally, I'd replace both. The booster is more expensive than the master cylinder.

 

ok, thank you. at this point, going to have to by one from autozone. I cant afford oem booster and master. Both of those together would pretty much total my truck. lol.

 

Keep in mind that you'll need to bench bleed a new master.

 

If there's brake fluid in the booster the only way it can get in there is if the master cylinder is leaking into it so yes you will need to replace both to fix it properly.

 

thanks

 

Not sure what the cost is for the one from Autozone or the urgency to get the truck back on the road, but you might consider this one from RockAuto. I had to replace my booster about 2 years ago. This one has worked out just fine.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=2745104&cc=1388987&pt=1884&jsn=12

I do see that it has gone up in price a little, but then, what hasn't. I paid $$165 with a $50 core charge.

 

I've used Cardone remans before and had good luck, have one on my '77 Celica. If I had to guess, I'd say the Duralast brand remans come from Cardone. Sometimes they are your only option. Anyway, that RockAuto link has a list of links to Additional Resources, one that describes this issue exactly.

 

Did you end up getting the problem solved?