Pretty goofy but none the less, I am loosing brake fluid but dont see any obvious drips or leaks, I have the soft pedal at this point so I know I have air coming in from somewhere. At first it was a slow leak and would need to add a 1/4 pint a month, now its about a half pint a week. I checked under neath the booster, looks dry and no fluid on the ground... any obvious points to look at? could the master cylinder be filling up the booster(!? eek!) Before I pull the cylinder I would like to get an idea if there are any comon brake fluid loss concerns if any on the first gens. Thanks!

 

You might try looking at the driveline side of your wheels for signs of leakage.Primarily the rears.

 

Check the carpet below the brake master/pedal linkage. Also, if you have rear drums, check the shoes - - they can absorb a lot of fluid, and will swell and bind if they get too bad.

They've also been known to leak into the booster.

 

^ thanks for the idea about pulling the carpet, I had a coworker tell me to do the same thing not but a couple minutes ago, if it was bypassing into the in booster, will brake kleen hurt or damage the internals? I have noticed clutch master cylinders do the same, leak on the inside firewall behind the carpet under the pedals. Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming

 

1) You need to stop driving the car until you get the issue resolved. :-)

2) Pull the master cylinder and look at the back of the cylinder. That is where most of them fail and start leaking.

3) Yes brake fluid can damage the brake booster unit.


I presume that you pulled all of the wheels and inspected for the obvious?

Leaking hoses, lines, calipers, etc......

 

What are your rear brakes? I have an '81 GS, I noticed my level in the reservoir dropping and the car wouldn't move. That points me to the rear wheel cylinders leaking and the shoes swelling. I have a set of rebuilt rear cylinders to install to correct this.

 

Gnomes. Brake fluid gnomes. Check the FAQ sticky at the top of the page, or SEARCH for gnomes.

noob

 

I finally got my cust car out of my garage, time to put the rx7 under the knife, I will get the brake issue taken care of and at the same time finish my waste spark/msd goodies. Will probably retime the distributor and fix my pesky exhaust leak... she should run pretty **** after that. I will try to make it to the import faceoff at Texas Motorplex at Ennis, Tx this Sunday if I can get finished. The last two times I went to the track with this car have been horrible, first time I sheared the teeth off of third gear(6 puck + iron fly + hatred towards lsX = fail ), second time I blew up a rotor button inside the dist cap... had to get towed off the track that last time. I was embarrased. Will post results in a new thread.

 

Its an orignal Gsl-se w/ orig diff(except for the 4.88 gears)

 

I was losing brake fluid too, but mine was a noticable destruction to the base of the booster below the master cylinder. so today i went and got a brand new booster and master cylinder and begain the install. pretty straightforward with no complications, the master was leaking INTO the booster and causing the fluid to disappear!!!! then the brake fluid would begin to drip down from where it mounted to the booster. so when i pulled the booster off i turned it over and about two quarts of brake fuid poured from the intake nipple! OMG couldnt believe how much fluid was sitting inside my booster. what im wondering is: with all that brake fluid in the booster, i am certain that some of it ended up getting sucked into the motor! Will this cause issues? i get significant smoke at start up, but then it goes away.... did i destroy my apex seals? will the brake fluid that got into the intake cause me some issues? ?

 

Brake fluid won't directly damage metal parts, but it is hydrophilic (attracts and absorbs moisture) and also removes oil, and so can lead to rapid corrosion. It also removes paint and protective coatings rapidly.

Also, smoke is not normally an apex seal issue; it's an oil seal issue generally.

I don't know what effect brake fluid would have on the special synthetic o-rings used on the oil seals. They are pretty damn tough, though.

More likely the brake fluid didn't have anything to do with the engine smoke, but if enough of it was getting into the engine to compromise the oil film on the side housings, it could cause the oil seals to wear more quickly than usual.

 

well it only smokes on startup after its been sitting a while. like this morning i woke up at 4, went out and started her up about 445 and there was significant smoke from the exhaust. bluish gray smoke. i let her idle and after about 30 seconds no more significant smoke. didnt see ANY smoke while driving it to work 15 minutes later. then i worked 12 hours, went out got in my car and fired her up. again, significant bluish gray smoke. 15 seconds later, NONE drove home. no issues.... whatcha all think?

 

by the way, 84 GSL-SE 13B FI-EGI no mods. just basic maintenance. all fluids replaced, new plugs, cap, rotor, booster, master cylinder, injector o-rings, intake plenum gasket, and battery.

 

I'm a little paranoid about such things and would premix one tank in your situation. I'd be worried that I'd lost the little bit of oil that accumulates in the cavities between the rotor and irons, getting down to the oil control rings. One tank of premixed gas would ensure that you get a film of oil everywhere you need to.

 

thanks i will do that today

 

somebody kept stealing my brake pads also, so I put on a fake (pads that look real but arent) pair and they havent stolen my brakes since.

 

damn, double post.