I just noticed that the Brake Master Cylinder has a Leak. It's leaking from between the big black thing and the complete master cylinder. I got a qiote from Brakes Plus which is asking for close to
$500 for: New replacement Brake Master Cylinder and installation. or About $380 for the Cylinder. The guy also said that its leaking from the main seal. the seal between the big black round thing and the master cylinder.

If anyone knows if i may be able to do a DIY in the backyard Job or does this have to be done by professionals. Also I will need some advice on how to go about it.

The car is an EF Falcon GLI 1996. and it has been leaking for quite some time but its not leaking a lot but you can see the fliud marks that have run down the big black thing. Also the canister where you put the fluid in is..well the fluid is black in colour.

So im also thinking if i clean of the cannister and flush the brake fluid will this fix it up? I am also willing to pay someone else to do a backyard job.

Any advice will do.
Thanks.

Im planning to do a similar job on the weekend with my EF weather permitting. The master cylinder seems to be leaking where it meats the brake booster (big black thing) . Like yours, its a slow leak, but if i take it on long drives where im braking a lot, it gets worse and you can see the trails of where its leaking on the booster. The bastard has been leaking so long its lifted up the paint on the rail below it and started to rust again so just check that on yours to make sure it hasnt got that far, brake fluid seems to work wonders for corroding paintwork when left too long

I picked up another master cylinder from pick a part second hand, seemed to be in good condition, didnt have any fluid leaks or nothing around the brake booster/cylinder. Got it for under $30 but will see how it goes on the weekend. $500 installed seems expensive but i dunno as i havent taken my car to a mechanic before, even the price for the cylinder itself seems high, but then again it is new.

Pretty easy to take the cylinder off really, just undo all the pipes going to the cylinder, undo the plugs one on the side and one underneath iirc and undo the 2 nuts holding it to the booster then it comes straight out. Obviously drain the fluid first or else it'll be everywhere in the engine bay. Im guessing install would be the opposite basically. As for the fluid colour, mines not far off being black seems to be a mix between greeny blue and yellow atm. If its black though definately get the fluid flushed.

I gotta do my brakes all round as well as the cylinder, so hopefully will get all the pads changed, front rotors machined, master cylinder swapped in, fresh fluid put in and then bleed the brakes. If all goes well i may be able to give you some advice, but theres bound to be someone on here who's done it before who will post it up anyways

Someone must know and has experienced the same probs, how did you go about it? Please need more advice.

And also as KWIKXR is saying mine is also at the stage of corroding the chassis straight underneath it. But after i bought the car i cleaned it and paint over it, now it ate through the new coat of paint. That's is how i noticed the brake cylinder was leaking in the first place.

Any more Info will be good. And let me know
KWIKXR how you went.

Its probably only such a high cost for install because its an absolute s**t of job especially if you've got "extra baggage" like me getting to the brake booster bolts is a C***. Id just replace the lot though if I were you brakes is something you dont want to take shortcuts with. I got a booster for $50 and I dont see a cylinder being that much more so for the sake of $100 its a small price. Oh yeah and I had my booster crack driving through town and about 30km from home, not good.

Just got some prices for the Master Brake Cylinder:
$348 Repco
$225 Autobarn
$245 Supercheap.

KWIKXR, how did you go on the weekend?

Hey mate, not well at all. Started working on it today, as it was pissing down all weekend. Got the front brakes done, fitted the rotors and new pads, then snapped one of the caliper bolts when bolting the caliper back on, pulled the whole steering arm off to try and get the snapped bolt out but to no avail. Spent hours, drilling and grinding the bolt out cause i could get enough leverage to unscrew it then tried to re-tap the hole and it kept slipping and f**k it ended up getting another arm with ball joints and all and bolted that one up, so only really got round to doing the fronts, havent even done the rear brakes yet and havent even looked at the master cylinder. Will try and get around to it tomorrow and let you know

Ouch. Your weekend must've been full of beating and cursing.

So your fluid looked like this.

 

 

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Sad to say it but yes at first pic and no to second pic.

The master is not a hard job, just time consuming and fiddly. You have to vac' out the fluid in the reservoir (less mess on removal), undo the hard line pipes going into it, undo the main nuts holding it to the booster and she is out. The fitting is the same only it can pay to prime the master first (less air to bleed out at the end), fit it all up and then bleed the system and you are away.
Edit: Kwick pretty much covered it.

Hey asizzy, finally got round to doing the master cylinder last night . Actually found mine was leaking from the 2 seals where the reservior sits on the cylinder and it was running back down the booster rather than leaking from the main seal at the rear so i could of actually replaced the seals and it would of been all good but i ended up chucking my cleaned up painted one in

Its not that big a job, the hardest part is bleeding the brakes after its installed. Basically just take as much fluid out of the reservior as possible, i used a good sized plastic bottle cap, off an old oil container and then just kept taking out coolant till it was near the bottom of the reservior. Remove the 2 plugs on the cylinder (may only have one plug if you dont have cruise control). Then i loosened the 2 union nuts on the side for the brake lines, one is a 13mm the other is 11mm i think. Didnt have the right sized pipe spanners, only had 10mm which was too small, 12mm which was too big for the smaller nut but too small for the bigger one and a 14mm one that was bigger than them all so must of been a 13mm and 11mm . Once they are loosened put a rag or somethng underneath the each pipe just incase the fluid starts leaking out slowly. Then undo the 2 nuts holding it to the booster, both 12mm. Once thats done, undo the 2 union nuts completely and carefully pull the brake lines out of the 2 holes and manoeuver them out of the way. Slide the cylinder away from the 2 bolts on the booster and it should come straight out. Installing the replacement is the reverse of removal.

The real b**ch is bleeding the system which we found, mainly because the master cylinder i had was second hand and drained of the fluid a while before i decided to put it in so it would of been full of air. We actually started by bleeding the master cylinder first to try and get most of the air out before it entered the lines but i forgot all about bleeding it before i installed the thing so oh well worked out being even harder trying to bleed it when installed lol but it would pay to do that first before installing the cylinder. Wouldnt know the exact way we bled the brakes as i was pumping the pedal and topping up the fluid while my dad was working the bleeder valves to bleed the air out of the system. If you have a workshop manual though, check in there as it has the correct procedure, we didnt have any tube to connect to the bleeder valve so fluid was pissing out all over the place

Basically though, jacked the car up and put it on stands, took all 4 wheels off. Start from the furtherest wheel away from the master cylinder which is the passenger side rear, fill the reservior up with new brake fluid and leave the cap off slightly so that there isnt too much pressure inside the reservior when pumping. Get someone to pump the brakes a few times then hold the brake pedal as far as it goes while the other person loosens the bleeder valve (located on the caliper) to release any air in the lines, you will feel the pedal go soft and hit the floor as soon as the valve has been loosened. May take a while for fluid to start pumping out so just keep doing that till there is a constant flow of fluid when you loosen it. Then do the same with the drivers side rear, passenger side front and driver side front in that order. Make sure that the reservior always has fluid in it so that it prevents more air getting in, keep it topped up and just check after each corner has been bled to make sure theres enough fluid there. And yeah thats pretty much it

Couldnt get many pics cause it turned dark but got a few of the cylinder before removal and after fitting the replacement before bleeding it all

Old cylinder


The leak


Second hand new looking one installed lol

Thanks for the tut, is really helpful. Just gotta buy a new Master Cylinder or find a reco'd one. It seems pretty easy enough, must've been messy for you.

Hey KWIKXR,
How do you bleed the Master Cylinder? as you were saying
"The real b**ch is bleeding the system which we found, mainly because the master cylinder i had was second hand and drained of the fluid a while before i decided to put it in so it would of been full of air. We actually started by bleeding the master cylinder first to try and get most of the air out before it entered the lines but i forgot all about bleeding it before i installed the thing so oh well worked out being even harder trying to bleed it when installed lol but it would pay to do that first before installing the cylinder."
Will be getting on it this week. Been really really busy.
Thanks.

have found i have the same prob in my eb, will a EF master cylinder fit a EB? or are they different?