[Tommy]

ok, since Jan.14 when I got the car, I knew the brakes were not bled properly, not a bother, they stopped ok, pedal was spongey. Well finally get around to bleeding them only to find out that the rear passengers caliper is bad. Not the caliper itself, but the bleeder was stripped and it actually broke off! well we continued to bleed the others and the pedal did not improve. A day or so later I start losing massive amounts of brake fluid through the brake resevoir. So I'm thinking the cap is bad, Toyota quotes $116.00 for a new resevoir cap. yikes!
well today, my b/f went out to Home Depot when the car starts acting funny. The car started blowing white smoke ( brake fluid burning presumably ) and the valves started rattling. Well see, this exact situation happened on my other 85, at over 200k miles. The intake started sucking in brake fluid. We just plugged off the intake vacuum line and lived without power brakes. This car only has 136k miles and it's pulling the same BS. I'm just going to plug off the vacuum line like I did before until I can afford a new booster and a caliper. But I'm wondering, has anyone else had this much misfortune with their Mk2s, or is it just me? LOL

 

[SilverMk2]

Your master cylinder is shot. There is probably nothing wrong with the brake booster. Driving without power brakes on disc brakes is very dangerous. You can usually get rebuilt master cylinders from parts stores for around $50. You can also rebuild the calipers easily and fairly cheap. I think I only paid about $20 for a rebuild kit from Toyota, enought to do both sides. BTW these problems are more age related than mileage related. Over time rubber hardens and won't seal no more. Common problem on all old cars.

 

[Tommy]

ok I tried to post a reply sooner, but I got the "invalid session" screen. Here goes again, my master cylinder is fine, just like it was on my other 85, I know that because I replaced the master cylinder on my other mk2 and it still poured fluid, and inhaled. well I did plug off the booster, and the brakes haven't lost a drop of fluid. I wanted to ask, why do you think it is dangerous to operate a mk2 w/o power brakes? I ran my other 85 over a year w/o power brakes with no problem