Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

The joys of auto maintenance

OK, so the plan for today was to replace the brake fluid and bleed the brakes, then to drive the car around the block to make sure things were OK before taking the car on a brief shakedown cruise. One of the reasons for replacing the brake fluid was that it’s old and cloudy. Another was that it was much lower than it should be, but I expected that after so long.

So I got a can of brake fluid, put the car back on jack stands, had my son sit in the driver’s seat (he “so wants to drive this car!”) and had him work the brake pedal while I bled the brakes. We started with the right rear wheel since that one’s farthest from the master cylinder. A very tiny amount of air came out. Then we went to the left rear. We didn’t get any air out of that one, so I went to the front right. A little air again and then none. The brakes were getting better but still spongy. Finally the left front. No air came out.

I checked the master cylinder again, topped it off and repeated the procedure. No air out of the right rear. No air out of the left rear either, but there wasn’t much flow of brake fluid either. That was suspicious. I closed the bleed screw and had him press the pedal all the way down. Brake fluid poured out onto the ground. Hm… “that’s not right” I thought. Once again for good measure. The brakes were really spongy again but no fluid came out. We stopped for a bit then tried it again. Sure enough after cycling the brakes a few times, the caliper leaked again, this time every time the pedal was depressed.

So, it looks like I need to rebuild or replace the left rear caliper. What fun! Just taking the one that’s there off is going to be a bear, even with air tools. Rebuilding it shouldn’t be too hard, but that’s not something I’ve done before, so I’m opting for a remanufactured caliper. I’ve replace calipers before on the race car, and it’s relatively straightforward to do, assuming I can break loose the bolts holding the thing on in the first place, so that’s what I plan to do.

I’m going to have to raise the car up even further if I’m going to get underneath it to take the caliper off. Meanwhile, I can’t find my 3/8 inch ratchets anywhere. It’s amazing how tools develop legs and wander away when you’re not looking. It’s going to take a long arm on the ratchet or a breaker bar to break those bolts loose. My air ratchet isn’t likely to do the job, and manipulating it around the brake lines and stuff is a little tricky anyway, but it can be done.

Anyway, I priced remanufactured calipers. Shucks sells one for 64 dollars and change, plus a 50 dollar core charge. NAPA has one for 88 dollars and change with a 44 dollar core charge. The nearest Shucks that has one is 31 miles away. NAPA is just down the street. Despite the cost of gasoline it’s cheaper to go to Shucks and get theirs, even if I have to make two trips. I ought to be able to go down, get the replacement, swap them out, and then just take the core to the local Shucks for the refund.

I guess it’s time for a little road trip. Just not in the Corvette. At least not right away.

At least now I know where all that brake fluid probably went.