Okay I take my car to Just Brakes thinking a simple brake job. First the the brakes were good and the pedal was around the top to stop. I knew it was time to change the brakes because they would make noises when I applied brakes. So I take it to Just Brakes to change. They call me telling me whats wrong with the car. They need to rebuild my calipers and change pads for 500. I tell them just to change the all four pads for $100. I call them back in the evening to see if my car is ready and they said my master cyclinder is bad and they cant get pressure to the brakes. Somebody please tell me how a master cyclinder goes bad from the time I drop it off, which stopped perfectly fine, to them trying to charge me an additional $250 to change a master cyclinder?? Is that possible, I call BS, what can be the problem and how to fix?? I told them to put my car back together and I drove home with minimal brake pressure and no e-brake.

 

master cylinder may go bad in a short time when the caliper is being squeezed back to install new pads (thick) and the fluid may have had a small piece of debri that caught in the master cylinder rubber cup allowing fluid to by pass. The fluid may have been drained out if the brake calipers have a leak. add some fluid in the master cylinder, with the eng in idle, step on the brakes a few times firmly, and after shut down of the engine, view under the calipers to see if there is a leak. The e-brake should have nothing to do with the brake pressure, e-brake is mechanical/cable to the rear brake. Also check with the consumer guide about Just Brakes and find out what kind of reputation they have.If you don't know how to work on the brake system, check with a service manual, or purchase a work manual from a local auto parts shop, or go to the local library and its free info if they have a guide for your year car.

 

I changed the master cylinder and the brakes are still flat. Also the e-brake is still dead also. The left rear kind of grabs but the right rear spins freely. I am going to take it to another shop for there opinion. Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

 

Did you try to bleed the brakes, you may have a lot of air in the system. Need two people to bleed unless you have a pressure can to bleed from the caliper/brake cylinder. This will also bleed the master at the same time. There will be overflow if using a pressure can from the bottom up.