Master Brake Cylinder
We were on our way home yesterday after a glorious trip to the Grand Canyon, Sedona and Palm Springs. We were in stop and go traffic on 101 for about an hour. Suddenly, my husband said the brakes "we...
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Monterey Bay Cruzers wrote:
We were on our way home yesterday after a glorious trip to the Grand Canyon, Sedona and Palm Springs. We were in stop and go traffic on 101 for about an hour. Suddenly, my husband said the brakes "went soft". Luckily, he got off the freeway and we sat on the side of a very wide off ramp. We were towed to a parking lot. We called a Good Sam suggested roadside mechanic. He said brake fluid was normal in brake reservoir even tho fluid was dripping from the reservoir. All of this took a couple of hours. After testing the brakes in the parking lot, the mechanic felt we were safe to go to a nearby RV park. We're not sure whether to stay here and wait until tomorrow to have a mechanic look at it or since the brakes seemed fine on our 5 mile trip to the RV park... (were the brakes just hot from the stop and go traffic?) Should we continue on our way home? Our RV is a 1998 Fleetwood Pace Arrow. We only have 23,000 on it.
Sounds like you boiled the brake fluid.
This usually happens with improperly descending a steep grade.
It can also happen with driving in heavy traffic, if the brake lines are close to the exhaust manifold.
The immediate cure is to flush and replace the fluid and do so again in two or three years.
New fluid has a boiling point of 400F +, but with time, it collects moister and yours most likely will now boil at 212F.
On our old gas coach, I put a piece of alum. between the brake lines and the exhaust manifold to better direct the air flow and for blocking the heat, somewhat.
