Over the winter my 17 year old cousin purchased a '99 Impreza sedan 5mt at a "great" price. The car turned out to have suffered some front end damage, and has turned into a headache for him.

The car's latest problem is that the brake pedal sometimes would fade all the way to the floor before engaging. Apparently pumping the pedal would restore pressure, which sounds to me like air in the lines.

He took the car to his family's mechanic, who says the brake fluid has a blue tint, and smells like alcohol. He is guessing that someone put windshield washer fluid in the brake master cyl resevior, and said it would be $1500 to change out the entire brake system from the master cyl to the pistons.

Anyway, I wanted to get opinions from fellow i-club'ers before his family drops $1500 into replacing the entire brake system. I know that if you get a petroleum based product in the brake fluid, it results in contamination that typically requires replacing the entire system. Is the same true of an alcoholic fluid such as washer fluid? Also, I'm not sure why this would cause the pedal fade effect he's been experiencing, either.

Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

First things first, flush the system and take a look at the fluid. The blue fluid could very well be ATE superblue (pretty popular fluid - only downside is it doesn't change color with moisture) - flush the system and maybe pull apart one of the calipers and see if the piston bore is badly corroded. If so, you have two options - either hone out the cylinder and rebuild the caliper (new seals, etc.) or get a remanufactured caliper (cheaper than you might think at most part places). (when you remove the caliper, make sure you plug the brake line so that the system doesn't bleed dry) Flush the system with new fluid and see if that solves the problem (it really should - odds are the fluid is waterlogged and boils when the brakes heat up.

The other problem it could be is that the seals are damaged in the master cylinder - in that case, you are looking at either rebuilding or replacing that (which can be a pain - much harder to bleed than the calipers)

 

Check local j/y and car-part.com if it turns out that they do need to buy major parts.