brake warning light, Ford Escort, causes?

[RoadWarrior222]

Hey folks,

The brake warning light on my Escort is coming on randomly. Fluid level is okay, parking brake switch doesn't seem to be tweaky.

Seems like a bad connection at the sender on the side of the reservoir, I wiggle it and the light goes out...

... that would be enough for me on an older car... but just coz there's a pooter involved, I'm wondering if I'm actually joggling it and "resetting" something rather than curing a bad connection.

No ABS...

Really the connection should be "it", but it's just got my spidey senses tingling or something, making me uneasy for some reason, like I'm missing something... and I can't think what I'm missing.

Though I guess also the sender could have an intermittent open circuit inside rather than at the plug.

Dunno if I'm just being paranoid or something, but the "spidey senses" usually have a pretty good hit rate.

thanks,

RW222

[turbovanman²]

IIRC, its just a light, it doesn't affect anything, IE pooters.

[Big_P]

If the level was low and you just topped it off, sometimes the float in the sensor can get stuck and maybe jiggling the witch freed it up.

[RoadWarrior222]

So I guess I'm losing brake fluid, realllllly sllllowlllly. I had to top up again yesterday. Damn thing starts flashing the light at halfway between max and min though, seems to be using "half" about every three months, which seems a little too fast for friction wear... but, I've been all over the damn thing a couple of times and buggered if I can see a fluid drip or stain... no telltale drips on the driveway. Must be a high pressure pinhole leak that's aimed away from hitting any part of the car or something. Any hints on finding it? Worried it will suddenly get worse... but fluid consumption doesn't seem to have increased.

[shackwrrr]

So I guess I'm losing brake fluid, realllllly sllllowlllly. I had to top up again yesterday. Damn thing starts flashing the light at halfway between max and min though, seems to be using "half" about every three months, which seems a little too fast for friction wear... but, I've been all over the damn thing a couple of times and buggered if I can see a fluid drip or stain... no telltale drips on the driveway. Must be a high pressure pinhole leak that's aimed away from hitting any part of the car or something. Any hints on finding it? Worried it will suddenly get worse... but fluid consumption doesn't seem to have increased.

Brake fluid will evaporate before it hits the ground on a leak that small. Usually disappearing leaks are at the wheels where the heat evaporates the fluid faster. Check the front calipers, those ones bolt together right? And wheel cylinders sometimes they look dry but squeeze the boot and they'll squirt.

[RoadWarrior222]

Front calipers and rear cylinders were "new" last year, but the calipers are remans and they don't seem too great, there's a pulsation at times which is supposed to be due to wear ridges on the caliper slide on reUSED calipers (That have been through a few sets of pads) , these obviously weren't machined out right, so I guess I should look closer at the boots on those, the pistons might not be fitting well. From external inspection I can't see the staining I'd expect from any fluid burning/boiling/drying off of any part though.

[onerippinturbo2]

pull the master cylinder off the booster, i've had several cars' master cylinders leak into the booster and you would never see any fliud anywhere but it would deff. lose it. worth a check.

[RoadWarrior222]

Thanks, I'll have to check for that.

[RoadWarrior222]

Checked it today, I filled it so it was just touching this one plastic part, so I could be sure exactly where it was, annnd it's still just touching it, so no measurable loss in a week.

[RoadWarrior222]

Holy hell this is the most irritating thing, checked it a week after last post, and then again sometime, right at the same full level, forgot for a week or two, checked today and it's halfway down again :banghead: :banghead:

[onerippinturbo2]

did you pull the m/c back yet??

[RoadWarrior222]

Didn't yet, this thing gets worked like a mule so don't get a heck of a lot of time to mess with it.

Something else occurred to me though. The side I have some pulsation on, which I think is the wear ridge problem from crappy reman... that side I had a hell of a job getting the banjo union sealed up when I put it on... ended up with a "hail mary hope this dont' strip" gorrilla torque on it. Which did finally stop it seeping with a helper two footing the pedal... however, I'm wondering if it still sprays at extreme pressure making the pulses as it valves OR that the pulses make pressure spikes which make it seep... but I ain't seeing anything on that side to indicate it.

[RoadWarrior222]

Well I was into that side of the car again, prodded at the piston boot with a stick didn't seem to be seeping there, eyeballed it all over, still don't see anything like a fluid stain. Put a wrench on that banjo union and hammered it round another quarter turn....

... and it didn't pulsate when test driving... though I might be between wear ridges again, so if that's gone for weeks then that might have been it..

Though it had been pulsating last week again and fluid level hadn't dropped all week.

[RoadWarrior222]

So this thing kept on driving me nuts for months, zero usage for a few weeks then drop to half full again over a few weeks etc etc...

Anyway, think it must have been a pinhole in the line over the back crossmember, which was pretty much hidden unless you get right under it and stick your head up over the axle, and it was just landing in the crossmember when it was leaking without hitting the ground, and then you'd go for a drive and it would splatter out on the bumps or get blown out on the highway or something.....

That line blew out completely a couple of weeks ago, so amidst a bout of flu, storms and a couple of nasty frickin' sticky hot days, I've been stripping out all the lines, which is a biatch, well all of them to about halfway up the car, can't see how to get the front ones out without dropping the front crossmember and pulling everything out the engine bay... and I hit good metal there anyway.. had to drill every freaking bracket out, and then every union was rusted in solid etc etc, the kind of job that snowballs. Thought I was done yesterday, but then one of the bleeders on a rear cylinder that was new last year decides to break off... broke off a couple of easy outs in it, and carved it up and said screw it and put another cylinder in yesterday.

Got halfway through bleeding it last night when storms hit again, back to it now... thought I'd been careful about fluid level and hadn't pushed air in the fronts but have had enough out the backs and it's still springy, so gotta hope I don't wreck the bleeders on teh fronts now...

Is there any specific sequence to bleed on these? Forgot and lost my Haynes and not running a computer old enough to be able to use the manual on CD any more.. (I ought to look into that when I'm not rushing to fix it) .... haynes is 50% likely to be wrong anyway and FSM on CD might say "use Ford special equipment rig FC23 FU3424 from national dairy supply co, attach milking hoses to nipples and turn on pump"

[85boostbox]

Where have you been?????

[RoadWarrior222]

FFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!

Used the shortest, stubbiest wrench I had to undo front bleeder so I couldn't possibly torque it hard enough to snap it off....

"oh SNAP!"

bastagebastagebastagebastage....

- - - Updated - - -


Where have you been?????

Been kinda mentally committed.... to some other projects... that will hopefully be earners eventually, but it's all vertical learning curve and what ifs at the moment.

[85boostbox]

Loli ah gotcha. Well welcome back lol:thumbup: