davidschaffer Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Hey all. The other day the break light came on but because there was no signs of any issues I ignored it. That was a mistake. On my way to work yesterday the breaks started to feel soft. When I pulled into my spot at work I have no breaks at all and rolled into the snowbank. Looked under the hood and no fluid in the resivour. I later filled it up and cautiously drove home. The breaks are spongy and I need to pump a bit for them to work solid. I can not find a leak anywhere and the fluid level has remained the same. What's going on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreaseMonkey03 Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 With the car off pump the brakes. If the peddle goes to the floor, pump a few more times and then look for a puddle under the car. What's the condition of your brake pads? If the fluid ran low due to worn pads it's possible it sucked in air but that's less likely. You could also have a stuck caliper slide pin or a bad caliper. Take each wheel off and compress each caliper. The usual symptom for a stuck slide pin is having to pump it once before it grabs. Both the slide pins and the Pistons should go back pretty easily. If the caliper starts to compress but is compressing crooked, that slide is stuck. On subarus, the rear lower slides like to get stuck a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbhrps Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 davidschaffer, Do all of what GreaseMonkey has suggested and then bleed the brakes, all four corners, as well. You may well have sucked air into the system before you topped up the reservoir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 Lucky Texan Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 some people's older soobs are rusting-out brake lines above the fuel tank. some are using the old lines to pull generic line thru and making flare (right?) connections to the good porting of the remaining lines. inspection as said above the first step of course - hoping it's an easier fix like a bad rubber line or piston seal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 (edited) rusty lines above the fuel tank as LT said. access is under rear seat cushion - pull cushion and cover plate to access brake lines on passengers side i believe. run new line, bend to shape, splice it in. you can run the line then let a shop do the flared fittings, that's another option if you like to DIY as much as possible but don't want to mess with flaring tools and seating those in awkward positions. but i'm assuming some things - ideally you tell us year, vehicle, and mileage, any recent brake work, last time brakes/fluid were checked (ever, never...?) check behind each wheel - it could also be a leaky caliper or rear drum. those are the most common leak points, others are possible. look under the car for signs of fluid. it could also have just gotten too low if all that brake pads are low. as they wear the fluid fills behind the ever extending pistons, draining the reservoir. it goes back up when you install new pads and push the pistons back in to make room for the new pads. push pistons back, pushes fluid back through lines and up into the reservoir, filling it back up. Edited February 12, 2017 by grossgary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidschaffer Posted February 13, 2017 Author Share Posted February 13, 2017 Thanks for the replies! I would have responded sooner but did not get any notice that people had replied. 99 outback. The front rotors are pretty worn. I have not had time to do anything but pump the breaks and look for leaks. Hopefully I'll get some time soon to pull the wheels and see if it is as some of you suggested. I'll let you know what I find. Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dj7291993 Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 Check where the master cylinder mounts to the booster. Sometimes the MC can leak into the booster. You rarely see a significant leak there, but sometimes there will be a trace or semi-dissolved paint under it where brake fluid has run down. Less likely than the others, but if you can't find it, look there. You can also loosen the mounting nuts and check for fluid on the back of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt167 Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 My 2001 forester blew a line out of the connection block under the seat. I replaced both lines because they were both shot. An inline flaring tool and nicopp line are the best imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidschaffer Posted March 3, 2017 Author Share Posted March 3, 2017 Sorry for the delayed report. I can't seem to get notifications from this thread. The leak was the lines going through the body above the gas tank. I had a local Subaru guy flare in new lines up to the rubber hoses. He could not get the air out of the lines as the front passenger bleeder broke off. Apparently I need new hubs, calipers and pads all around. I'm pretty the back breaks aren't working at all. He wanted close to a grand for the work but I'm going to do it myself for around $500 in parts. Thanks for the help. I trued to post pics to help the next guy but it says the file is to big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreaseMonkey03 Posted March 3, 2017 Share Posted March 3, 2017 (edited) New hubs? That doesn't sound right. Before you spend all that money, find out what's working and what isn't in terms of the calipers or drums. Believe me I know how rusted and nasty they get, I just replaced every single component that exists under my 97 outback. For what it's worth, the rear brake lines that run from the block out to the brake lines are exactly the same on the forester I used as the donor car. If you want factory lines/bends, you can find them under a used Subaru somewhere. The bends that run out of the body are also the same even though the overall length is different and the routing up front. So you could splice the rear portion of those lines in as well if you wanted. As far as bleeding the front caliper, it isn't ideal but you can bleed it at the banjo bolt. If the bleeder is the only thing wrong with the right front, you can try using an extractor to get it out. Might require some heat. And then just replace the bleeder. Edited March 3, 2017 by GreaseMonkey03 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidschaffer Posted March 3, 2017 Author Share Posted March 3, 2017 New hubs? That doesn't sound right. Before you spend all that money, find out what's working and what isn't in terms of the calipers or drums. Believe me I know how rusted and nasty they get, I just replaced every single component that exists under my 97 outback. For what it's worth, the rear brake lines that run from the block out to the brake lines are exactly the same on the forester I used as the donor car. If you want factory lines/bends, you can find them under a used Subaru somewhere. The bends that run out of the body are also the same even though the overall length is different and the routing up front. So you could splice the rear portion of those lines in as well if you wanted. As far as bleeding the front caliper, it isn't ideal but you can bleed it at the banjo bolt. If the bleeder is the only thing wrong with the right front, you can try using an extractor to get it out. Might require some heat. And then just replace the bleeder. Not hubs, rotors. Sorry about that. I'm planing on spraying down what I can with pb blaster each day for a few weeks before I do the work. Michigan rust is the worst! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreaseMonkey03 Posted March 3, 2017 Share Posted March 3, 2017 It can be a little time consuming, but it's definitely cheaper to try and do some maintenance on a lot of these items. I got lucky and was able to get an entire car for 500. I bought my 97 for 100 but it was in bad shape. Before finding the donor car I was planning on resurfacing, sandblasting, cleaning, painting, etc and doing overall maintenance on just about everything that I could tear off the car. Even the worst frozen slide pin for example can be removed and new slides can be purchased for very little. Rotors can be resurfaced. Etc. good luck though, my car was in bad shape underneath and air tools were my saving grace along with a torch and a BFH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vtwinjunkie Posted March 3, 2017 Share Posted March 3, 2017 what year is your car? on some newer soobs there was a brake recall. My 05 had the recall that had something to do with the lines rusting out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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