Jag XJ6 erratic brakes

Ah, thanks. Don't think they'd be much good to me then as I'm not in the UK.

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "...Jerry..." saying something like:

Well, if the bore is worn the resealing bit isn't applicable, is it?

Fwiw, if a rare and/or very expensive mc is unobtainable, sometimes a sleeve can be made to restore the bore.

Yet another armchair expert speaks.

This cylinder on car sounds like a candidate. I've no indication of when fluid was last changed, though when I bled the brakes, the old stuff that came out was pretty gunky looking. The service book is stamped to about 4 years and 3k miles ago, so the car could have been standing... I've had it a year and it's spent most of its time standing.

Prove that Mr 'Captain Ahab'.....

You might have academic qualifications but if you are serious about someone who had to ask why his brakes didn't work HTF can you say that the repair is going to be safe when the Op might well (I would say probably) won't know a worn bore etc. if it bit him on the leg ?..

BTW, I've got engineering in my background going back over a 100 years, in fact if a close relation had not done his job correctly we might not have had the Jet engine when we did...

That just proves that you have little or no real world experience...

But would the OP know what a worn bore is ?...

Yes, anything / can / be repaired, at a cost - in fact it's not that long ago that I had to get rare wheel cylinder sleeved.

I wish, I wish... Anything to spend less time crawling under cars whilst paying the bills would be nice....

The real FACTS are that I've had to clean up after to many DIYers have messed with brake and ballsed them up - sometimes with unpleasant results.

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "...Jerry..." saying something like:

Traffic cop? If so, you have my sympathies; it's not a pleasant job sometimes. Having said that, the vast majority of folk who do their own brakes do so perfectly safely and well and know their limitations. In this field, as in so many others, there will always be those who will barge ahead and ignore safe practice or simply refuse to acknowledge they've reached the limit of their expertise and pay someone else to do it. Mind you, badly fitted / overhauled brakes can come out of dealers' workshops too.

What makes you think that ?! Now if I was.....

The issue here is advice, I dare say that there must be quite a few people around who would be well capable of picking up a scalpel, clamps, sucher and doing an operations - but would anyone seriously advise someone who they have never meet and who has shown little knowledge of the subject to wade in and do their own family operations seeing that the end result could be the same ?!....

Working on brakes requires little more than basic DIY skills and some common sense.

You make it sound like only a pro is likely to do the job properly. Those of us with experience of the motor trade as customers know that they're just as likely to f**k things up as any amateur.

I'll give you an example - of brakes. My near new BMW 5 Series had an almost non existent handbrake. It's an auto, so not quite such a pressing fault as it would be on a manual. This was mentioned at every service etc but never fixed - I was told about bedding in procedure which I'd already tried, given that it's in the handbook.

Come disc replacement time, I decided to do the job myself - it's not something that appears in the service book, and saves a deal of money.

So decided to investigate the handbrake. One adjuster was stuck firmly on minimum - not seized as such, but merely stuck fast. Had to remove it and put it in the vice to free it, and once it moved it was fine. To add insult, the cable on that side had been 'adjusted' up to try and compensate.

All this from a main dealer who should have checked the operation at every service and fixed as necessary - let alone when it was mentioned by the customer.

Hope if and when you need surgery, your doctor is rather more caring than the average garage...

No, anyone who knows what they are doing can work safely on brakes, my point was that 'Captain Ahab' does not know what knowledge / experience the OP has.

Those

But they have insurance to cover that issue, most if not all DIYers working on their own vehicles don't, and the cars insurance will be as much use as a chocolate tea pot in a desert in such a situation.

Either of them can be sued if they do mess up, if your lack of an emergency / parking brake had cause an accident the garages commercial insurance would have sorted the resultant claim (assuming that there was a record of your complaint about the brake not working) - OTOH the average DIYer has nothing more than their shirt....

In fairness, many posters know that this is a ng and that the advice given is worth exactly what they pay for it. And that it's advice, not an order!

I'd rather read the pros and cons of buying seals, new master cylinder, etc, etc. than just being told to take the car to a garage.

I don't think anyone has told you to take the car to a garage, it's just how deep people suggest you get, ie. repair or replace.

Well, OK, no-one has said for me to take the car to a garage, though it's been implied. However, that's not my point.

My point is that I had an erratic braking problem that, when I described it, many posters here recognised it an obvious master cylinder failure. Wasn't obvious to me because I haven't experienced it before. Hey, now I know. The combined postings of yourself, Captain Ahab (if indeed that is his real name), Dave, Grimly and others, have established in my mind that, yes the cylinder is shot, have given a possible explanation why it's shot, and provided me with a number of repair options. For that I am grateful.

I think I've chosen a suitible course of action - buy a new cylinder, get it fitted, and when the old cylinder is off, have a gawk at it; if the bore's not obviously rusty, scratched, pitted, etc. and if seals are obviously knackered, buy a set of seals and keep it as a backup.

For my next post I'll ask "how do I fit a master cylinder..."

Since one is available for your car, I'd really reccomend you get the genuine factory workshop manual - it covers that sort of thing in simple language. With none of the Haynes 'take it to your dealer' nonsense.

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "...Jerry..." saying something like:

I dunno; in the true spirit of diy, it would certainly cut down on the cost and the waiting time; and so what if the operation wasn't a total success, most things will heal in time, and you might get quite used to having a nose on your forehead.

Pah, surgeons are just body mechanics after all's said and done.