No brakes on my ML350 cdi

[Smart320]

Just got into my car today and when ignition turned on got message Check Brake Fluid level! No sign of any fluid in the reservoir and brake pedal goes straight to the floor! Obviously car will need to be recovered on a trailer to the nearest garage about 10 miles away. Brakes did feel a little slow to apply with slightly more travel than usual hen I last drove it a week ago. Is it likely to just be a brake pipe with a hole in it or the brake master cylinder?

 

[OneForTheRoad]

Holed pipe I'd imagine .

 

[Abb]

Happened to mine last summer.....while I was driving! Brakes felt a slow like in your case and pedal was travelling further. No lights on dashboard though, I pulled over as soon as I could to have a look and could see the wheel arches spattered with fluid. Got back in the car and tuned ignition on, dash then told me to check fluid level, yes, completely empty!
Had it recovered to a nearby garage and the leak was traced. It was found surprisingly in the engine bay, pretty covered up so not exposed as much as some other places. Actually looked like it had been ruptured, ended up having brake lines replaced in their entirety from the pump all the way to each corner!

 

[kid-jensen]

Have a look for fluid on the ground where it was parked, should localise the leak a bit...

 

[Smart320]

AA home start arrived today, no sign of any fluid , either in the reservoir or under the car, put 500 ml fluid in and pumped brakes, still nothing! Car being taken to my local garage on flatbed tomorrow morning. Hopefully will be fixed by middle of next week. Could be the master cylinder but will tell them to have a good look at brake lines in the engine compartment in view of your experience

 

[Joderest]

Have you looked inside the car, above brake pedal, its been known for fluid to leak into servo, not sure if on a car this new !!!!
If master was duff, would still be fluid, it has to have gone somewhere.

 

[Smart320]

Have you looked inside the car, above brake pedal, its been known for fluid to leak into servo, not sure if on a car this new !!!!
If master was duff, would still be fluid, it has to have gone somewhere.

No sign in the car , assuming it must be under engine in tray, needs some detective work by garage hopefully they will spot the leak once on the ramp

 

[Borris1954]

On my 1959 P4 Rover 100 the mysterious brake fluid loss was eventually found to be due to a leak in the servo allowing the fluid into the vacuum chamber. The tell tale sign was eventually clouds of white smoke as fluid was sucked into the inlet manifold. When I removed the servo I tipped out over a litre of brake fluid!

Not sure if this possible with modern servo design though.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Smart320]

Solved. Garage rang to say rear brake line was split, replaced plus another that looked a bit suspect, only £180 so am happy

 

[Smart320]

Discovered they charge £40 +vat per hour for labour! They are my local MOT station and have a very good reputation for their work ( also use them to service my wife's RAV4 ). Will still have my servicing and major repairs done by MB Indi who supplied the car but very useful to have a good garage locally for minor jobs.

 

[Abb]

Solved. Garage rang to say rear brake line was split, replaced plus another that looked a bit suspect, only £180 so am happy

Did they mention where the split was ie front/rear of the car? Did they replace the brake line in its entirety, as your price seems extremely good, to replace the lines from the front all the way to the rear.

 

[Smart320]

Split was in rear O/s. Both sides replaced from front to rear. One of the benefits of living in West Wales is the low cost ( lower wages too )