Hi All,

I have a situation with my 1989 XJS convertible U.S. spec with 35,000 actual miles. THe car has been a garage queen until I bought her. She is pristine, and was owned by a doctor's wife who had her routinely serviced, even the fuel hoses on the fuel rail have been updated! However, I noted that the brake fluid in the master cylinder was dropping. Later, I began to notice a puddle under the left center rear side of the car, under the diff. Even when I don't drive it for several days, cleaning the puddle every day, I note that the puddle comes back and the fluid in the master goes down. I'm going to crawl my old a$$ under it tomorrow for a closer inspection. Any ideas though, as to whether or not I'm going to be looking for a broken line or ...... a dreaded leaking caliper? I'm hoping for just a leaking line. Thanks in advance for any thoughts...

 

I'd say you'll be looking at a broken line or a leaky caliper There are no other choices.

Cheers
DD

 

I'd suggest you get it sorted quick. If you have a visible drop in the Reservoir (not the Master Cylinder), then you are losing a lot of fluid. I would not drive the car at all in those conditions.

Good luck

Paul

 

Agreed. I'm not driving it (as much as I want too ). I'm just hoping it is a line and not something where I have to drop the rear end. I found a four leaf clover today, next to a horseshoe. Maybe I'll get lucky! Who knows?!

 

Inboard braked cars have solid line going from a three way connector above the diff, bolted to the cage:

• One input hard line from the M/C
• one hard line going to each caliper.

The fittings (from memory) are Imperial and require a 7/16ths spanner. Any one could be leaking, as could the connectors to the actual calipers, and the bridhe pipe that connects the two pistons. I think you can JUST get to these fittings without dropping the cage. An open brake pipe spanner may help as will a short open ended spanner.

It can also happen, if the diff becomes slightly loose on its cage mountings, and that tiny bit of play causes leaks in the fittings or the hard lines, In which case the lines have to be changed and the diff fixing bolts tightended. This is a bit unlikely in your case.

Therefore I suggest you tighten the connectors, which (I think) you can do if you raise the car, without having to drop the cage. Then as long as the car is SAFELY SUPPORTED, ask a helper to start the car and press the brake hard, and see if the assembly leaks anywhere.





I have Fosseway performance remote bleeders on my car as you can see in the last pic. Great idea for any inboard braked car.

 

This is going to sound like a dumb question but, I don’t know the answer so, here goes: If it is just a brake fitting leak or a bleeder nipple leak, and I tighten it, is there any need to bleed the brakes?

 

Thanks Greg! This is great, and gives me a good Idea of what I am going to be looking at later today (hopefully)!

 

If it is a leak and you tighten something and it stops, the brakes should not need bleeding.

 

I had the same thing happen to me. It was the passenger side caliper line from the bottom of the tee to the caliper had a hair line crack. The way I found it was to turn the key on and let the pump run up then have someone step on the brake while I looked and watched. It was clearly evident at that point where it was leaking.

 

Sorry wrong thread.

 

Just a follow-up. Turns out I had a leaking caliper and line (lucky me!). I replaced both calipers and rotors as well as replaced the line.