Car not driven in 7 years. What to do about brakes?

meowy84 · Veteran Member

Car not driven in 7 years. What to do about brakes?

Lefty · Uber Guru

you can do a test drive, if breaks do not pull to either side (and car stops)
thendrive about 10 miles and check to see if rims are hot from dragging shoes
if not they should be ok.
i would still just do a rebuild on the cyl's anyway to be sure. mine sometimes would drag after
a long time sitting so i would drive to a friends house and check for heat
be sure to really hold on to the wheel for the first while because if only one brake works it will really pull
the car.

norontcan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I'd stomp the brake pedal a few times and then revisit the master cyl, wheel cylinders and lines looking for leaks.
If none found then try moving it and applying the brakes - revisit looking for leaks.
Can never be too cautious with brakes.

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Might not be a bad idea to flush the brake fluid, as it is hygroscopic. Sitting for 7 years, it's possible that it has absorbed some water over the years so not a bad idea to change it, to prevent future corrosion problems in your braking system.

I agree that it might be a good idea to replace seals in the master cylinder as well, especially if your car has a single chamber master cylinder (i.e. if it fails you lose all braking).

meowy84 · Veteran Member

Yup, I was already planning to flush and bleed the system as a no brainer matter of course (especially since I have to replace the cracked front brake hoses, all mybrake lines are solid however). My main concern is the master cylinder. I was hoping to avoid having to do a rebuild of the master cylinder (and yes it's a single circuit unit) so I thought maybe going gentle on it (a few light pushes at first while the car is stationary) might free the master cylinder from its slumber without creating any leaks and after it gets used to being worked again then go for the drive and do a few serious stomps and inspect for leaks and such. (I'm doing this freshening up of the car on an extreme budget so wherever I can avoid doing serious part replacement the more money left over for beer, er, I mean food and diapers biggrin . But methinks brakes are rather critical confuse so I might splurge and do a rebuild as a prophylactic.)

-- Edited by meowy84 on Monday 16th of September 2013 11:18:38 PM

-- Edited by meowy84 on Monday 16th of September 2013 11:19:43 PM

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

When I bought my Strato Chief (Cdn Pontiac) in 2006

it had been sitting

and I took it out onto Trans Canada, and run up to 100 mph in second, and then shifted to drive

and then stomped on the power drum brakes it stopped! Did this several more times

Then drove 35 miles to my hometown in Sackville @ 80-100 mph

and then drove 1185 miles in 19 hours and the brakes were great

stomped on them, hundreds of times after that and they were great

Lefty · Uber Guru

427carl wrote:
you could have ended up in a ditch !!

When I bought my Strato Chief (Cdn Pontiac) in 2006
it had been sitting
and I took it out onto Trans Canada, and run up to 100 mph in second, and then shifted to drive
and then stomped on the power drum brakes it stopped! Did this several more times
Then drove 35 miles to my hometown in Sackville @ 80-100 mph
and then drove 1185 miles in 19 hours and the brakes were great
stomped on them, hundreds of times after that and they were great