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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Tom Tate
NOR'EASTER Online - January 2002

As I mentioned last month, we have a couple of brake stories to tell this month. I'll delete the names of those involved so as not to embarrass anyone. Besides my name is in print enough as it is! I find that one of the nastiest materials found in the garage is brake fluid. I could probably count antifreeze too but since we're talking 356's I can leave that out. The problem with brake fluid is that it's really hard to clean up and if you get any on your hands it's so slippery that you can't even pick up a beer can. That's when all work stops. There's a warning on the container reminding you not to spill any on painted surfaces since it's caustic and will do bad things to paint. I'm here to tell you that it will do bad things to other stuff too.

Years ago (here he goes again!) while autocrossing with an A coupe, the car started to lose brake fluid. At each event I would check the fluid levels before tech to find that the brake reservoir down about half way. No problem, I just added a bit and drove. Of course you have to take off the cover plate to get to the reservoir but that had to be done for the tech guys anyway. But once you took off the cap to check the level (remember the container is metal so you can't see the fluid level inside without removing the cap) the real trick is to get a container small enough to get past the tie rods, handbrake cables, steering box, and sheet metal and still have enough room to tip it up to pour without spilling. Great trick if you can do it. Did I mention that once you had the container in position to pour that your hand blocked any view of the fluid level? Who designed this anyway? Of course in the more modern 356C cars with disc brakes the reservoir is not only plastic so that you can see the level easily, but it's on top of the steering box cover plate and readily accessible. But back to the A coupe in question.

When the fluid level keeps dropping there has to be a leak somewhere, right? How tough could this be? Put newspaper under each wheel, pump the brakes and look for stains on the paper. But no stains appeared. The brake pedal was firm, the brakes weren't grabbing, in fact the car was winning every weekend. So leave it alone and just keep adding fluid, besides fluid's cheap. After a few weeks it was taking a lot of fluid to keep it topped up. In fact it was taking about 1/2 a Coke bottle full before each event. You didn't know that they used to sell brake fluid in Coke bottles did you? See small container requirements in paragraph above. Now you would think that with that much fluid AOL somebody would have an idea where it was going. But back in those days when you were never sure of passing tech, you would never tell anyone that you were having a brake problem. So it wasn't until I could hear liquid sloshing on the floor that the mystery was solved.

The brake master cylinder is bolted to the bulkhead in front of the pedal cluster with the unit itself actually outside and the shaft to the brake pedal inside. When the master cylinder leaks the fluid actually runs inside the car onto the floor in front of the pedals. Under the rubber mat on the 356 is a wooden floorboard. That wooden piece rests on a strip of metal that's welded to the floor. The strip (actually a section of angle iron) created the dike that kept the brake fluid in place. It wasn't until the compartment was filled with about 2 quarts of fluid that the sound of the waves could be heard on sharp turns.

The sloshed fluid had gotten onto the wooden floorboards (think driftwood in a Midwest flood) under the rubber floormat (which only swelled a bit), into the sound deading material (think battery acid on your new jeans). The funny thing was that it never smelled at all, but wherever that car is today I'm sure the present owner wonders why the drivers side floor is so slippery.

I know that the column heading says drum brakes but this disc brake story is to good not to tell. A friend of mine (a friendship that will continue as long as his name doesn't appear in print) bought a BMW to use as a winter beater (what better use?). It was a mid '80's three series and while solid, needed brake work. The pads were relative new with plenty of material left but the rotors were warped and needed to be replaced. Not a big job as the rotors are just held on by a setscrew and the lug nuts. This is the kind of job that can be done in the driveway but not in the dark. Flashlights are only good for Boy Scouts, not for automotive repair. The job was done over a few days time after work. While the pulsing was gone the noise was not. After a couple of phone calls, I stopped by to have a look (in the dark). A drive around the block was all that was needed to hear the sound of metal on metal on the left front corner. The pads had not been replaced but they should' have set in without too much effort.

My son Rob once bought a 914 that had awful brakes after sitting for 3 years. A drive up Route 3 with my foot on the brake did the same job as turning all the rotors on a lathe. And a lot cheaper too. I figured that the BMW just needed the same medicine. But after three times around the block the noise was still there, maybe louder, and the smell of brake pad told me that this wasn't gonna be a "driving fix". We couldn't see much with the flashlight so my advice was to jack up the car, pull the wheel and see what was going on, in the daylight.

A couple of days later I called the owner to find out the solution. He was gonna call...maybe. Seems that doing just a little work each night caused him to rush the job as the end was in sight. While installing the last two pads, the inside pad dropped on the ground. Did he insert some gravel from the driveway along with the pad? No, not that complicated. In the dark he had put the pad in backwards so that the backing plate not the brake pad itself was contacting the rotor. All the foot dragging in the
world wasn't gonna eliminate the noise until the pad was turned around. Fortunately no damage was done to the rotor and another winter beater is ready for service.

Of course none of us would make that mistake...right?

Porsche Club of America The Northeast Region

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region