1998 Jeep Wrangler No Breaks

Tiny
SCUBAS21
  • MEMBER
  • 1998 JEEP WRANGLER
  • 162,000 MILES
I had all brand new shocks put in a week ago. Since then I probably have driven close to 50 miles (most of them in town). I got out of work and had no brakes what so ever. Brake light on and pedal goes straight to the floor and does absolutely nothing brake wise. Luckily I live.4 miles away and at 2 am wasnt hard to use my e-brake to get home. Is there any way pep boys cut something by accident while putting my shocks in?
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Wednesday, November 6th, 2013 AT 11:30 PM

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Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,699 POSTS
Not very likely. You wouldn't have made it fifty miles. The rear shocks are close to the brake lines but those are steel. They can handle being bumped into by tools, but a sudden loss of brakes is usually due to one of them rusting through or by a ruptured rubber flex hose. The clue is the red warning light. Your vehicle has two independent brake hydraulic systems. That light turns on to tell you there's a failure to build fluid pressure in one of them. You should still have some braking ability from the other part of the system but you won't be able to stop as quickly as normal.

Mechanics are accustomed to being blamed for everything that goes wrong with their customers' cars for weeks after they worked on them, but to be fair, the first thing is to determine exactly what failed. Then you can figure out why it failed. Be aware too that since your vehicle is more than about a year old, you will very likely need a new brake master cylinder after the first problem is fixed. Crud and corrosion build up in the lower halves of the two bores where the pistons don't normally travel. When you pushed the brake pedal all the way to the floor, you ran the rubber lip seals over that crud and that commonly rips them. Experienced mechanics often include that in the repair estimate in case they find the master cylinder is damaged, otherwise, after the first repair is done, that's when they see the master cylinder problem and have to tell you more parts are needed. They hate having to do that.
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Monday, March 15th, 2021 AT 1:30 PM

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