One of my buddies, who is not a cf forum-er, has a 95 cherokee and noticed yesterday that his power brakes started to go out. His brake light went on on the dash soon after. He looked at his fluid and was very low so he added enough to make it full again but the light and power brakes were stilled effed up. He said the pedal was very easy to push down all the way to the floor but didnt stop the jeep. He replaced his pads within the last couple years. I said that because you ran it too low there might be an air pocket in the brake lines and will probably have to bleed them. What do you guys think?

 

air in the break lines

 

air doesn't just come from no where, probably a rusted out brake line, or leaking wheel cylinder.

 

He should cheek all of his lines and hoses for leaks. if no leaks try to bleed them

 

I think you made the correct diagnosis.
Bleed them and all should be well.

 

low fluid

 

He added enought to make it full again

 

to late once it gets air you gotta bleed the system

 

Yeah that's what I told him in initially I just thought maybe there were additional problems. Thanks guys

 

bleed em. then check to see if the wheel cylinders in the rear are blown or F'ed up. that happened to a friend of mines of XJ and completely screwed his brakes up.

 

speakin of brakes my ABS light is always on and its extremely hard to press the brake.. it stops the truck fine, just harder to press the brakes than a normal jeep.. wtf is up with that? And ever since i went mudding when i hit the brakes it pulls to the left hard.. i think thats just **** in the brakes though.. srry to steal the thread if i did btw

 

Check the master cylinder and make sure its not pushing fluid into the brake booster. That would explain a fluid loss. Bleed the brakes like was suggested. Also bad master will make the peddle soft.

 

That is EXACTLY what mine does (I have ABS too and the light is on!). It feels like the rotor is just getting chewed on. I was thinking maybe front brake pads, and I'm considering going out to get some soon. But does anyone know if this would be anything else causing these problems? Sorry about hijacking, but it has been bugging me.

 

Bleed em, check the front calipers to make sure they're all fine (including the lines going up to them.). I had an issue with my brake lines where both front ones were cracked and had to be replaced, the calipers were bad anyway so it was time.

 

I have come to the conclusion that the answer to every brake problem is to bleed them. Haha