doral330

Ok so first off. Last Thursday on my way home I got into a car accident. The lady in front of me stopped faster then I could. Now that things have settled down a little. I want to know why I couldn't stop that well. I have a stock XJ. I recently put new pads and rotors on the front because my old ones were digging into the rotors. I noticed after I changed them that when I hit the brakes hard, it would pull the Jeep to the left. The guys at my work said it was most likely the calipers. Great. 30 bucks later, I changed both sides an I still have a pull and I did properly bleed the brakes. I'm worried that my master cylinder is on it's way out. I feel like I have to push the brake pedal halfway down to feel any pressure or any type of braking. My dad thinks it's the master cylinder. My boss thinks it's the brake hoses. I need this fixed asap so I can drive safely.

Thanks guys. It's an 01 Jeep Cherokee completely stock with no lift and only 235/75R15 tires

1976Mustang

XJ's never had the best brakes, but you should be able to lock the tires up on a stocker '01 (Or at least get the ABS going). But to test the master cylinder, with the engine off pump the brakes a few times until the pedals hard, then press and hold it. If it sinks slowly, your master cylinder has an internal leak.

doral330

Thank you. I will try this. On Thursday I pushed my pedal to the floor in an effort to slow down and my brakes didn't lock up or even chirp and I don't have ABS. I'll go try this tonight. Thank you again

1976Mustang

This may be a stupid question but, you did bleed the brakes correct? Just though of that.

jedijeb

I have an 85xj that I am rebuilding and it had horrible brakes when I got it. You could put the pedal to the floor and hope to stop in a few hundred yards. So I changed the front caliper, pads and rotors and it helped a lot but still wasn't great. I then flushed the old fluid out by opening one of the bleeders and pumping it all out of the master cylinder (was only the large rear reservoir which feeds the front brakes) then used a rag to wipe out some brown sludge in there, making sure not to leave any lint in it, and put in fresh fluid and kept flushing until it was just clean fluid coming out of the caliper. Then repeated with the other side.

This made the brakes a lot better, but still not great. So I did the same to the rear ones after getting another quart of fluid. Once the old fluid was out, brown sludge cleaned out and fresh fluid flushed through both sides I have really good brakes now, even though it only has the single diaphragm vacuum booster. Seems old fluid really makes a difference in how the brakes work. If you haven't done a complete flush, try it. It may take a quart or more of fluid to do it completely but that is an inexpensive first measure to try.

freegdr

Master cylinders apply pressure to to front and rear it don't segregate left or right dads right replace both hoses adjust up rear brakes then bleed...

1976Mustang

Damn you answered before I could look it up! I couldn't remember how the brakes where setup on '01s.