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My free Pathfinder


Preacher
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Earlier in the year a family friend gave my a 2004 Pathfinder that her daughter had basically abandoned after the rear trailing arm broke.  I got him home, replaced both rear trailing arms, and the track rod.  Found out the transfer case was bad, found one for $25 from a salvage yard and put it in.  I now need to put an exhaust system on it and replace the rear brakes.  The interior is pretty nasty but just in need of a good cleaning.  I also need to remount the 3rd brake light.  Once I put oil in the engine, it ran super smooth.  By next week it should be running and driving so that I can move onto the next phase of putting on some new tires and doing a full detail (I don't like driving filthy cars).

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I'll be sharing photo's tomorrow.  Once all the work was done I looked at the tires and they were awful so I ordered a new set and they are being put on tomorrow.  I put oil in the engine to get it running, but use a low quality oil.  I'll run that for a few weeks and then change to a synthetic (which I run in my cars).  Despite all mechanical work being done, the real work begins when it's time to clean it up.  It's dirty and smells like nothing I have ever experienced on the inside.  We have a u-pull-it yard about 30 miles away.  After the interior cleaning, I'll make a list of what trim parts and I need and take a trip.

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Got the Pathfinder running.  The issue is that I have no brakes.  The master cylinder is full and nothing is leaking.  I just have brakes that go to the floor.  The brakes are so rusty that I know I"m going to break the bleed valve trying to loosen it to bleed them.  I'm also wondering if the master cylinder is the issue.  Any help here would be greatly appreciate. 

 

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Not every day you see a red one!


You said the rear brakes needed work. If you've done that, did you adjust them afterwards? If the shoes are sitting a good ways off the drums, it'll take some pedal travel to extend them to where they're supposed to be. It's a dual circuit master, so even if one circuit's got a problem, you should still have pressure to the other one, the pedal will just "catch" lower. At least that's what my '93 did when the rear brakes weren't working--the pedal felt like crap but the fronts would still lock the tires. Have a look through the BR section of the service manual, there should at least be a diagram to help you wrap your head around what you're up against. Hopefully it's something simple and doesn't fight you too hard. All I learned from troubleshooting my brakes was that I hate working on brakes!

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There is almost no brake pressure at all.  They just drop to the floor.  I ordered new calipers (the old ones look like they have been sitting underwater).  It feels like I have no front brakes at all.  I'm thinking that once I get the new calipers and get them on that I can attempt to properly bleed the air out of the lines.  If that doesn't work, I"ll look at the master cylinder (although I have my doubts about it being bad).  I know that brake fluid is hydroscopic.  Can water in brake fluid cause this issue?  It would feel better if I could see somewhere that this thing is leaking (but I have NO fluid loss).  

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Water in the fluid can cause corrosion, and lower the fluid's boiling point, but it shouldn't let the pedal to go to the floor like that. Total failure like that sounds like either both circuits have air in them or the master is shot, and air in the system seems unlikely if it hasn't been apart, isn't leaking, and hasn't been upside down. (I don't know enough about your ABS setup to rule that out, either.) Have someone else work the brakes while you roll around underneath. See if you can feel any of the rubber lines squirm when pressure is applied. Maybe whatever broke the trailing arm damaged the soft line to the rear end, and it's swelling when you press the pedal?

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