Afternoon everyone,

I received a call from my wife while I was on the road. She said that the brakes had felt "Smooshy" and had a hard time breaking. I know how my wife drives, as if the CRD has a warp engine. I had replaced the horrible rear OEM discs and pads a few months ago. Brakes were back to making you think you could stop. I told her to take it easy and not drive more than she needed to, I would look at them in the morning. I took a look, reservoir level is on the max line. No fluid leaking from the wheels, master cylinder, booster or break lines. But I did notice that I could turn on the jeep, let it idle and push the break pedal slowly down to the floor. The pedal firms up when you pump it rapidly. This made me think it was the master cylinder no longer able to hold pressure. I lurk a little around the forums here, and notice that some say it is the break hoses swelling with age, not the master cylinder. Any thoughts?? Thanks in advance.

Before you just replace the master cylinder trace your brake lines and check each fitting for leaks and pull each wheel and check the brake cylinder/caliper assembly for leaks. I've not had problems with my CRD but have seen leaks or bad wheel cylinders on other vehicles. Also the 2 times I've lost a master cylinder you could see it leaking out from behind the rubber fitting inside the cab at the firewall behind the brake pedal, thats a dead give away that it's the master cylinder.

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

We have a vacuum brake booster so it will leak into the booster. Fluid would go down.
Sometimes a caliper will hang up and make the rotor flex since the force is only going on one pad instead of both. You will need to pull the wheel, put the lug nuts back on to hold on the rotor and have some one else pump the brake pedal with the engine running to catch this one, rare but it happens.
If your pads and rotors are on their last leg, they can make the pedal feel spongy too.
My brakes felt crappy and would activate the ABS where the pedal sinks when I had to stop hard, until I replaced the front rotors and pads, now they feel solid and stop better.
QC on some of the rebuilt masters is not great, I had problems with my wife's TDI after replacing both the master and booster, brakes would lock up on her.

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2006 Pearl Green CRD
Magnaflow 2 1/2" Cat Back
KJ Extra Leg Room Brackets, Carter Lift Pump, V6 Airbox, ORM
Fuel cooler, Oil Separator, Progard 7
Gauges EGT Boost Trans Temp Oil Pres, Michelin LXT AT2 245 70 R16
7,000# Draw Tight hitch, PML EX Deep Trans Pan
Centrifuge, SunCoast, Transgo, RAM TCM, InMotion Stage 2
Wife's 99 TDI VW Beetle

Quick and easy test for the booster and master cylinder....................

With the engine off pump the peddle at least 10-15 times to deplete any vacuum in the booster(more for the CRD to deplete the vacuum canister),then hold firm pressure on the brake peddle,don't try and mash the peddle through the floor just some firm peddle pressure.Then start the engine,the peddle should fall about 1",maybe 2" at max and hold steady.If the peddle does not drop at all when the engine starts the booster is bad(or has a vacuum leak),if the peddle continues to fall to the floor the master has a internal leak.