Angry Gandhi
05-29-2016, 07:15 PM
Hi everyone. I recently purchased my first BMW for a good price but of course it came with some issues. I got a '90 E34 535i /6 and the previous owner said that the brake master cylinder needed to be replaced.
I'm not sure if he actually went in a took a look at it but I figured I would remove it to see if any of the hoses are leaking or the seals are bad. The brake lines are full of air, and the master cylinder constantly leaks brake fluid.
An OEM brake master cylinder for this car is around $250 so I wanted to take it out and see if I could assess the damage. Hopefully its just a bad hose (they look pretty janky) but no fluid seems to be leaking from there.
The only problem is that I can't seem to take off the cylinder. I managed to get one of the metal hoses that go to the ABS modulator off but there is another one towards the brake booster as well as a rubber hose next to it that are proving difficult to remove.
I looked for a few hours on the interwebs trying to find an article or a video on removing the brake master cylinder on an E34 but with no luck. So as a last resort, I figured I'd consult the forum for some help.
A buddy said he found a video for a newer 540 8 cylinder video showing how to remove the brake master cylinder, but it involves him removing the brake booster. The engine layout is different so I don't know if it would be very relevant.
My main question is: can I remove the brake master cylinder without removing the brake booster, and how would I go about that? Can I remove the brake fluid reservoir separately? As removing the reservoir would give me access to the remaining hoses.
Let me know if there is a video or a guide for this. Just need some help getting in the right direction.
BTW here is the car: the owner didn't bother to clean the car so it looks like garbage in these pics. Its much worse in person.:eek:
http://i.imgur.com/a6xnK8M.jpg?3http://i.imgur.com/wJvez9D.jpg?2
I'm not sure if he actually went in a took a look at it but I figured I would remove it to see if any of the hoses are leaking or the seals are bad. The brake lines are full of air, and the master cylinder constantly leaks brake fluid.
An OEM brake master cylinder for this car is around $250 so I wanted to take it out and see if I could assess the damage. Hopefully its just a bad hose (they look pretty janky) but no fluid seems to be leaking from there.
The only problem is that I can't seem to take off the cylinder. I managed to get one of the metal hoses that go to the ABS modulator off but there is another one towards the brake booster as well as a rubber hose next to it that are proving difficult to remove.
I looked for a few hours on the interwebs trying to find an article or a video on removing the brake master cylinder on an E34 but with no luck. So as a last resort, I figured I'd consult the forum for some help.
A buddy said he found a video for a newer 540 8 cylinder video showing how to remove the brake master cylinder, but it involves him removing the brake booster. The engine layout is different so I don't know if it would be very relevant.
My main question is: can I remove the brake master cylinder without removing the brake booster, and how would I go about that? Can I remove the brake fluid reservoir separately? As removing the reservoir would give me access to the remaining hoses.
Let me know if there is a video or a guide for this. Just need some help getting in the right direction.
BTW here is the car: the owner didn't bother to clean the car so it looks like garbage in these pics. Its much worse in person.:eek:
http://i.imgur.com/a6xnK8M.jpg?3http://i.imgur.com/wJvez9D.jpg?2