Fluid leaking into drivers footwell

[BritishTvr450]

After completing a full body off chassis restoration during and after Covid my car has been stored while I and the country go through a cost of living crisis which for me has been a very difficult period of time.
Anyway to the point,
Ran my car upto temp yesterday and as it also has a marvellous MBE ignition system fitted started within about 2 seconds of turning the key, very happy and impressed.
Still not to the point so here goes,,,,
Tried clutch and brake pedal.
Clutch working perfectly but had a long brake pedal then noticed liquid in drivers footwell.
Master cyl showed almost empty so filled it up and brakes do work and stop the car well but travel is far too long.

So I assume this is either master cyl seals or servo failing.

3 questions.
1 if it’s master cyl seals would that leak into servo and then into car
2 can fluid leak into car if master cyl is ok but servo rotten through.
When pressing pedal I can here a suction type sound.
3 who do we recommend for both parts if replacement is needed.

Thanks in advance.

[PabloGee]

Here's what I can help with:

1 - Yes m/c seals would leak into the servo - but whether it leaks into the car would reflect the condition of the servo - the edges are pressed to seal, and can rust through. Mine looked like this with no symptoms of fluid leak or brake troubles (I inspected it when replacing the clutch m/c):



2 - fluid only lives in the m/c and associated pipework leading to the brake pistons, the servo should be entirely dry inside, so this would be a 'no'

3 - I plumped for Motaclan because of availability, but also because the master cylinder looked much more robust. So far so good.




ETA: when I did this job, I unbolted the accelerator pedal from the pedal box, unbolted both m/cs from the pedal box, which allowed me to pass the pedal box by the steering column without undoing it. Just in case that's a concern.

Edited by PabloGee on Thursday 27th June 08:42

[Sardonicus]

Alun its your master cyl failed by the sounds of it , get that off the servo soon as possible or you'll be needing one of those too because the fluid can creep past the servo vacuum seal around the push-rod over a long period and into the servo like pic above master cyl easily sourced servo's not so and expensive

[TJC46]

As this is one of the worse jobs on a Chimaera to do, i would replace both master cylinder and servo at the same time.

I replaced the master cylinder when doing a full body off resto, only to have the servo fail some 4 years later.

When it failed i was driving along behind some very nice cars with a particularly very nice Austin Healy 3000 directly in front of me.

Everyone was heading to the classic car show at Tatton Park. The Healy in front started to brake and as i pressed my pedal....nothing happened, i had to

stand on the pedal as hard as i could whilst also pulling on the handbrake.........I stopped about 3 inches from the rear of the Healy. At this point i

abandoned attending the show, i drove home very carefully and put the car back in the garage......and changed my trousers !

Don't skimp on the braking system, do it once, do it right.

As someone else said you can remove the pedal box without disturbing the steering column, but access is still not easy

Clean and paint the pedal box whilst it is out, and good luck.

[Sardonicus]

Unless the servo body is rotten I would leave it in place never changed one in my whole career off the source Fiesta ( v common back in the day ) and the TVR should be no different unless its soiled/rotten , master cylinder alone is easy enough job , not contradicting TJC46 just saying

[BritishTvr450]

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

Talked to Frank (blaze away) earlier and have a couple of tests to do but essentially it’s as everyone’s comments above.