This happened about 2 weeks ago.
I was on my way home from school at College Park when I stopped at a gas station to fill up. The brakes on my 96 tahoe were a bit soft so I checked the brake fluid. The pads need to be replaced but I figured it would be a temporary solution to just shore up the fluid. I added some and got back on the road.
About five minutes later I started to notice that the brake pedal was a bit harder to depress than usual. It still worked, but the faster and harder I mashed it, the more resistance it put up.
I spent the next half hour in traffic on the beltway.
When I got off the beltway, the brake pedal was as hard as a brick. I'd mash down on it with all my weight and it would slowly, gradually reach the floor board. The car would slow down, but never come to a sudden halt. Also, the sound of air escaping air would eminate from the pedal whenever I touched it. Finally, and most perplexing, is that whenever I'd come to a stop at a light, with the tranny in drive and the brake down to the floor just to keep the car from rolling out into the intersection, the engine would die. I had to keep it in neutral.
Made an emergency stop at a service station. Guy there, who'd changed my oil before, took a good look at me, a less thorough look at the truck and told me that the master brake cylinder needed replacing. $800-$1000, says mullet-head. I thanked him and drove home, my hazard lights blinking.
Anyway, Tahoe's still fluffied... It was 80 miles shy of 100,000 and completely unusable.
Anyone know what the deal might be with the brakes.
