no brake fluid in my bmw and my girlfriends camaro... sabotage???

[92BMW318is]

Some how within a 2day period my brake fluid disappeared along with my girl friends brake fluid. I'm not sure what caused this, as I am kinda paranoid at the moment about it ha. I was driving on the highway tonight. Then when I tried to slow down the brakes wernt working. I pressed them down all the way and all I heard was a swoosh noise everytime I pressed them.  But I managed to stop slowly by down shifting... Luckly I was on the highway...  

        Idk 2days before this my girl friends camaro. Runs out of fluid. When it was snowing when she was making her way around a turn she tries to stop and almost hits a tree.


My questions are if some one was going to fuck with my and my girlfriends brakes how would they go about doing it. I checked the lines going to the caliper  and didn't see any fluid and then looked the reservoir  and didn't see any leaks. Are the rear tires on the BMW connected to the reservoir? Where should I be looking on both our cars.. :l

I don't want the next time to show how I died in the newspaper. My e brake doesn't work.

[Geoff]

that is indeed very strange.   it would be difficult to do that to someone elses car and have there be no sign that someone was working on said  car. the only way I have ever heard of that being done a brakeline was cut.  your car has both metal and rubber brake lines going to all four wheels.  someone with evil intentions could cut a rubber line, but you should be able to see that.  at the very least you would think you would see signs of fluid leaking out.    good luck, and keep an eye out when your car is parked
                                                              G

[DesktopDave]

That's odd.  If I wanted to do that I'd pop open the hood & pull the reservoir off.  Once it drained I'd put it back on and I'd break a warning light wire.  A little wear on the pads...the master cylinder would suck some air...no mo' brakes.  A decent mech would spot my grimy fingerprints though (not to mention the wire).

Did you get a brake light?  Check that to be sure...the low fluid warning light should have been on for a while if you had no fluid.

I'd be keeping a very close look on the rear lines.  They have a habit of cracking, especially those two b@stards up over the rear axle.  Doesn't take much leakage to drain the master cyl.

[dj91318is]

^ ^ ^  Look for leakage areas NOW!!.  I ran a stop sign turning right, My life flashed befor me, Tee Boaned! Good thing their was no car's comming my way.

that is indeed very strange.   it would be difficult to do that to someone elses car and have there be no sign that someone was working on said  car. the only way I have ever heard of that being done a brakeline was cut.  your car has both metal and rubber brake lines going to all four wheels.  someone with evil intentions could cut a rubber line, but you should be able to see that.  at the very least you would think you would see signs of fluid leaking out.    good luck, and keep an eye out when your car is parked
                                                              G

[92BMW318is]

Okay its line rot in my cars brake line that goes under the driver side seat apparently to the rear wheels the whole line needs replaced it appears.. I was wondering if it is possible to cap that line the rear breaks don't work with the push pedal I assume it uses the e break.

   So could I cap that line instead of running a new line all the way back and just have front wheel brakes

[deansweet]

Okay its line rot in my cars brake line that goes under the driver side seat apparently to the rear wheels the whole line needs replaced it appears.. I was wondering if it is possible to cap that line the rear breaks don't work with the push pedal I assume it uses the e break.

   So could I cap that line instead of running a new line all the way back and just have front wheel brakes

I'm sure I will get a 'heated' response for this but just as theoretically unreliable as capping the brake line off you could cut the existing line from before the rust to after the rust in the line, buy a short piece of hard brake line, using compression fittings that use the fluting method and complete the line. You will need to rent/buy the fluting tool to complete this.
Then, of course, bleed the back brakes.

[92BMW318is]

I'm sure I will get a 'heated' response for this but just as theoretically unreliable as capping the brake line off you could cut the existing line from before the rust to after the rust in the line, buy a short piece of hard brake line, using compression fittings that use the fluting method and complete the line. You will need to rent/buy the fluting tool to complete this.
Then, of course, bleed the back brakes.

   
 I bought some straight line earlier and all the other necessary items but then. I got under the car and there are like 6 brackets holding the line and all the screws are rusted to where a screw driver can no longer turn them then on top of this the line goes up and over the gas tank the disapears but before it goes up there's a 90 degree angle. On the angle its all rusted I'm afraid bending it even a little cuz it will open another hole in the line. I could get a longer line. But then I would have to drop my gas tank in order to get to the back length of brake line.

[DesktopDave]

Yep.  It's a right bitch to fix those lines.  They run too much pressure to patch with epoxy, and they snake all over the place.  BMW did make some even worse, especially the self-levelling system on the e24's and e32's.  Don't worry too much about breaking the hard line, surface corrosion usually looks worse than it is.  I usually brush it off with a green or blue 3M pad soaked with WD40 to see how bad it is.

Even if you do break another section, it has to be done.  This a good place for shortcuts.  Even if you/passengers/other people don't get hurt you'll likely be out a car if you miss a spot.

Dean is right...I hope you got a decent "bubble" flare tool (like this one), tubing cutter and maybe a tubing bender (they're cheap and work outstandingly well) along with the compression fittings and poly coated mild steel line.  Carefully cut the rusted section out, and splice a good piece of line into the system.  If the brackets are seized, I'd use a Dremel to grind off the screw heads or cut the rusted section of hard line out.  If you do it that way, make sure you use the tubing cutter to make a good straight cut on the lines and remove any burrs before attempting to flare the end.   Lube that flaring die with light oil or brake fluid before making the flare and make sure the line is correctly aligned.  If the cuts aren't perfect the flare tool won't work.  It's not easy but it's worth it.  Then ziptie it all back on and see if it'll pass inspection.

BTW the "bubble" flare is the Euro method, it's different than the Japanese (ISO?) and older US (double flare) methods.  I hate those little phillips-head screws BMW uses on brake clips.  What did they save, like $0.09 a car from not using 8mm bolts?

[enildeR]

For those rusted screws, this might work for you...
http://www.harborfreight.com/impact-screwdriver-set-with-case-37530.html

[92BMW318is]

Alright, so i replaced the line.. didn't mess with the brackets I just ran the line along the side of the brackets and zip tied them to it. kinda getto I know.. but it saved 2 hours dremeling the screws out. either way its fixed.

but what I didn't see last night (it was dark) was that the line that leads to the back, runs up behind the gas tank then runs into a T-joint. the T-joint then splits off to each rear calipers.

before I realized there was a T-joint I was bending the line down some to fit the flanger on it (one bulky ass tool) i managed to flange it. there was aprox. 1 1/2 inch of straight line then it ran up to a 90 degree angle. on the angle it was rusted out. i went to bend the line back up and it snnnappped...  I was soo furious..... until I seen the T-joint. I went to advanced auto parts and got a metric to standard fitting and connected it to the T. and then to the fresh brake line.

Then another 2 hours of bleeding each caliper.

And I was done.. Brakes work better then ever

Thanks people for the help..

I still think its weird that my girlfriends car and my car both ran out of brake fluid at the same time.