Likely culprit for spongy brakes and leaking fluid?

[mhopton]

89 LX with drums. Good and firm all the way around til yesterday and began noticing the pedal easily making it to the floor. Checked brake fluid level and it was fine, so thought maybe the booster was going. Checked again this morning when the brake light came on and the level had drained to the "low" line from the middle. Likely culprit? No obvious drips or leaks on the booster or the filller - my guess is a cylinder in the drums popped... ideas?

thanks -
mike

[smufguy]

Usually its the wheel cylinders that go bad. CHeck them first and then trace them to the flex hoses at each end and see if there is a visible leak.

[jlros75]

Usually its the wheel cylinders that go bad.
I second that, some year's ago I had almost the same problem but I had to remove the drums to find the leak at the wheel cylinders.

[mhopton]

Found the culprit... it was the flexhose on the front drivers side... $42 bux at Advance. Any tips/tricks in replacing this? Looks pretty simple.

thanks for the replies...

mike

[chainz]

Found the culprit... it was the flexhose on the front drivers side... $42 bux at Advance. Any tips/tricks in replacing this? Looks pretty simple.
thanks for the replies...
mike

hmm... do some checking cause u might be able to replace all ur hoses with steel braided for not much more.

[jlros75]

Same line exploded on mine while I was aproaching an amber light, very scary because I couldn't stop an roll the red light. Good thing is that nobody was driving at that intersection.
Coming back to how to fix it, at the connection flex hose to hard line attached to the body there is a spring clip, you can remove it with regular nose plyers, then use a flare nut wrench at the steel line to prevent a twist on the line and use a regular wrench on the flex hose, it may be a good idea to remove the flex hose from caliper first and let it bleed.
Hope this helps a little.