I just bought my 88 z31 and it drove fine on the ride home, but now the rear brakes are seizing up when I'm not pressing the brake pedal. Is this the Master Cylinder or the booster? I didn't see any leaks when I was checking around the car either. Any help would be great.


Update: Cleaned out brake line and put a c clamp on the pistons. Bled the brakes again and now working with no problems. Thanks for the help! Car is running and braking wonderfully

 

Check the parking brake mechanism. A lot of times if the car sits or the previous owner doesn't use the parking brake it can lock up when it starts getting used. I also had a rear brake caliper partially lock with the parking brake on, had to disconnect the cable and take the spring apart to get it to release. Mine was so bad that I'm ending up replacing the caliper on the left rear, usually that isn't necessary. The odds that the problem would be booster or master cylinder related are pretty remote, they usually don't do anything unless you are actively pressing on the pedal. Take the rear tires off and look the calipers over real good as well as the parking brake linkage to the calipers. Hose them down with some brake cleaner and see if that helps, 7 out of 10 times a good cleaning and actuating the system a bunch of times will free up a parking brake system. That sounds to me like what your problem is.

 

Thanks a lot! I'll try that today!

 

So I did what you told me and the car drove for a little bit but then the brakes started locking up when I didn't even touch the brake pedal. It's not just the rear brakes but the front as well since I can smell burning coming from all four tires. Not sure what the issue is, for some reason the car isn't releasing pressure from the brakes. I really don't wanna take it into a shop since they can be pretty expensive but I think that might be my only option since I cant diagnose anything.

 

What car do you have? 88z dosnt tell me anything

 

88zx n/a 2+2 5 speed