We've got a 2002 Taurus, and yesterday eve, noticed that the brake pressure seemed low, as the pedal went to the floor, or I had to pump the brakes to get any pressure. Checked the level, seemed a little low, and added some fluid. Wife pumped the brakes with the cap off the master cylinder, and there were a lot of bubbles coming up.

Air in the system?

We just got the car back from having the AC replaced, so I don't know if the mechanic had to remove anything from the braking system to get to the AC unit.

I've looked online to see what the master cylinder would cost, wondering how one tells if the have the traction control(ABS?) or not?

Since adding the fluid, have the brakes tightened up? Is there fluid leaking from behind the master cylinder? If no to both, I would start with bleeding the system to remove any air. By bleeding the brakes, you might find a bad caliper or brake cylinder. If the brakes are still soft, then I would suspect a weak master cylinder and would replace it. Good Luck.

We found that one of the rear shoes was really worn. Replaced the shoes and hardware, so far everything seems good.

Thanks for the follow-up post. Did you figure out why the one side shoes were worn more than the other? Is your parking brake sticking? Is the self adjuster hardware working freely?

-Rod

The shoes on both sides were almost metal to metal. Just happened to catch it in the nick of time. I guess the low brake pressure was just a warning, we've had no problems with it since the rear brakes were repaired.

The AC pulley was really, really noisy. So, that hid any noise we would have heard from the brakes.