Well.

All this talk of Griff's master cylinder must have rubbed off! Driving around last night and the dreaded
ABS light'o'death comes on. Everything looks good externally. The light is intermittent. I have had a
little pedal fade for a while so figured I'd take a look under the dash. Damn brake fluid all over the
brake pedal. Anyone have a Vag-Com in this area so I can take a look at the codes? I'm in Germantown, MD
but definitely wouldn't be opposed to a road trip. I plan on buying one myself when I get back from
Vacation but I'd like to get it read before then so I can start planning the fix.
Thanks

~Mike
Better drive slow for now edition.

Sorry for putting the MC hex on you, Mike, but actually my current problem lies with the clutch MC, not
the brake MC. My new one from Potterman is scheduled to be delivered on the 25th. I'll let you all know
how the swap goes.

If your brake pedal is wet and you're getting an intermittent ABS light, I'd say you brake MC diagnosis is
probably right on the mark. As part of an inadvertantly upside-down front brake caliper fiasco, I
(needlessly) replaced my brake MC last fall. Not a cheap part. I think the cheapest OEM replacement I saw
was from German Auto Parts ($235?). It's a pretty straightforward job, the biggest PITA being having to
deal with all the hard lines coming from the ABS controller. If you're going to DIY, just be careful not
to bend any of them. And labelling which one goes where is never a bad idea.

And if you don't have one already, get yourself a Power Bleeder. A greater time and effort saver has never
been invented.

--Griff

Good luck on the install =). I'm definitely doing this one myself. Especially if the part costs that much.
Owww. Were the hard lines the only things that you had issues with? I was checking it out over the weekend
and those definitely look to be a pita. I'm thinking this might be a good time to switch to super blue
brake fluid. I've had the bottle for a while just been procrastinating purging out the whole system. Guess
I'm lucky works only a few blocks away. I'll post pix when I do it.

Yeah, the hard lines were pretty much the only PITA part of the swap. You might want to invest in a set of
flare wrenches just to be safe, but they're not strictly necessary. It helps make more room to work if you
unbolt the coolant expansion reservoir and move it to one side. Ditto the thick vacuum line from the
intake mani to the vacuum booster. Other than that, IIRC, you just undo two bolts and the MC comes right
out. No need to bench bleed it, either. Just put the new one in, button everything up, and bleed your
brakes and clutch slave cylinder as normal. And as always, have lots of shop rags handy, esp. when taking
out the ABS module. Brake fluid + paint = no more paint.

I definitely recommend the Super Blue, too. If you do any amount of hard-on-the-brakes driving, it's fade
resistance is noticeable.

--Griff