Chrysler Repair: brakes, antilock brakes, chrysler dealer

Question
New Yorker Fifth Ave, 1990, V6, Front wheel drive

I have had different diagnosis, so I decided to take it to a Chrysler Dealer.  They fixed a memory part that was not reading with I paid $500.00, then they called me back and said that they had found another problems with the brakes said that I the master cylinder brakes was leaking and needed to be replace, but the cost for the part was around 1,200.00,  so I was looking to spend around 1,600.00 with parts and labor.  He said that the brakes were working as long as I made sure that I was not low on brake fluid.  So I did check the brake fluid and it was low.  I continue driving the car sometimes the brake light would turn on then go off, other times the brake light would stay on and sometimes the brake light never turned on.  

But, still I only used it around home, because I did not feel save driving it with this brake light on even though the brakes were working OK.

Now, the brake light went out but the anti-brake light turn on, now I could feel the brakes are not working.

I have had 2 New Yorkers because I love this car, but the brakes is just a piece of problems I have spend so much money in repairs with brakes and transmission.

I hope you could help me, my family what's me to sell it, but I can't I love my old Betsy.

Hope you don't get discourage with this question or questions, hope you could give me an advise or help me out.

Sincerely,

Lupe  

Answer
Hi Lupe,
I can't believe that the master cylinder is a $1200 part. As I understand the anti-lock brake system, it is fail-safe which means that it can't fail in such a way as to cause you to lose all your braking power, and if it is bad you would still have brakes that are as good as a car without antilock brakes. So I would be inclined to let the antilock system be unusable and ignore that ABS light. But if the master cylinder is leaking, then you do have to deal with that. But I would go slowly and carefully to an independent garage that specializes in brakes and see what they would charge to replace the master cylinder or rebuild it using a rebuild kit to replace the wornout parts. (You might call them up or visit them to see what they say before you drive the car to them). I suspect you could get that done for a few hundred dollars. Then you would have a working master cylinder and little or no leakage so it might be safe to drive again, even without the ABS working. The marked up price of buying a new master cylinder for a 25 year-old car may be what has the Chrysler dealer giving you that sort of an estimate, and maybe they want you to give up and buy a new car from them. But I believe that you can get the brake system repaired (if it is just the master cylinder) so that it is safe to drive at a lot less than $1600. Ask around to see if anyone can recommend a good independent shop (not Midas or Meineke) where there are mechanics who can rebuild a master cylinder with the use of a repair kit.
Let me know what luck you have with that approach to the problem. If that fails, and you have anyone in your house that works on cars, then another approach would be to go to a wrecking yard and remove an identical master cylinder fron a Chrysler of that vintage and see if it would work without leaking. Master cylinder replacement is not all that hard to do.
Roland