My memory’s a little foggy . . .
Are you the guy that works at Autozone . . . ?
Please forgive me if I just insulted the heck out of you 
If you are that guy, does Autozone still have some kind of “spokesperson” on TV ads . . . I can’t recall seeing Jesse James promoting the brand, lately. I’m assuming he’s “too good” for that now
[quote=“db4690, post:21, topic:94123, full:true”]
My memory’s a little foggy . . .
Are you the guy that works at Autozone . . . ?
Please forgive me if I just insulted the heck out of you
If you are that guy, does Autozone still have some kind of “spokesperson” on TV ads . . . I can’t recall seeing Jesse James promoting the brand, lately. I’m assuming he’s “too good” for that now
[/quote]Yes, that’s me, in my retirement job.
No insult taken.
I don’t recall seeing any AutoZone commercials recently.
I agree with the Master Cylinder (MC) as #1 on the candidate list.
I also urge you to please seek out a reputable independently owned and operated shop and have the car towed there. This vehicle is unsafe to drive.
For some reason that I don’t understand, many new car dealerships seem disinteresting in doing serious diagnosis on old vehicles. We’ve discussed this among ourselves here on the website, and I still don’t understand it. But whether I’m right or wrong, this dealer clearly isn’t doing the job for you and is allowing you to drive away with a vehicle that could get you killed. Please, I urge you, have the car towed to another shop.
By the way, an independent will likely save you lots of cash too. Dealerships typically charge more for parts and for labor.
Hit the brake pedal hard and fast. The MC is kind of like a syringe. A syringe has a rubber-sealed plunger that pushes fluid out of the needle. If you get something between the rubber seal and the syringe wall, you’ll get fluid leaking past the seal and behind the plunger instead of going out through the needle.
If you have a leaky MC seal, then hitting the brake fast doesn’t give the fluid time to leak past the seal before you get some braking pressure.
Needless to say, this is what to do if you discover that you’ve just borrowed a car with a leaky MC. If you know your MC is leaky, it should not be driven until it’s fixed.
That isn’t unusual. It can sometimes take time for the gunk the piston picks up to get bunched up under the seal and cause a leak.
Also adding another “for the record” that I’ve had several MCs go out on me and friends over the years, and they’ve never caused the brake light to turn on.
Excellent added point, shadow.
The brake warning light (not the ABS light) reacts to a float sensor in the brake fluid reservoir. Since fluid passing by the seals in the MC pistons moves between the pistons internally and never reduces the fluid level in the reservoir, the light never illuminates. The float has no way of knowing fluid is passing the pistons internal to the MC.