Help! No brakes on daily driver

[SarahLizzie]

Hi,
I have a 1998 explorer sport 2 dr. The brakes recently failed (went slack and barely stopped me until i pressed all th way down) while I was on a hill, but came back as soon as I was flat. I assumed it was due to angle and made a mental note to take it in ASAP. Then last night on my way home from work the same thing happened again in a flat lot. The brakes work. But only at the very bottom of the pedal. There is absolutely no tension until I get almost to the bottom. The car changed hands thru many family member and had a few minor fender benders but nothing serious. The only mods it has are electrical (extra lights for a firefighter), and the front right tire is the spare currently. For a few weeks there was a tube hanging down from the back between the wheels, but nothing dripping. Someone told me it looked like a brake thing but then someone else told me the brake tube had a pattern or lines on it and this one was smooth. I put dot 3 in last night and it emptied by morning but I never saw any change in tension when pushing down. Also now when I pump the brakes there is fluid on the ground. Please help as this is my daily driver!!
Thanks,
Sarah

 

[budwich]

get it to a repair shop before you kill yourself and / or someone else.

 

[snoranger]

Your leaking brake fluid from a blown hose, line, caliper, etc. Dont drive it this way, its VERY unsafe. Get it fixed ASAP.

 

[SarahLizzie]

Thanks for replying guys do you think this is something I could have my friends do? One is a mechanic for the Benz dealer. He took a cursory look the other night when I got stuck at work and he will be taking a look at it this weekend. I have a good working knowledge of wranglers (sorry, I'm a jeeper!!) but I'm unsure if the bones of a ford is the same.

 

[drdoom]

Should be no problem at all. Best wishes.

 

[AlexSport'00]

Yeah, brakes are brakes, so you should be fine once you find the break. But a break in the brakes is very dangerous to drive with, so definitely get it fixed before you drive it and break something else.
Sorry, I just felt like making the wording extra confusing with tons of homophones. I do weird things at 1am. Either way, definitely get it fixed and it shouldn't be that hard if you know your stuff. But if you have any doubt, make sure your mechanic friend checks it all out too, just to be safe.

 

[96eb96]

master cylinder could be bad.