Milano & ABS

["Ben Ament" <bament@domain.elided>]

Okay guys, here's one that I need help diagnosing. Milano brakes. Yesterday
everything worked fine (though pedal a little hard for my taste - rear pads
do need replaced) until I went to the car wash. (The car wash has little or
nothing to do with this - you decide.) In the car wash I set the parking
brake and relaxed. When I released the parking brake and drove out the pedal
was even harder than usual. And then I realized that the brakes weren't
grabbing! Hard pedal - no brakes. Parking brake got me home.

I opened the hood to see what I could see and found brake fluid all over the
top of the reservoir dripping down onto the exhaust. No time to deal with
it, I closed the hood.

Finally checked it out a bit today. Brake pedal felt good so I started the
engine. Still good pedal. Drove the car around the block. The third time I
applied the brakes,  the pedal went to the floor. I could not pump it up
more than just a little and then the left front braked grabbed (slightly).
Parking brake got me home, again.

Yesterday hard pedal - no brakes. Today no pedal - no brakes. Fluid again
all over the top of the master cylinder reservoir.

Since this car has ABS I want to be certain that the diagnosis is correct
before tearing into it.  The ABS light on the dash has been on. And you
probably should know that until the past week or so this car has sat for
over a year. Total miles covered are fewer than 45,000.

What do you think?

Thanks in advance,
Ben
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