Well I am not truck driver but I am a former GM/ASME master tech who is now a manufacturing engineer for a company that makes seals. You are correct that 99% of the time master cylinders don't fail all at once but 99.9% of the cars on the road do NOT have 30 year old seals in them, On the plus side yours may have been replaced already but that is not a gamble I would take.

 

You know GM built the first Iroc Z in 1985?

 

Dont know about the mechanical aspects of it but that car looks great. My son is buying a 90 RS for $1300 this evening and it doesn't look THAT pretty. It's actually more rough looking but it's what he wanted it to look like. I'll post comparisons when it's here but he had a 95 that was beautiful that we bought for him and he had someone total it for him a few weeks ago. He never really liked the car because he thought it was too pretty and girly looking. He wanted one with "character" lol

 

also, i am pretty sure there are seperate seals for the front and rear systems. in order for a car to lose its brakes, you would have to blow the front, rear, AND have an E brake cable fail. highly unlikey. however, I just waxed the ole gal. what do you think? not bad for 29 year old paint!

 

Rear brakes on a Camaro are responsible for a little less than 30% of the cars stopping power. Also It’s a park brake NOT and emergency brake it is design to keep a stopped car from moving not to stop a moving car.

The question is not whether you can drive to grandma house on a nice day without the car getting away from you. When you drive a car every day it is just a matter of time before you will need to push the car to it designed limits. Under this situation loosing even 50% of your braking can mean the differences between a wreck you walk away from and a wreck no one walks away from. When it happens and that adrenalin is pumping your strength doubles because you know you are going to wreck the only question left is how bad. Do you really want a 30 year old seal or hose between you and your brake pads?

I realize there is a 95% chance that when the brakes fail you will be in your driveway or at work and there is even less chance they will fail in a life threatening accident. So even at 99.99% odds is it worth it? I have seen way too many .001% precenters. Regret is hard to live with, remember we are not just talking about you, we are talking about people that may be around and even people you care about that may be with you.

One thing you don’t expect when you become a GM mechanic is facing the fact that people die in cars every day. In the worst cases cars are dissembled to look for a reason, a defective repair or a lack of maintenance. Sometimes this is done by a GM tech as a hired engineer watches, I know for a fact that a $7 hose can claim 4 lifes and destroy 2 families in a matter of seconds.

If you do the labor you should be able to replace all the rubber components in your brake system for around $100. Calipers and wheel cylinders can be rebuilt about for just a few dollars. That leaves a master cylinder and 3 hoses. Car looks like a great deal,