'89 190e, new to me. Brake light on dash was on, pedal goes to floor. I put in new front pads, new sensors. Notice that brake fluid level went up in resevoir after new pads installed as expected.
Also noticed the other section of the resevoir was empty.....

Filled it with brake fluid, pump the pedal and start to get some resistance but pedal still going to floor. Crawl under rear of car to see fluid dripping down from hard line right where it connects to soft line. Hard line is visibly rusted. I figureI blew the line when I test drove the car and did a high speed emergency stop on the highway.

Any words of wisdom on hard line replacment? I've done them in my '59 VW but I have my suspicions it might be a little more complicated, especially when I do not see hard lines listed as parts available here.....

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95 E300D gave away
77 300D, 227k, station car
83 300CD 370k, body gone away to the rust gods, engine is in a Yota pickup, going strong
89 190E 2.6- 335k, no more
79 VW FI Bus- 154k summer driver
59 VW Beetle ragtop- 175k
12 VW Jetta- 250k
74 MG Midget-78k

the hard lines on your MB are almost identical to the VW lines. the flares are the same, lines are the same. In my experience it's best to assume you will have to replace them all in the rusted area, because as you disturb one rusty line to replace it, you will disturb others which are also rusty. in the rear there should be the long line from the master, which goes to a brass tee, then two more lines, one to each wheel (to the flex hose). the hardest part of this job is that the lines are in an area that is very tight, and you have to deal with the rear subframe sitting below the lines. i am assuming the 190 is somewhat similar to the MB's i am familiar with.

i believe the lines are available from the dealer, they must be bent to suit, or you can buy generic lines and flare them to size if you have the tools. i have a tip on measuring the old lines, you can use a piece of thin electrical wire inserted into the old brake line to measure the length of the old bent line. as long as the old line doesn't have bends that are very tight, this works really well.

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punkinfair

Thanks Scott- Ended up using a piece of string to measure, and managed to remove line with the aid of a sawzall. Guy at the parts store me onto the VW similarity.

The new drivers side line is tight, all is bled in the rear and still no real brake action.

EDIT:
Running the car in the drivway got the rear wheels to lock up, and the drivers side front. The front offside wheel will not lock up.
Pedal still feels odd- sometimes feels like it has brakes and other times not. At one point it felt like ABS was kicking in. I can see the fluid level drop when the peddle is put down and then come back up when released.

Does the clutch supply line come off the brake resevoir from the rear section or the front section?

My next step will be to bleed the fronts and then and the clutch via one of the front bleeder valves. (Didnt do the fronts as it was just a pad change, no leaks involved)

Reading the manual it says to draw off any fluid in the booster. How is this done? A suction device in thru the vacum line port? I pulled the vacum line and the brake peddle got much stiffer but still went to floor...

__________________
95 E300D gave away
77 300D, 227k, station car
83 300CD 370k, body gone away to the rust gods, engine is in a Yota pickup, going strong
89 190E 2.6- 335k, no more
79 VW FI Bus- 154k summer driver
59 VW Beetle ragtop- 175k
12 VW Jetta- 250k
74 MG Midget-78k