Hi Scotti
A friend of mine asked for help on his 2002 Villager. His brake pedal was going lower and lower. I found his brake fluid reservoir was empty so I bled his brakes and put in fresh fluid. A week later the pedal started getting spongy and eventually went to the floor. The reservoir was low again. There were no leaks and no sign of dripping. I pulled the master cylinder and found it was leaking into the power brake booster and the booster was filled with break fluid. So I got a new master cylinder and using a wet/dry vac sucked out all the brake fluid out of the booster. I even washed the booster out and dried it all while still in the car. This minivan has a V6 and the brake booster is buried behind a lot of stuff. I installed the new master cylinder, filled it up and bled the brakes and it has been working for a couple of weeks now. My friend was talking to a mechanic who told him I should have changed the booster. He said brake fluid ruins the booster diaphragm and he is living on borrowed time. Luckily my friend is too cheep to go for the added expense until it actually fails and it has not failed yet. I assume he would just loose the power assist but the car would still stop.
Any truth to what that mechanic was telling him?
Yes.
I will pass it along but I know him. He is cheap. His motor mounts have no rubber left but since the engine is not falling out of the car he is content to drive it that way. It sound like he is driving a tank.