My Son`s 99 has a leaking brake booster.. Due to his tight budget he is looking at buying one from a local salvage. I`m just wondering what the life expectancy is for these units?Are booster failures common on 2nd gens?

My buddies was leaking so he got a rebuild kit for it and replaced the seals. It didnt take so he ended up going with a reman from napa. His truck supposedly only had 45k miles but is a 2001 and this was late last year.

You could rebuild you own hydrobooster. http://articles.mopar1973man.com/general-cummins/33-brake-system/79-brake-hydrobooster-rebuild

My 2000 had almost 180k on the clock when I repaced it. Also had to replace the master cylinder a few thousand miles later.

Mine is still stock at 253k.

Make sure you take the rod out of your old unit and use it in whatever new unit you get. They are not all the same size.

mine is still stock at 278k.

Thanks for all the input guys. I think we will take a stab at the rebuild kit.. it can`t be any worse than buying who knows what?? for $95 bucks from a salvage.

Still running factory OEM brake system from the master cylinder all the way down to the calipers. The only thing that not OEM is the caliper seals and boots and the pads. I've never replaced a master cylinder ot hydrobooster. Mostly due to the fact I change brake fluid every 30K miles and completely rebulid the calipers every 100K miles. I basically change brake pads every 200K miles roughly. (185K actual)So a rebuild kit of the hydrobooster is much cheaper that the $95 salvage one plus a rebuild kit that you most likely have to put into it as well.