Can brake-actuator issues be related to changes in weather?

It's very difficult to spend any kind of money on a car that has 350K+ miles, has slight body damage (not my fault btw), full of dog hair (impossible to get out after 4 dogs have been in there), etc. The issue arising with the sudden change in weather gave me the notion that, fingers-crossed, it was a simple cheap fix.

I asked my favorite salvage yard this morning how much they would give me for the car AS IS...they said around $450 but I could part-it-out for over that STILL sell the car to salvage and I would only lose $100 (they offered me $350 as they go solely by weight and whether or not they have to tow the car to the yard (then would be less than $350 btw).

So that being the case, I'm gonna try to find the best actuator I can locally because if I pull it myself, it'll be less than $50. Brake actuators seem to be around $300 on eBay though. If this swap doesn't work, I'm gonna just sell the car to salvage in some form I suppose.