Low Brake Fluid
 

A few weeks ago I started getting the "low brake fluid" warning when I braked hard in cold weather ( below 25 degrees). I figured the brake pads were worn causing the fluid level to drop and combined with the fluid contracting in cold weather dropped the level below the minimum for the sensor.

A few days ago I added a bit of brake fluid to see if it helped. The temperature was higher the next morning and it seemed to go away.

Last night temps dropped again and back came the warning. I added more fluid and noticed that it was now full. However, the low fluid level warning was still going off during medium-to-hard braking. Looks like a faulty sensor.

Is the sensor part of the master cylinder reservoir? I don't mind replacing the reservoir ($38 at Rock Auto) but it probably involves bleeding the master cylinder (I have done this on other cars before) which is not trivial (especially with ABS).

How complicated is replacement of the reservoir (as in bleeding of the system)?

BTW, there is a different reservoir for manual transmision cars and automatic transmission cars.

For now I will ignore the warning until it warms up enough to fix the sensor problem.

Steve

If you have a 2006 then this link may help.

TSB

Thanks for the link!

Looks like I will need to replace the reservoir.

Steve