A friend has a 2005 Camry with nearly 90k miles. For the past few months it has been losing brake fluid. About once a month the warning light comes on and he has to add fluid. He hasn't seen any fluid on his garage floor and he had the system checked by a mechanic. No issues with stopping the car.
I think the front wheel cylinders may need rebuilt. Does anyone have any experience with a similar problem?
He needs a new mechanic. Disc or drum rear brakes?
Look under the carpet on the driver's side. You'll probably find all the "lost" brake fluid. And get a new mechanic.
The fluid may be leaking from the back of the MC into the brake booster.
My 02 WRX did this and for me it was really odd, as it would only do it when it was really cold out.
I managed to find it one day - it was leaking past the seals on the RF brake caliper. I never saw any on the ground. Have him check that.
jimbbski wrote: The fluid may be leaking from the back of the MC into the brake booster.
This for sure. I replaced a master cylinder on a matrix with the exact same problem. I also found about a 1/2 gallon of brake fluid in the booster. I replaced that too. The car stopped perfectly normally on the leaky MC too.
Another vote for master cylinder here. Unbolt the master cylinder from the booster and gently pull it forward, if its wet at the back, there's your problem.
Next guess is brake calliper piston seals, often you won't get a puddle on the ground as its a slower type leak and most of the time the drip hits the hub, rotor or wheel and gets flicked off as your driving. You may find the back side of the rim is a little damp or the hub beneath the calliper is damnp, if so, leaky calliper is it.
Also, if the car has abs, check around the abs unit.
05 Camry with wheel cylinders?, manufacturing really is going backwards these days.
I agree with master cyl leaking into the booster as best guess, second being if it has rear drums (which I kind of doubt) it could have bad rear wheel cyl and the drum is hiding the leak. And he needs a new mechanic. 
+1 to everything above. The brake fluid is going somewhere and there aren't a whole lot of options.
I had a friend with an Accord that was having all kinds of braking issues -- noise, chatter, uneven rear pad wear. Took it back 2-3 times. I bought a set of rear pads and indexed the rear caliper so it wasn't riding on top of the pin on the backing plate, solved.
Yea...mechanics are barely capable of a decent brake job these days.
You'll need to log in to post.
