I searched around and found a suggestion that my fluid might be low, but I checked and it looks fine. More and more lately, as I corner hard (which I do pretty regularly) the red brake light indicator on the dash comes on. Any posibilities other than low brake fluid?

Thanks,
-Aaron

 

one way to find out.......add some fluid to the reservoir and if the red light goes away then you found the problems.

Toyota/Lexus have very touchy triggers for the brake fluid level warning light. Even though the fluid level is way above the MIN mark, the light can sometimes be triggered. Just add some DOT III fluid to the reservoir and the light most likely will go away. If it doesn't, then have the parking brake system inspected and cleaned as it may be a stuck sensor on this system. This can occur over time if you are one that does not use the parking brake routinely.

I'm betting it is just the fluid level.

good luck.

steviej

 

OK, if you are seeing this only on hard cornering, my bet is that your brake fluid is not low for normal usage/driving, but that you upset the level enough during a hard corner to trigger the light. If you run the fluid level at full instead of just above min, you probably will not see the light. By the way, I would recommend keeping it full at all times if you drive the car hard, so you don't create air bubbles in the brake lines if you corner hard frequently.

 

Make sure that the fluid box is secure. I noticed mine was not tight and it caused a similar problem about two years ago.

The other thing is that it could be a lose wire as this happened with some other cars I have owned. Shift to one side and it slides out, then back to normal and it shifts back in.

 

Thanks guys! Things to try...

 

So yeah, adding fluid made it go away. It was exactly halfway between min and max. I guess I corner too hard...

On an amusing side note, the other day I stopped at the library, and when I came back out and restarted my car, I had no power brakes (almost ran into the car in front when I put it into gear) and it was making some seriously nasty noise. I drove about a block before I pulled over and popped the hood.

Turns out some hose that goes into the unit directly behind the brake resevoir had come undone while it was parked. Popped it back on and all was well. Weird. And this was before I had added the fluid too. Since the hose wasn't spewing any fluid, I guess it was some vacuum line maybe related to the ABS or Trac? Easy fix (though I did panic quite a bit! oh no, not another repair!)

Thanks again everyone,
-Aaron