Brake fluid leaking issues.. please read.

[SaberX]

I was having ABS issues under heavy braking at my trackday last week..no ABS light... but my tires were locking up a bit and there was fluid coming out of the ABS resevoir. I brought it to the dealer for them to check it out. They ran diagnostics and said it seemed ok, but still had the bad behavior. So they flushed the ABS system.

I picked up the car last night, and drove it hard to test the ABS. The pedal felt a bit squishy, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. ABS seems to be working now, but I just now noticed that brake fluid is coming out at ALL 4 wheels. The metal is all corroded looking and already the finish on my aftermarket rims is toast and the inner fender linings are covered in brake fluid spray. The levels for both are just below MAX, but one of them has to be leaking. The dealership is taking me at 8:00am tomorrow, but even if they "fix" it I already have all this damage.

What should I do? And how should I go about making sure that the dealership does the right thing and fixes all the stuff that is now messed up? I can post pics if you guys want to see.

 

[hlweyl]

The ABS system is independent of the normal brake fluid. Are you sure they didn't flush the normal brake fluid? It's possible they didn't tighten down the bleeder screws, therefore spilling brake fluid at all 4 corners.

I would take pics and document any/all areas that were affected. Brake fluid can do serious damage.

Here is an excellent write-up on flushing the ABS system from DanO
http://www.danoland.com/nsxgarage/brakes/abs/abs.htm

good luck

 

[DanO]

Could you tell us the year of your car and any relevant mods?

As hlweyl points out, the leakage at the calipers is independent and separate from the leakage from the ABS (pre ’00 (I think) cars). Sounds like the dealership didn’t tighten down the caliper bleed screws tight enough, but on all four corners? Strange. If your brakes are still functioning then the amount of fluid leaking is too small to make a significant change in the fluid reservoir level. You can try to press the brake pedal down while the car is parked and look for puddles under the wheels to see if one corner is worse then the other but I’m not sure how this helps your situation. Sounds like the dealership botched the brake job and failed to fix the ABS problem, which is a somewhat common problem with the early model NSX.

Please let us know how this turns out,

DanO

 

[SaberX]

Update.

Turns out it was a dealership oversight when they returned the car to me. The chemicals were a bit of brake fluid, lots of brake cleaner and good old fashioned brake dust. They were supposed to clean it, but somehow forgot and it just sat covering the rotors, calipers and rims. Fortunately, there was no real damage... although everyone agreed this should never have happened. My brakes are good and everything is now clean. Thanks for the help guys.