I've noticed that my car seems to be leaking brake fluid where the hoses to each of the brake assemblies connects to the master cylinder. Also, the brake fluid resevior is also about half way between the full line and the low line and I haven't had the car for a month yet! Has anybody else noticed this? I have an appointment at my dealership for service tomorrow morning....

I've also noticed that when I brake hard shortly after starting my car after it's been sitting for awhile and loosen my grip on the wheel that the car will pull to one side and then back to the other. Wondering if maybe the brake lines are not getting saturated with fluid quickly enough....

I'm electronically inclined, not mechanically, so I have no idea what's actually going on here. Any guesses?

 

Oh man! Loose fittings! That's not encouraging.

Please don't drive the car, if the fittings twist off all together you will LOSE ALL brake power. No brakes at all!

Seriously, have the car flat-bedded to the dealer. I had a similar issue on a development vehicle, I took the chance and one of the fittings came off and dumped all the fluid..no brakes. Luckily I was in a barren area of MI and had room to stop using emergency brake. Not all have been so lucky.



The pull when cold is not a big deal.

Does the car sit outside in the sun? Usually the rotor on one side is not in the "same condition" (more sun, more oxidation) this causes each side to have a different brake torque. Thereby the pull.

Plus no road is perfectly level so this adds to the issue. It's only a problem if the steering wheel is pulled out of your hands when braking.

Even when warm a wide tired car will tend to drift to one side.

 

BTW- why would the fittings go loose:

1. Improper thread size

2. Improper torque on the nuts

 

Actually, my car had a brake fluid leak the first night I had it and I had to have it towed back to the dealer the next day. My leak was at the fitting to the caliper and you could clearly see fluid in the left wheel well. The dealership fixed the leak, but also replaced the brake line as a precaution after talking to Mazda engineers. I've had the car back for a few weeks now and everything's been fine so far.

You should definitely not drive the car until having it repaired. I basically lost my brakes while driving and it wasn't fun... luckily I was on a back road at night and wasn't in any danger . There was still enough brake pressure for me to get back home (driving slowly and carefully).