How to tell if a brake fluid leak is a cut line or wear
A sudden brake fluid leak near the caliper can make the brake pedal go all the way down with barely any braking effect. Finding the exact source of the leak alone is difficult, making it hard to determine whether the failure came from normal wear or intentional damage.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1getting a second opinion from another mechanic
- 2inspecting the damaged area for tool marks
- 3checking if the line split from stretching or vibration
- 4Clean off the area completely and have someone hit the brakes while looking at the caliper to pinpoint the leak.
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I was shopping for about 10 minutes. When I came back to my car, I noticed that I could push the brake pedal almost all the way down with barely any braking effect.”source ↗
“I found a leak in my brake system somewhere close to my caliper, but I can't quite find where it is alone.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 5How to tell if a coolant leak is a water pump failure
- 4Small yellow fluid leak around AC Schrader valve