I recently realized some white smoke coming out from the drivers side of the hood. So I have come to the conclusion that its brake fluid because I just got a message of low brake fluid. I recently changed the brake fluid, now i'm not sure what is exactly happening. Do you guys think its leaking from somewhere and where might that be? When I open the hood the smoke seems to be coming from below somewhere thats why I cant' figure it out.

 

I think you're gonna have to get dirty and dig around my friend. That's just not enough info to help you. Oil dripping on the exhaust will give white smoke as well, so will a coolant leak. Is the cap on the brake fluid res.? Is there brake fluid sprayed around the wheels and wheelwell? If you don't have a lift or ramps find a driveway entrance in your neighborhood with a tall curb and run one side of the car up on the curb and crawl underneath for a look see. This is best done on a quiet street though.

 

well I'm pretty sure its brake fluid because I had recently changed the brake fluid and I got a message reading low brake fluid yesterday. So somethings going on there.

 

open the hood already. Is the res low on fluid. You should never put all your faith in the idiot lights. I just did a full brake job on my wife's van and a week later the dash brake light comes on. I spent a full day checking and resetting the parking brake, etc. I finally took it to the dealer and the sensor in the Brake res was faulty. I never would have found that. So, look around and see what you find. If you are leaking brake fluid and don't check the fluid level you are at risk of brake failure while your driving. For your safety and others check it out before your drive again.

 

i'll be under the car this afternoon/evening snooping around. I appreciate your input now lets see what i can come up with.

 

Did some looking around while changing the oil but still no luck.

 

Maybe its just some leftover spilled fluid that got onto the manifold or headers.

 

I didn't notice it right away it was sometime after not to mention it should have burnt off by now.

 

If you've got a leak enough to cause smoke the brake pedal should feel like crap. I had a loose fitting after a brake job and it was nowhere near loose enough to simply leak under normal pressure but any pressure applied to the pedal made it VERY obvious.

A possibility then, is a leak on a non-presurized side like the master cyllinder and where it attaches to the resevoir.

What is very difficult sometimes is you will not see a puddle because the fluid that's leaking can actually follow the hardline anywhere before it eventually drips off.

Top off the resevoir and keep track of the level on a daily or even drive to drive basis for a few times to see if it changes.

Don't overfill, because the cap can leak too.

 

i'll mark the level and drive it this weekend. I think your thoughts on it leaking from a non-pressurized area of the system is a dead on. now i just need to find it.

 

Have you taken the top off and looked in the master Cylinder? if it's low your loosing fluid, if not I would say to start look for anything wet.

 

The brake system is all on the driver side for the most part. It will drop down and collect in the cradle if its near the MS or close by.

You DO want to find this leak.

I had my line lock leaking because the guy who originally put it on uses brass compression fittings which are good to, oh, 100psi

It was leaking down onto the cradle and when I hit speeds of over 90mph it would then fly off of the cradle and hit the rear tires. Not much bothers me in the car but turning 20 degree's instantly at 115mph, while going in a perfectly straight line half way through a gear on perfectly dry pavement in 80 degree weather is not confidence inspiring to say the least. I did that yesterday when the brake fluid came in contact with my rear tires.

Don't screw around with brakes.

My opinion, because this is how I found mine. Brake clean everything so its nice and clean. If you need to lay down a bunch of white napkins on the wheel well, from under the MS all the way upto the front brake block. You can use DS tape or maybe find a very very light spray on adhesive that will come off easy. Stick or tape the napkins to cover that whole area.

Close the hood and take it for a spin around the block, get on the brakes HARD a few times to maximize pressure, come home, pop the hood and look at the napkins.

BTW, you can see a whole lot more if you yank off the alternator, takes just a few minutes and is very simple to do, of course, this needs to be on the car to drive it.

Good luck and don't mess around with brakes.

 

Oh yeah?! Prove it!

j/k

 

reading some of these posts just brought to mind a leaking cap. Some have had the cap crack on them. Remove the res cap and flex it in diff directions and see if there is a crack. It's not obvious from what I remember. But since we have gravity here on earth, start from the top down and run your fingers on all the brake lines checking every couple of inches for wetness. If you don't know what you're looking for, dip your finger in the brake fluid for an example. I would have thought this would have been figured out by now.

 

ok guys. I appreciate all the input so far. Now this is what I have found the fluid has been falling on the collector tube of the headers and burning off. So I pushed the brake pedal and I found fluid leaking on the ground and on the header. So I searched around with a work light but no luck. Now where do you think this may be coming from?
It deinately seems to be getting worse.

 

I also feel like the clutch is getting softer is there a link between these two things.

 

Chris,

Its possible your master resovoir is leaking for the clutch, however that is a very small amount of fluid and if its leaking at the rate you say it is I bet you would have depleted it already.

When you open the hood, look for a small plastic bottle right next to the brake booster, it will be held in with 2 plastic pins with a hose going down, its on the driver side. That is the clutch master resovoir. It should always be full.

There is no place that I can think of where the fluid would drip onto the header. All of the lines from the master to the ABS module are a good 3" away from the header, they would drip down onto the cradle and plastic work.

Try it again. Spray the crap out of the cradle, brake lines, connections, etc with brake clean to get all of the brake fluid cleaned up. Get a GOOD bright light, make sure the car is running, and have someone modulate the brake pedal while you watch all of the lines from the brake master up forward to the ABS module. Again its tough to see with the alternator in the way and be careful of the belt running.

You can try it without the engine running but you will get no where near the pressure in the system, 200psi versus 2000psi.

It has to be there somwhere. If its leaking from a connector, it will follow the tube down to its lowest point.

If you still can't find it, time to put it on a hoist and check from the bottom.

I would still try the napkin trick, just wrap some very small pieces of white napkin around the low points of the brake lines, then modulate the pedal, you'll see one of them get soaked and can follow the leak upstream. Plus the contrast always helps, everything down there is black, putting some other color will make it easier to see.

Good Luck

 

ok i'm gonna keep looking. I'll try once my friend gets out of work so he can press the pedal or I can utilize his fresh set of eyes.
Thanks for your help

 

I appreciate everyone chiming in but I just couldn't find the leak. I found the area thats its coming from. I just can't see where exactly its leaking from so I think I'll have to take it to the shop Friday. Unless anyone has anymore ideas.