Leaking master brake cylinder, 2011 Nissan LEAF

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zeebomockingbird

New member
Joined
Jan 4, 2016
Messages
2
(This is my first post to mynissanleaf.com. Apologies if this is not the right category.)

I took my 2011 LEAF to the dealer today because it was both time for the annual servicing and also because it had some worrisome lights related to the traction control and brakes. During their assessment of the vehicle, they found the brake master cylinder was leaking and told me it would need to be replaced at a cost of $2700, or about 28% of my car's resale value.

My LEAF is just about to hit its 5 year birthday (I got it on January 8th, 2011), has under 28,000 miles on it, and I've taken it in every year for standard servicing at a Nissan dealer.

Have others had problems with their brake master cylinder, or did I just get the one faulty brake master cylinder? I figure if I'm hitting this at 28K miles, others with more miles must have hit this sooner, but I haven't found evidence of this on the forums or Google searches.

(I'm feeling particularly frustrated because it's feeling like all the promises from Nissan about low cost of maintenance and 100 mile range were all misleading. I'm spending more now on maintenance of my brand new LEAF than I have on any used car I've owned in the past, and after 5 years, I'm lucky if I can go 60-65 miles on a full charge. On my normal commute, I can only squeeze out about 40-50 miles on a full charge.)

Thanks for any thoughts / responses / suggestions. Really thinking about selling my LEAF at this point and leasing an EV from another company.

Tim
 
No such problem on my 2011 w/ 42K miles. Mine is going in for its service appointment this Friday and I've been wondering if I should get the brake fluid swapped out or not. I'm thinking I will this time (for the first time in 5 years), but maybe I shouldn't since I wouldn't want them to mess up something that's been working perfectly.
 
Brake fluid needs to be changed regularly. Over time it absorbs water from the air which affects its properties and can also cause corrosion and damage of the brake system components. Which reminds me I'm overdue for a replacement myself...
 
On my 2011 I had my brake fluid changed after two years at the same time they did a fix (software change) to reduce the jerkiness when stopping at slow speed. Been working fine ever since.

Did you feel any strange braking abnormalities? Or did you see any leaks under the car or under the hood? If not, you may want to just try changing the brake fluid first at another dealer.

Good Luck.
 
Valdemar said:
Brake fluid needs to be changed regularly. Over time it absorbs water from the air which affects its properties and can also cause corrosion and damage of the brake system components. Which reminds me I'm overdue for a replacement myself...

If (s)he's agonizing over it, there are test strips available to assess the state of the brake fluid.
 
I use this brake fluid tester all the time an know how the fluid is doing. I have 5 cars in my family and do all the maintenance, including bleeding fluid. I think that especially on the leaf, the new brake fluid every two years will eliminate any corrosion-related problems, as this is an electric braking car. I still don't know if the steering has fluid yet.

Here is the fluid tester:

http://www.amazon.com/Brake-Fluid-Tester-calibrated-fluids/dp/B005HVG4GQ

If anyone has an interest, I can also recommend a fluid bleeder....
 
Nope, no fluid for power steering. The motor is mounted right on the steering column.

F60B040.png

http://www.nissanpartswebstore.com/a/Nissan__Leaf-L-ELECTRIC---cylinder-Automatic/48301853__6447045/STEERING-COLUMN-STEERING-WHEEL/F60B040.html
 
@zeebomockingbird

As this doesn't seem to be a common failure, you might consider looking for a used part from a recycler. Seems like they go for $200-300 used rather than $1500-1900 new.
 
zeebomockingbird said:
...
Have others had problems with their brake master cylinder ...
Not yet.
Part of why I bought extended warranty, but so far no failures in 4 1/2 years, 33,000 miles.

I do worry about LEAF maintenance cost after warranty runs out.

In another thread someone reported this part was replaced to fix grabby brakes.

I do still have grabby brakes.
Maybe I should push dealer to carefully inspect this part?
 
Five years is probably stretching it but I feel that every three years is just fine... I've done mine once in the five years I have owned it and no problems... You can always use a voltmeter test and/or test strip if unsure...

TLeaf said:
No such problem on my 2011 w/ 42K miles. Mine is going in for its service appointment this Friday and I've been wondering if I should get the brake fluid swapped out or not. I'm thinking I will this time (for the first time in 5 years), but maybe I shouldn't since I wouldn't want them to mess up something that's been working perfectly.
 
I had EXACTLY this problem on my 2011 Leaf. It was detected a couple of months back when the car was around 48 months and 35,000 miles (so over the 36 month warranty, but under the 36,000 mile warranty).

I'll be keeping an eye out to see if this eventually becomes widespread and Nissan has to fix it (and reimburse me since I already paid).

There is one very important thing for you to do: Call Nissan USA (not your local dealership) and request "assistance". Basically you're saying "come on guys, be nice about this". In my case Nissan USA covered half the cost of the part, saving me $800-900. I still didn't appreciate the $1500 expense, but it was better than $2400. Also, I found out after the fact that the local dealer has some say in how much assistance you get, so if you can go thru the dealer you purchased the car from, they might feel more inclined to help you out since they've made a nice profit from you already.

Ask your dealer for the phone number for Nissan USA.

If you run into trouble or don't get assistance similar to what I did, contact me and I'll give you details from my case you can cite to them.

Good luck!

Erik
 
^^^
Yes, sometimes Nissan is willing to help cover part of the total repair cost via goodwill.

Nissan used to list some of their warranty extensions on specific systems of specific cars at http://nissanassist.com/web/, but it seems that site is quite bare now, for whatever reason. For a flavor, see https://web.archive.org/web/20130503003950/http://www.nissanassist.com/web/home/index.php?menu=1 or https://web.archive.org/web/20150912013112/http://www.nissanassist.com/web/ (you may need to use Chrome and/or disable Javascript in your browser).

In the case of my mother's Altima Hybrid which unfortunately has a known problem of getting carboned up in certain cases (there's a TSB on it), When she was out of powertrain warranty, she hit the symptoms (CEL). Supposedly, the DTCs and diagnosis meant that she needed a new cylinder head. :shock: (TSB mentions that too.) Dealer (i don't like their service dept much, I'd have rather gone to one I like better) was able to get Nissan to cover the part but not the labor cost.

Unfortunately, the repair bill was still pretty high. IIRC, it was on the order of $2K.
 
cwerdna said:
^^^
Yes, sometimes Nissan is willing to help cover part of the total repair cost via goodwill.

Now, if we could get them help those who need a new battery pack outside of capacity warranty.
 
I bought a used 2012 leaf a couple of months ago. It ended up having a leaking master brake cylinder also. In hindsight, I think that's why the previous owner sold the car.

Once the brake fluid got low enough, the red and yellow warning lights went on along with another brake light on the dashboard. Refilling the brake fluid temporarily made the problem go away. When the fluid was low, leafspy pro reported 2 DTCs: C1155 (brake fluid low) and C1A70 (brake control system).

I took it to the dealer, and they diagnosed that the master brake cylinder was leaking. They wanted $2800 to fix it. That price is ridiculous for a leaking master cylinder. It cost about $700 to fix in my old honda accord.

I was determined to avoid the dealership as much as possible. I called about 8 different mechanics. About flat out wouldn't work on a Leaf. Some of them said they wouldn't replace it because they didn't have the software to bleed the abs system. Two of them said they could try, but the only place they could get the part from was the dealership, they wouldn't accept customer supplied parts, and the dealership suggested price for the part was $1900.

I ended up taking it to Eschen Automotive in Bellevue, WA. He accepted customer supplied parts, and I got lucky and found a new one on ebay for $230.

After installing it he said the brakes kept acting like the were not bled, even though he followed the procedure in the leaf service manual. After numerous calls to Nissan he found out that the intelligent brake controller has to be reprogrammed after it is installed. In the service manual, the reprogramming is called stroke sensor "0" point relearning. Without that, the brakes have similar symptoms to a bubble in the air line:
* pulsating feedback in the peddle
* antilock brake buzzing
* the peddle would easily go all the way to the floor, then push back

He ended up towing the car to the dealership and had them reprogram it.

The overall price, including the part from ebay, the towing fee, and the dealership reprogramming fee, was $1200. So I still managed to save money compared to the dealership quote.
 
I'm in a similar situation my 2014 has 27K miles on it in good shape otherwise, but now they tell me the master cylinder is leaking even though no check engine or warning lights are showing in the dash and no malfunctions as far as I can tell. They want 2,700 (about 1/3 the value of the car) to replace it. I applied for assistance but was denied. Not happy. There's so many better electric options coming in the near future. SELL YOUR OLDER LEAFS ASAP!!!
 
bluepassion said:
What symptoms does it have ?

No symptoms whatsoever, the mechanic at the dealership reported the issue after an inspection. I've been back and forth with Nissan Leaf "customer service" for about 6 weeks now and they have been very vague and unhelpful about the entire process. They offered me no financial assistance unfortunately so weighing my options.
 
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