Must add brake fluid?

[daz]

2011 RT manual. Several weeks ago we came to an aggressive stop. The orange sign came on that said brake failure. The brakes worked fine to get us home. The rear fluid container was low. I added brake fluid and tested the brakes. No matter how hard and fast I stopped the failure light would not come on. Couple weeks went by and I checked the fluid level. Rear container is a bit low again. No problem but a bit low. So I added fluid and all is well.

The rear container is for the front brakes, correct? I sure can't find any wet, smelly fluid anyplace.

What's my next step. (we don't do dealers).

[Snowbelt Spyder]

Rear chamber is for front brakes. As you’ve noticed, the brake reservoir is tilted down towards the front. The sensor is in the rear of each chamber. As the brake pads wear, the caliper piston moves further out, thus level goes down as it is needed in the caliper. At some point on a hard stop, or even just going down hill, brake fluid sloshes forward in the chamber and trips the sensor. Then once you stop, the sensor can sometimes reset. All normal. For it to be a little low a few weeks later, can be attributed to further pad wear, ambient temperature, or even if the Spyder isn’t sitting as level as it was last time. You’ve done your due diligence and checked for leaks. When you install the reservoir cap, be sure that the little vent bump on it is pointed to the rear. If you believe that the fluid has never been flushed out since 2011, that would be a worthy maintenance item for the to-do list. And, of course, check your pads.

Courtesy of Finless Bob:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csji-2tfwAQ

[Peter Aawen]

..... What's my next step. (we don't do dealers).

Those brake warning lights can be a 'oops, that didn't do exactly what was expected of the brakes that time round?!' sorta warning, one that you'll possibly never see again unless you exactly duplicate that set of circumstances, or they could also be a 'Aaargh, don't you dare dream of ryding this thing until those dodgy brakes are fixed properly!!' sorta thing too, but you'll likely never know which one unless you read the codes that might have been saved when the warning occurred (codes which will likely require BUDS to read now, as they're no longer active - & that's likely to be a dealer job, unless you happen to know someone who's not a dealer but who has BUDS?) or the warning goes away and never occurs again!

As for possible (simple) causes, if you haven't had the brake fluid flushed/changed in a few years, the 'slight loss of pressure' in the system that might've occurred when some of the absorbed water in the brake fluid was converted to steam under heavy (& hot!) braking may have triggered the warning light.... Or maybe it was just because the brake fluid level was the the tiniest bit low - these Spyder things are REALLY sensitive about low brake fluid levels!! Might also be worthwhile checking the brake pads to see if they've hit their wear limits too.

But if you have had the brake fluid flushed some time in the last few years; if the pads still have plenty of meat left; & you've now topped up the brake fluid level and now you aren't getting a brake failure warning under hard stopping conditions any more, then I'd think that you could probably just....

Ride More, and Worry Less!

Good Luck!

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

I have discovered when going down a very steep hill and braking hard the light will come on - even if the fluid is where it should be .... just a quirk ……. Mike

[jaherbst]

Had it happen at Spyder's in the Hills last week. Joe and Ann (Squared Away) were very gracious and added a wee bit of fluid and we were on our way. Thanks Joe and Ann!

Jack

[pegasus1300]

They did the same thing for me at D3WR. They are very gracious, very friendly, and very accommodating to the Spyder community.

[bayoubill]

if you are constantly losing fluid in 2 weeks you probably are losing it somewhere, normal pad wear won't make it go down that fast, just a guess but i would suspect the master cylinder.

[Freddy]

Just a guess, but I would suspect the nanny. Keep the guesses coming folks; they're really insightful.

[bayoubill]

Just a guess, but I would suspect the nanny. Keep the guesses coming folks; they're really insightful.

anything anybody suggests without seeing the bike in person is going to be a guess, i have had masters leak on several bikes before, and i work on 4 wheelers which is pretty much the same brake system and i have seen master cylinder leaks a lot more than wheel cylinder leaks, if it were mine i would check master first.