Yesterday I did wheel number 2 (left rear) of a brake fluid replacement job on my Camry05. When I moved the car to do wheel number 3 (right front), the brakes were ok. After doing wheel number 3 I did not check the pedal before quitting for the night. The only thing different about the wheel number 3 work was that I did the gravity technique instead of the one-man pump-the-pedal technique. When I later returned to wheel number 3, I had drained about 15 oz of fluid instead of the 6 or 8 I expected to be there. The reservoir level was still above minimum.

I got in the car this morning to go get more brake fluid, and … no brakes. No puddles of fluid on the ground and the fluid in reservoir seems to be at the same level as it was at the end of last night. I checked the bleeder screw of wheel number 3 and it was firmly tightened. Pumping the pedal quickly, I get some pressure back which soon goes away (it’s the same with engine on or engine off). Neither the “BRAKE” light or the “ABS” light are lit.

Any diagnostics I can do?

 

With gravity drain did you keep adding fluid to the reservoir? If not how many ounces does the reservoir hold (estimate)? If less then 15 oz where did the drained fluid came from.

 

I think I purposefully overfilled the reservoir before the start of the gravity drain, and the reservoir definitely wasn't emptied at the end of the drain, so the fluid must have come from the line. In any case, re-bleeding wheel #3 fixed it. Something I did during the gravity bleed let a lot of air into the line. Maybe it came in through the bleeder screw threads. For #4 and the re-bleed of #3, I heated the tube before putting it on, shrink wrapping the screw, making it so tight it was hard to pull off later. And I used more grease around the end of the tube and on the threads.

BTW, the reservoir is divided, and one corner section looks darker from the outside than the rest of it. Maybe old fluid is trapped in there, or somehow the plastic has gotten stained.

Thanks for the response!