Venture Brake Issue - Fluid Level ?

[Buckeye Guy]

All,

I have a 2002 Venture with about 88K on it (bought used at 53K). A couple days ago while driving I noticed the red "Brake" light go on along with a red message center warning of a circle with some small waves at the bottom. I did some searching on here and noted this is a low brake fluid warning, and can be caused by the brakes wearing down and pulling more fluid out of the master cylinder.

I checked the master cylinder and the brake fluid level is about at the seam between the upper and lower plastic halves of the resevoir. It is below the "Max" line, and I did not see a min, line. I pulled the front wheel and noted that the disks had about 7 mm left on either side of the disk. There was plenty of distance to the "squealer" plates and they seemed OK. Also checked the rear disks for leaks (did not pull the wheels off) and did not see any sign of leaking fluid.

Basically I have 2 questions:

1.) Is the fluid level in the cylinder sufficient (again, with the level sitting right at the seam between the upper and lower halves of the resevoir) ?

2.) If the level is OK, what else might be causing this ? Should I pull the rear drums and see what the shoes look like as a next step.

Thanks in adavance for your help. My wife drives this van, and I just want it to be safe for her and my two little ones (plus #3 on the way !).

Regards,

Pete
Buckeye Guy

[rockwood84]

the mastercylinder has a low fluid sensor in it. if the brake fluid gets below it it will turn the light on . just put a little brake fluid in the mastercylinder and put the top back on crank it up and see if the light goes out. if it is still on put a little more in . you just don't want to fill it up because when you have to push the caliper back to put new pads on when it gets time to do it then you will have room in the mastercylinder to hold it .so just put enough brake fluid in the master cylinder to make the light go out. mine took only 1/4 inch of fluid and when i did my pads the fluid was up at the cap.so i figured if the engineer would have put the low fluid sensor 1/4 inch lower he would have sequenized it with the pad change[oh well] so just put 1/4 " in the master cylinder.........light should go out.