adding brake fluid question.
 

first of all, this is a toyota, not a porsche. I want to add brake fluid, not replacing fluid to the whole system. Do I have to get toyota brake fluid or just get the same dot at autozone?

Make sure the dot is the same, and add what you need.


Why is it low though? Pad wear, or have you got a leak?

I grabbed a old bottle of Lucas brake fluid from a local shops shelf and used it to raise the level in my Toyota... :D

I'm still here and it's been about 3 months now...

I replaced pads with autozone ceramic pads and braking is terible now. I am thinking of bleeding some of it out in case it has any air in there, even I doubt it.

Did you bed the pads in?

EDIT-I just read the post in the tech forum. I don't think bleeding the system is what you need to do. Check the fluid level and bed the pads then report your findings.

Were the pads you replaced the factory installed parts?

If you just replaced the pads the fluid level should be high not low needing fluid. You may have a leak somewhere . If you have even a pin hole leak your braking feel will be much reduced.

Yup, and if it is low after replacing the pads then it was lower with the old pads, possibly low enough to let air into the system.

Describe "terible" please. Low pedal, spongy pedal, grabbing, pulling, low effectiveness??

ok ok, I should be more detail at the beginning.
The pads are ceramic from Autozone. The car is Toyota minivan. On the pads, there is a little rubberize padding on the back. It cost more than twice other pads there, if I remember right. To me, brake pads on the minivan is not that important, we drive slow anyway, but on the other hands, it should be well because we have kids in there.
After it came in, braking is much smoothier, and very quiet. The bad part is that I have to oush the pedal a lot harder. Let me give an example. Imagine the different feeling between rubber lines and stainless steel lines. On rubber line compare to ss lines, you have to push the pedal harder because the rubber line tend to expand when you apply pressure to it. There is not a lot of this expanding, but you do feel it. Now, on my ceramic pads and my minivan, the feeling is the same but a lot more pronounce. I am not sure if that is how ceraminc pads feel like, or it is the rubberize padding made this feeling. I think this padding is there with the purpose to help quieting the the brake noise, but I feel it definitely makes the making feels weird. I do like to pill it off, but afraid it will make noise when braking. To go step by step, I want to bleed the brake first to see if it will get any better.

Ceramic pads came in several months already so it should pass bedding period.

Fluid level isn't getting lower after replacing pads, but if I bleed it, I will defnitely need to add fluid.

Bleeding the brakes isn't going to change the braking effort. Assuming nothing has gone wrong in the power brake booster, the problem must be low friction between the pads and the rotor. My first thought would be that the composition of the pads is causing the high effort. I would try changing to a different brand of brake pads and inspecting the rotors for grooves or wear.

Couldn't have said it better.