I just talked to my service rep because I have my truck in for low brake fluid. I refilled it in October because the brake, VDC off and SLIP lights all came on due to the brake fluid being below minimum. Now I have just passed the 1 year 15,000 mile mark and it is almost time to have to refill the fluid again. This is not good, so I took it to the dealer for them to find and repair the leak. The service rep says there is no leak and that all that fluid is currently in the brake system, but not the reservoir because I only have 5% of my brake pads left. If this is true, then the reservoir is undersized and when they replace the brake pads, the reservoir will overflow because it has twice the amount of fluid in the system than the reservoir will hold. I have never had this problem on any other vehicle. The most I have done is to merely top off the brake fluid once every couple years.

He is trying to get Nissan to replace my pads, but he said there is a 1 year/12,000 mile warranty on the pads.

I have always had to remove fluid from a master cylinder when replacing disc brake pads. If the master cylinder has been topped off as the pads wear you will have excess fluid. On the Titan the front calipers have a total of four pistons, each one 2.01 inches in diameter. The amount of pad wear from new to the minimum is slightly over one inch. So we have a displacement of 12.7 cubic inches from new pads to the replacement point, not counting the rear. This is about 1/2 pint of fluid being displaced when the pistons are pushed back in for pad replacement. I haven't seen a master cylinder which would hold an added 1/2 pint from the full line.

Well I got free brake pads from Nissan for some reason, so that is nice. However because they replaced the pads, I have no idea what happened to all the extra fluid that should now be in the reservoir or dripping through the engine compartment from them pressing the caliper pistons back.

This still sounds like hogwash to me, so I guess I will have to go on my own leak hunt unless one of you can help me out here. Please?

I have always had to remove fluid from a master cylinder when replacing disc brake pads. If the master cylinder has been topped off as the pads wear you will have excess fluid. On the Titan the front calipers have a total of four pistons, each one 2.01 inches in diameter. The amount of pad wear from new to the minimum is slightly over one inch. So we have a displacement of 12.7 cubic inches from new pads to the replacement point, not counting the rear. This is about 1/2 pint of fluid being displaced when the pistons are pushed back in for pad replacement. I haven't seen a master cylinder which would hold an added 1/2 pint from the full line.

On my other disc brake vehicles, I didn't top the fluid off unless it was very near the minimum level. This very rarely ever happened. When I changed the pads (front or rear) the fluid never went more than just a couple millimeters over max (which I left in the reservoir).

So does anyone else have to refill their reservoir 2 times a year?

Well I got free brake pads from Nissan for some reason, so that is nice. However because they replaced the pads, I have no idea what happened to all the extra fluid that should now be in the reservoir or dripping through the engine compartment from them pressing the caliper pistons back.

This still sounds like hogwash to me, so I guess I will have to go on my own leak hunt unless one of you can help me out here. Please?

I don't think you have a leak. When the technician replaced the pads he followed the service procedure to remove excess fluid. They usually use a suction bulb to remove excess fluid. That's why you had no fluid running out of the master cylinder. Look at this from the service procedure:

I don't think you have a leak. When the technician replaced the pads he followed the service procedure to remove excess fluid. They usually use a suction bulb to remove excess fluid. That's why you had no fluid running out of the master cylinder. Look at this from the service procedure:

Actually they still have the truck and are cleaning the brake fluid out of the engine compartment. When they compressed the pistons back in, it poured brake fluid all down the inside of the engine compartment and was still dripping when they try to give me the truck back. I talked to their head mechanic and he said that the pads should not have worn out that fast (about 10K miles) and didn't totally disagree with me about the size of the master cylinder.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll keep this in mind when I change my brakes. That is, if they don't fail first.

I don't think you have a leak. When the technician replaced the pads he followed the service procedure to remove excess fluid. They usually use a suction bulb to remove excess fluid. That's why you had no fluid running out of the master cylinder. Look at this from the service procedure:

Actually they still have the truck and are cleaning the brake fluid out of the engine compartment. When they compressed the pistons back in, it poured brake fluid all down the inside of the engine compartment and was still dripping when they try to give me the truck back. I talked to their head mechanic and he said that the pads should not have worn out that fast (about 10K miles) and didn't totally disagree with me about the size of the master cylinder.
I should have said the technician SHOULD follow service procedure. If he had you wouldn't have this mess. :( Hope they get it cleaned up properly.