When I pulled my car into the driveway today and pumped the brakes I heard an interesting squeaking sound and the noise of rushing air. When I put it in park it still happened. When I turned the car off and kept pumping the noise went away and the brakes firmed up. Does anybody know what this is indicative of? Brake problems...not cool. Thanks for any input.

 

Well with the squeak, I would guess that your brake pads are getting close to being pretty much shot.

With the air, I am taking a shot in the dark, but I would say that you may need to bleed your brakes.
I'm not as experienced as most people on this forum but thats just my $.01.

 

You might have a brake booster issue. Does the idle go up when you step on the brake? Is the pedal harder than usual? Those two things will be indicators of a failing booster. With the engine off, pump the pedal until it gets hard. Then with your foot on the brake start the engine. The pedal should drop a little if it's good.

 

Okay so I checked that out. With foot on the brake, after pumping it until it firmed up, I tured the engine on and the pedal dropped. However, it dropped pretty significantly, not just a little bit. In fact it went all the way back to pumping with that whooshing noise and being very squishy. I checked the fluid in the master cylinder, it is slightly below the add line. Could that cause this?

 

Yes, and it does sound like youre breaks need to be bled.

 

Are there any signs of leakage at the butt end of the master cylinder? You may have a bad master cylinder, or leaking wheel cylinders, leaking calipers, leaking hoses, or just need to adjust the rear brakes. Could not be sure without inspecting the whole system. The fluid level will drop as the front brakes wear, it is not a drastic drop all at once, it takes time.