My VW was really bad about that sort of thing, and it was always the master cylinder. For some reason, either it was a bad design, or the extreme weather changes through the seasons would cause the seals to prematurely fail.

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car