diff --git a/lib/compiler.js b/lib/compiler.js
index cf289ba..ff29782 100644
--- a/lib/compiler.js
+++ b/lib/compiler.js
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ var fs = require('fs');
 var path = require('path');
 var toposort = require('toposort');
 var ConfigLoader = require('./config-loader');
+var utils = require('./utils');
 var debug = require('debug')('loopback:boot:compiler');
 var Module = require('module');
 var _ = require('lodash');
@@ -391,7 +392,7 @@ function tryResolveAppPath(rootDir, relativePath, resolveOptions) {
 
   if (fullPath) {
     // This check is needed to support paths pointing to a directory
-    if (fs.existsSync(fullPath)) {
+    if (utils.fileExists(fullPath)) {
       return fullPath;
     }
 
@@ -429,7 +430,7 @@ function tryResolveAppPath(rootDir, relativePath, resolveOptions) {
       }
     })
     .filter(function(candidate) {
-      return fs.existsSync(candidate.toString());
+      return utils.fileExists(candidate.toString());
     })
     [0];
 
@@ -755,7 +756,7 @@ function loadMixins(sourceFiles, options) {
     name = normalizeMixinName(name, options);
     var meta = {};
     meta.name = name;
-    if (fs.existsSync(metafile)) {
+    if (utils.fileExists(metafile)) {
       // May overwrite name, not sourceFile
       _.extend(meta, require(metafile));
     }
diff --git a/lib/config-loader.js b/lib/config-loader.js
index ca922d2..e4479e1 100644
--- a/lib/config-loader.js
+++ b/lib/config-loader.js
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
 // License text available at https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
 
 var cloneDeep = require('lodash').cloneDeep;
-var fs = require('fs');
 var path = require('path');
+var utils = require('./utils.js');
 var debug = require('debug')('loopback:boot:config-loader');
 var assert = require('assert');
 var g = require('strong-globalize')();
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ function findConfigFiles(appRootDir, env, name) {
 
   function ifExists(fileName) {
     var filepath = path.resolve(appRootDir, fileName);
-    return fs.existsSync(filepath) ? filepath : undefined;
+    return utils.fileExists(filepath) ? filepath : undefined;
   }
 
   function ifExistsWithAnyExt(fileName) {
diff --git a/lib/utils.js b/lib/utils.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b33091b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/utils.js
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+// Copyright IBM Corp. 2014,2016. All Rights Reserved.
+// Node module: loopback-boot
+// This file is licensed under the MIT License.
+// License text available at https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
+
+var fs = require('fs');
+
+exports.fileExists = fileExists;
+
+/**
+ * Check synchronously if a filepath points to an existing file.
+ * Replaces calls to fs.existsSync, which is deprecated (see:
+ * https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/166).
+ *
+ * @param   {String} filepath The absolute path to check
+ * @returns {Boolean}  True if the file exists
+ */
+function fileExists(filepath) {
+  try {
+    fs.statSync(filepath);
+    return true;
+  } catch (e) {
+    return false;
+  }
+}