BRAKE FAILURE

[drthrift035]

How often does brake failure occur ? What are some of the causes ? If you lose power in your braking system how would you safely stop your vehicle ?

Thanks in advance.

Topic

[John B Kobberstad]

[quote=”drthrift035″ post=33527]How often does brake failure occur ? What are some of the causes ? If you lose power in your braking system how would you safely stop your vehicle ?

Thanks in advance.[/quote]

My guess is that a complete brake failure would be caused by a break in the brake line. It probably occurs mostly in the rust belt area of the country. If you have a manual transmission you can downshift to control your speed and then use the emergency brake but try not to lock it up. If it is a hand brake keep the button pushed in while you pull up. If it is a foot brake pull the release lever when you push in the foot pedal as to not lock it up
If you have an automatic DO NOT shift into Reverse or Park unless it is a life or death situation. Also you should take it out of drive and put it in Neutral before applying the emergency brake.

This is just what I would do.

[drthrift035]

Thank you for your advice.

[skim3544]

I had many brake failures ad usually caused by either master cylinder going out or leak in the system. It would not cause sudden failure, but you can feel something is going wrong by the pedal pressure.

In most cases you would have partial brake pressure and be able to stop when you pump the brake pedal. If you do loose the pressure completely what you can do is to put the gear in N or switch the gear to lower gear to cause engine brake. You can also hit the parking brake at low speed, I was able to do it successfully in slow speed. You can also turn off the car (leaving key in the ignition) that would shut the engine and let the car to stop on its own.

[John B Kobberstad]

Not sure but I think most braking systems are actually 2 systems that include 1 front and 1 rear (on opposite sides of the vehicle) per system that way if problems occur with one there is a backup system for safety.

[drthrift035]

That’s a good point. I also read that there is a back up system for the brakes. I think that following all of the necessary procedures will help to reduce problems.

[dreamer2355]

Some brake systems are split front to rear (mainly RWD vehicles) and diagonally (FWD).

You will have some brake pedal ‘feel’ left to slow down the vehicle in case of a leak such as a line leaking or wheel cylinder per se.

With brake fluid being hygroscopic, brake lines rust from the inside out. That’s why you need to flush your brake system every 15k to 30k miles.

Hope this helps.

[Phil Grimsey]

I’ve had brake failure on more than one occasion. First time was the master cylinder going bang and blowing a seal – total loss of braking

Second time – 3 month old pad split and fell apart – total loss at 70mph and then the effort returned but unbalanced and nearly put me in barrier as car pulled.

3rd time- line fractured, brake pressure reduced and fluid loss under car. Will not say what the effect would have been had an emergency stop been needed!

Regards, Phil

[Author]

Replies