Brakes failing when driving on the road?

junii

Has this ever happened to you?

What the hell did you do?

comanche

junii wrote:

Has this ever happened to you?

What the hell did you do?

has never happened - if this has happened to you stop using the car and get a proper mechanic to look at it.

The only think you can do is use the engine braking. i.e. move down thru the gears and use hand brake if that is still working.

Edit:
I am getting very worried about what you are driving after your question about tyres from breakers
Do not skimp on Tyres or Breaks. If they are not working order fix them properly, do not cut corners a few hundred euro is very cheap compared to the cost if something goes wrong from both a human and financial cost point of view.

If you cannot afford to be on the road then wait until a time that you can.

seamus

comanche wrote:

The only think you can do is use the engine braking. i.e. move down thru the gears and use hand brake if that is still working.

That's pretty much the best thing to do. If you're moving at speed (e.g. on a motorway), don't drop straight into first or you'll probably skid. Stick on your hazards, shift down a gear and try to move into the hard shoulder. Once you're down to about 60km/h shift into second, and once you're down to about 45 km/h shift into first. That should bring you nicely down to about 15km/h. Then you can jam your car against the kerb to stop it. If you can't get onto the hard shoulder, do the same slow down, but jam your car into the bushes on the central reservation.

Anan1

seamus wrote:

That should bring you nicely down to about 15km/h. Then you can jam your car against the kerb to stop it. If you can't get onto the hard shoulder, do the same slow down, but jam your car into the bushes on the central reservation.

If you can get down to 15km/h then you could either roll to a standstill or perhaps use reverse to lose the last but of speed. That said, if you have any reason to suspect that the brakes on your car might fail then you shouldn't under any circumstances drive it on the road.

junii

Theres nothing wrong with my brakes. I was just wondering.

seamus

totally forgot about reverse. At a slow speed, reverse should help (If you can get it in).

peasant

Hellooooooo???

Handbrake ??

If you managed to slow the car down to first gear, the handbrake will stop you pretty quickly ...quicker than trying to get reverse in, anyway.

All this shifting down gears is all very well ...but It'll take a long time for you to stop.

If it needs to be fast, all you can hope for is that there is a barrier or wall that yo can scrape your car along at a very narrow angle, without turning or flipping it.


Had to do that sort of manoeuvre once ...still had brakes, but the road was sheer black ice ...luckily the snow-plow had left a big snowbank on the side ...used that for breaking. Didn't even damage the car much

comanche

peasant wrote:

Hellooooooo???
Had to do that sort of manoeuvre once ...still had brakes, but the road was sheer black ice ...luckily the snow-plow had left a big snowbank on the side ...used that for breaking. Didn't even damage the car much

hehe did that once on a bob sleigh, got the angles slightly wrong - result was quiet spectacular - launched myself off the side of a mountain much to the amazement of the locals!

cjs

drop through the gears rapidly nd then free wheel until you stop. or if you have to pull the handbrake, but not if your doing much more than 40mph cause when you pull the handbrake you will spin out but its not as scary if your doing bout 40mph

seamus

peasant wrote:

Hellooooooo???

Handbrake ??

Well, you have to imagine a worst-case scenario.

steviec

My brakes went while I was driving a couple of weeks ago, it happened while I was already travelling slowly and was just braking for a speed ramp so it was no big deal, scary to think what could have happened though!

I had no major problem stopping the car, basically the pedal went straight to the floor but there was still a tiny amount of braking force that brought me to a stop eventually, otherwise I guess it would have been the handbrake.

Fey!

Had my brakes fade completely on me a few years ago in a civic. Was approaching into a corner doing about 40mph, and went to brake to slow down. Had a truck coming around the corner toward me on my side of the road.

Basically dropped from 5th straight to 2nd, had my foot as hard on the brakes as it'd go, popped my 2 left wheels onto the ditch, and had to use the handbrake to get slow enough to make the turn.

Gut wrenching moment, but made it through in one piece. Nothing physically wrong with the brakes; I had been driving on really bad roads for a couple of hours and they had heated (bloody drum brakes!). Also, would have been fine if the truck had stayed in his own lane (at this stage was on a good road outside Portumna).

Thankfully have never had a repeat of the experience.

AMurphy

junii wrote:

Has this ever happened to you?

What the hell did you do?

Like they say in the HHGTTG, "Dont Panic", unless you're tailgating, in which case it's too late to panic.

This has happened more than a few times to me. A Fiat 128, woudl let go every now and then.
In that car, pump the brakes like hell and they woud return, obviously a master cylinder seal leaking. I got a reapir kit and fixed it eventually.

Truck would brake ok, but while waiting at a light with foot resting on the pedal, it woudl drift off to the floor and the truck would drift off also. bit of a surprise on hills.
new master cyl fixed that.

Teh brakes on the van failed twice in rapid succession. 1st one of the slave cylinders leaked in air, so foot to the floor, immediate response, pedal like phuck (PLF) again. Fixed the slave cylinder and about 2~3 weeks later the master failed at about 50mph on the highway, same response, PLF and they recovered a bit. I drove them that way for about a month before I got round to replacing the master cylinder.

However, the worst case and scare I had was with a VW Bug/Beetle. foot went to the floor, no amount of pumping would make them recover very much and I am fast approaching the back end of a large van. Fortunately, the bug is narrow and the lanes wide, so I managed to fit it in between the van and a Mustang in the adjacent lane, fortunately the Mustang saw what was happening and moved over about 6".

handbrake?. Gears are better if you have the time. The HB on teh Bug was worse than useless and on the van, it simply locks the back wheels, but does little to slow the van.

So I think the ultimate answer is, pump peddle like your life depended on it AND use the gears at the same time. but above all, "Don't Panic"

ninty9er

What about something Automatic with a non hand parking brake (eg. E-Class)

TempestSabre

Water got into the disk brakes once, drove into a flood about 4" before I realised, I think it forms a skin between pad and disc. It took about 400-600ft to stop, car in front stopped about that distance away and I had to put two wheels on the pavement to go around and avoid hitting them. Was only doing about 25mph. Pumped brakes, and used handbrake to no effect. I should have turned the engine off with the car in gear. Hindisght eh?

Our man in Havana

ninty9er wrote:

What about something Automatic with a non hand parking brake (eg. E-Class)

Switch off the engine?

MercMad

Switching off the engine in an auto will achieve nothing except further panic as your power steering stops !

Most autos still offer the ability to change down through the gears, also the foot brake works just like a regular handbrake so you can apply it a few clicks to slow down without locking up, and then stand on it if you have to !

I had brakes fail completely on a Clio 16V, years ago ! I drove over a hangar, didn't know obviously but it punctured the rear brake line at the proprtioning valve massivley and i had no pedal at all. I was going fairly fast towards a very busy "T" junction so I yanked the handbrake about 4 feet in the air !

I had to spin ther car around 180 degrees, luckily I had the room and survived undamaged....................except for my ego !

My leg rattled for about 20 minutes afterwards !