Hello everyone, I was driving on i-635 and as I was sitting in traffic an 18-wheeler came to stop Infront if me so as I went to brake It did absolutely nothing. So I kept pumping the pedal. That didn't work so I then put the car in Park hoping that would do something but again it failed and my brakes still had no power so as I pulled my e brake as a last resort I hit the 18 wheeler coming to an instant stop. I finally got my car off the middle of the highway 30 or so mins later after a police helped block off lanes but when I turned it on again my brakes were perfectly fine and acted normal and had no problems getting home. Now for my question. Could anyone provide me with information as to why they would fail completely all of a sudden and then 30 minutes later they acted as if nothing happend?

 

No, but you are scaring the crap out of me.

 

Check to make sure all the pads are still on, especially the rear. I had the exact same thing happen to me on the highway, went to merge into traffic, hit the brakes nothing, so I downshifted enough to merge and kept pumping them. I was about to pull over when finally they came back. What happened was the drivers side rear brake pads fell out. The pin that held them in either broke or slid out and then the pads fell out too. Once the piston extended enough to touch the rotor the brakes came back. Obviously you don't want to drive it like that so I would check to make sure that didn't happen to you. Now I check to make sure the pin is in good condition once every few weeks or before a long trip. Going 80 with no brakes into traffic is very scary lol.

 

-T-H-A-N-K- -Y-O-U- !!!!!!
Going out to have a peek at mine now.

 

No problem! I have no idea why they used a pin to hold the pads in. This was the first car I ever saw that the caliper didn't make it impossible for the pads to fall out.

 

I opened the photo at bottom of ur page and third photo shows break down of disc brake . Is # 15 the pin that is being discussed Thanks

 

If you mean the #15 in the below, then no, that is the front caliper.
The rear calipers ( on the NA's ) have a single pin that is held in place by a flat spring.
The 2 pads have holes that this retaining pin goes through.
You can inspect them with a flashlight without removing the wheels.

 

Thanks, i will take a look

 

It is number 5 in this diagram. Number 4 is the flat spring that "holds" the pin in. Sorry I don't know how to resize pictures on here.

 

Why does this view show 4 pads? Am I in danger?

 

Yea, maybe you lost the extra rotor on each side ?

 

thinking about all those 160 mph runs about now.......lol

 

I may be wrong ,but every time you replace your brake pads you should use new pins , I; thinking there a brake kit that you can get that will have new pins and flat springs in them. NOW FLAME AWAY LOL

 

With the issue about the rear pads falling out, you should have had front brakes to make the car stop. Yes, low pedal but the other half of the master cylinder should have been working. That is exact reason you have a double master cylinder verses the single from years ago.
Not sure what is going on here. Maybe the master cylinder went into bypass (defective).

James

 

Brake fluid? Did you check it, what level was it? Did you observe any leaks?

Dave

 

I am not sure about that, had no idea that is how it should work. All I know is that the pedal went straight to the floor and absolutely no brakes. I have had brake lines fail on me way too many times, it felt exactly like that. It took about 30 to 45 seconds of pumping the brakes to get them back. After that they worked great like nothing was wrong.

 

None of this adds up. You've experienced brake line failure "many times"? It is not a common occurrence. How many miles on your car? "30 to 45 seconds"? Do not keep driving your car until you fix your brake system. I agree with the previous post about your master cylinder.

 

Well, I have only had this happen on my Harley, but I had my front brakes to rely on. My pads were too thin, so once in awhile I would get the no pedal feel. Replaced the pads and I have brakes again..... If you recently had brake work done, I could see maybe air being in the line a some point, but I can't see this not showing up right after the brake job.... I don't know man, maybe that panic stop messed with your mind. DOT bumpers on semis can have that affect....they don't move much when you hit them.

 

Hello again everyone I appologize for this very late response. I posted a response on this thread a couple days ago but I guess since I was in a low wifi area it didn't go through. I took it to just brakes to get the brakes inspected and after they diagnosed it they bled the brakes and refilled the MC with brake fluid. I asked why it would happen and the brake technician said he looked for a while but just couldn't find out how but air got into the brake lines. I don't think It was fair to charge me 88$ for bleeding the brakes. But it works so I hope it doesn't happen again that was too scary. And about two years ago my brake fluid got contaminated and caused my brake pads to stick solidly on the rotors as I was driving. So I had to give it some hard gas for the car to even break the threshold and move slowly. After I got it home I got it towed to a dealership and they did a lot of work and replaced a lot of parts but other then that two years ago the brakes have never really been tampered with.

 

I too had very bad brake pedal feel. With a helper we bled all four calipers and got lots of air out of all four lines. That solved our problem. I can't say how the air got in the lines as it is my Dad's crossfire and he may have added fluid to a low resevoir at some point.

$88 is not a bad price considering the liability they assume by doing the work.