Brakes failed.. :0(

[marksawtell]

I pulled into a petrol garage today and was sitting with my foot on the brake (engine out of gear obviously:-) . All of a sudden my foot on the brake went straight to the floor and the car had no brakes.

I managed to get the car home and get underneath it as i suspected a burst brake pipe and couldnt find any leaks anywhere. Having said that, I checked the brake fluid level and it was around the minimum mark and took about 250ml to fill it back up to the maximum level.

Heres what happens. If the engine is off and i push on the brake pedal, there is a little bit of resistance on the pedal at the beginning and then its like something slips and the pedal goes straight to the floor. With the engine running there is no resistance at the start of pushing the pedal...

Anybody got any ideas?

Many thanks in advance for any help

Regards

Mark

[JFP in PA]

You sound like you had very low fluid (adding 250 ml is a lot), and now may have gottem air into the system. I would suggest getting the system flushed with new fluid, and see if the brakes recover. If not, you may need a new master cylinder.

[marksawtell]

thanks jfp... ill try the system flush first. I gotta say im annoyed at myself as i constantly check all other fluid levels. The brake fluid got missed which is extremely dumb...

[wvicary]

The low fluid indicator light didn't come on??

[marksawtell]

yes it did,juyst before pulling into the garage....

[JFP in PA]

thanks jfp... ill try the system flush first. I gotta say im annoyed at myself as i constantly check all other fluid levels. The brake fluid got missed which is extremely dumb...

Don't beat yourself up over it, "fecal matter occurs". When the fluid level gets low enough, and the car is on an angle, it is fairly easy to uncover one of the ports in the master cylinder and suck in some air without the low-level indicator lighting up.

Flush the entire system and let us know how you make out..............

[marksawtell]

ok just an update . Soved the problem. The sudden drop in fluid got me going on a real hunt for a leak. Had to take one of the rear quarter underside plastic floor pans off(sorry dont know the technical name) and found a leak just after a joiner. The pipe had actually rusted in a clip. Fortunately i had the tool for making up brake pipes when i built a kit car 15 years ago and still had some pipe and fixings, so cut out the bad and replaced it. After bleading all 8 nipples, brakes back!!!!

And I did as you suggested JFP and flushed the whole system at the same time..

Many thanks JFP and wvicary :-)

[JFP in PA]

Glad to hear you worked it out.