Community Alumni
Oct 13, 2014OP, I'm glad everything worked out ok. I know how scary a brake failure can be while unloaded let alone loaded. This was a very excitable experience, but stay calm, keep an open mind, and wait for the root cause. It may turn out that it's just a fluke and nobody's really at fault.
I'll share my brake failure experience for those who say the pedal can't go to the floor. Back in the day I had a 1983 Honda Accord that had a leaky rear passenger side cylinder. I would notice little brake fluid puddles on the ground, on the inner lip of the wheel, and a soft pedal that would sometimes sink while sitting at a light. "I'll fix that one day when I get the time/money. I can just keep topping off the fluid for now," I would tell myself. I was young college student with little money who sometimes made stupid decisions (like all of the others). That evening I did my weekly topping off of the reservoir and went to class.
I was heading to a busy intersection at 35-40 mph with a red light.
I hit the brakes and the pedal went to the floor. When I say went to the floor, I mean went all the way to the floor. I had very little braking power. So little it didn't seem like the car was braking at all. I lifted my foot and pressed the pedal again. I briefly felt some tightness in the pedal and the car dropped a few ticks, but the pedal went back to the floor and the braking stopped again. At this point I was getting pretty nervous because the light/traffic was getting closer and closer. I stepped on the pedal as hard as I could and pulled the e-brake with all my might. I thought I would snap the thing off. The car eventually stopped in the intersection. Not enough to hit the crossing traffic, but enough to give a few cars quite a fright.
How do I know the pedal went to the floor and just wasn't hovering a few inches above? The back of the brake pedal actually punched a hole through the floorboard lol. The floor board in that area was rusty and in need of replacement. The spot where the pedal attaches to the arm hit the spot just right and poked the hole. I drove the few blocks I needed to get to class using the e-brake to stop (remember I was just young and stupid). When I got to the parking lot, I could see the leak was worse than before. Thinking surely the reservoir would be empty by now, I was surprised to see that there was some fluid still in there. I had the car towed home (I had that much sense), figured out the cylinder was the problem and how to replace it. I replaced it and bled the brakes the next day. For the rest of the time I owned that car I didn't have another problem with the brakes. No more topping off, softness or fading, and a nice strong pedal.
