Have you ever been in a moving vehicle when the brakes failed, either as a driver or passenger? What happened?
Circa 1975 I was driving my sister’s VW Karmen Ghia, taking a group of friends to see Laserium in Pittsburgh. We were all drunk and high (people drove that way back then). The traffic light near the old cracked crab restaurant turned red, and the brake peddle went to the floor. I ran the light, then began pumping the parking brake to slow down.
I pulled off the road, but in doing so realized that between downshifting and pumping the parking brake I had pretty good control. We continued to Laserium. When I returned the car to my sister, I told her the brakes failed on the way home.
I once boiled the front brake on my motorcycle.
This was on a racetrack, but it wasn’t exactly a track bike - more of a touring motorcycle, really, but I was flogging it pretty hard, so the brakes were HOT. I came out of one turn, and after a brief sprint I applied the brakes as I approached the next turn - and the front brake lever came all the way back to the bar with zero resistance. I still had the rear brake, so I got on it as much as the ABS would permit, and ran off into the grass. Managed to keep the bike upright as it slowed to zero, after which the front brake cooled and began functioning normally. Called it quits for the day.
I’ve never had my brakes completely fail. But one time, my master brake cylinder was failing, and I was later than I should have been in taking my car to the garage.
I was going down a hill that had a traffic light at the bottom. I got stopped ok, but my brake pedal went clear to the floor.
That’s a fairly scary feeling.
Several times, actually (which is pretty disconcerting to realize!)
•borrowed Ford Ranchero (I think?), brake pedal suddenly squoooosh to the floor, banged into the car in front of me at ~ 2 mph. Exchanged ID and insurance info, then I pulled off. Checked the wheels only to find that some idiot had mounted the right front tire directly onto the wheel studs with no brake drum. Yeah, the brake pads had been gripping, or trying to grip, the freaking wheel rim. Cylinder pistons poked out and drooping, brake fluid all over the damn place.
• my old 65 Bonneville was one of the last of the single-tank master cylinder models and over the years I owned it, I twice had damage or leaks somewhere in the brake lines or a brake cylinder that caused it to lose pressure. Both times I relied on the emergency brake and “L” and used the transmission as need be until I could limp in to a garage and get it fixed.
I lent my 65 Ford pickup to a friend when he visited me in Vegas years ago. He was driving it down the Strip and the line failed and he ended up bailing off the road and into the large garden in front of The Mirage! 
Well, it was pretty funny at the time.
I forgot the funniest part: When he realized the brakes had failed, he went for the parking brake, which on that truck is a T-shaped handle you pull straight back from under the dash.
He did this, and the whole handle came out in his hand, as it was not connected to anything. The mental image of this happening still makes me crack up to this day!
Never on the road but on the race track a few times. A couple time were pretty memorable. The first time was blowing out a rear wheel cylinder while leading a race. I still had some front brakes so I kept on racing. A few laps later the brake fluid caught on fire. There were on a few laps left so I kept on going. Took the checkered flag and immediately turned into the center of the track. Stopped in front of a wrecker, the driver already had a fire extinguisher in hand.
The second time was while driving a figure 8 car. Dove into a corner and hit the brakes only to have the pedal hit the floor. About then my right front tire went flying off the car and took flight. I slammed into another car and we both slid to a stop in a steaming mess. The tire bounced a couple times then hit the cab of a pickup parked in the pits. That broke the back window and dented the cab pretty good. Found out I had broke a spindle and it took the tire, caliper and rotor with it. I plugged the brake line, replaced the spindle and still made the main event later that night.
Yes, and it scared the shit out of me.
There was a leak in the brake line and I had NO brakes.
Going downhill towards a red light, I pulled the emergency brake and still wasn’t stopping so I grabbed the gear stick (automatic transmission) and slammed the truck into park. I skidded sideways but stopped short of hitting anybody.
I never had breaks fail (thankfully) but I have had my transmission fail so basically the gas petal did nothing and my truck was just coasting. Thankfully I had just exited the highway when it happened.
!960 Mercury Comet, line failed as I was approaching a red light (late at night, thankfully) I sailed through the light and saw the light two blocks up at a major intersection was turning red so I started swerving around to scrub off speed. Wasn’t going to stop in time so I shot down an alley and the car slowed almost to a stop, as I was about to roll out of the alley into another busy street I shoved the shifter into park. It wasn’t elegant but it worked.
I was driving a friend’s Isuzu Trooper down Old Priest Grade Road and had the brakes fade. This was the first year for that vehicle, and it was a piece of crap. I had the thing in 2nd gear (it was a standard) the whole way down, but we were still accelerating, so I had to use the brakes. When we got to the end of the road, there’s a stop, and I saw it coming, stood on the brakes, and couldn’t get the truck to stop. We coasted through the stop, and fortunately, nobody was coming so we were OK. Scary as shit.
I once worked on the brakes on my truck, and got everything put back together, and seemingly fixed. The next day., I backed out of my driveway, and the pedal went right to the floor, and I had to yank on the emergency brake. that was pretty exciting.
I also had an F-350 Crew cab, long bed, Turbodiesel (big-ass truck). There’s no engine vacuum, so there is a auxiliary vacuum pump for the brake booster. Well, that failed on the way back from California, and made braking quite a chore. One forgets how much boost power brakes give! I’d have to use both feet to stop the truck, and I made sure I had plenty of space between me and the guy in front. (As an aside, I also had the power steering fail on this truck, and drove it around without it, just for the workout - talk about a lat exercise!)
I was on a bus that did. In Peru. Roads had been closed for a week by flooding, and I was on the first bus that tried to get through; He scraped bottom in a river bed, breaking a brake line. The driver got underneath and did something that seemed to help for a while, and continued on. But later on, that didn’t work, so he slowed down. We drove on into Chiclayo with no brakes, in low gear, with the driver prepared to shut off the key to engine-brake in an emergency. All the passengers switched to another bus in Chiclayo. Just another day on South American buses.
Once, in Canada, I started to drive to work on a cold morning after a rain the previous day. When I stepped on my mechanically perfect brakes, nothing happened. The pads and rotors surfaces were ice-on-ice. It quickly self-corrected, but was rather startling.
the closest I’ve had is losing one circuit, when the rear wheel cylinders on my old F250 leaked out. was still able to stop the truck but that feeling when the pedal goes to the floor is no fun.
I was driving my friend’s late 70s/80s Dodge Ram pick up out of his gated community. This was an unmanned back gate that opened either automatically or maybe I had to push a button - it was more than 20 years ago. It was the kind that rolled to the side, pretty hefty. I stepped on the brakes kind of hard as I approached the gate and they went right to the floor and I hit the gate, doing a fair amount of damage to the gate. This turned out to be a good thing because, once through the gate, it was a steep hill (face of an earthen dam) to the bottom and a T intersection. That could have been ugly. The hose from the master cylinder had broken off and fluid covered the ground.
Yes. I was driving to work and went to stop. My pedal went all the way to the floor. I found out later the master cylinder had failed.
I was slowing for a light from about 45 mph. Luckily, when I drive, I let up on the gas before I have to stop, so I may have been down to 30, and when I mashed the pedal to the floor, I could coax it to stop.
I drove a few hundred yards to the nearest turnoff, my hand on the emergency brake, and then pulled into a parking lot and called AAA.
Not the same but I had an aftermarket cruise control stick wide open on a car while exiting an interstate in Baltimore back in the 80’s. Was able to shift the automatic transmission into neutral, turn off the engine (but leave the steering wheel unlocked) and safely drift to a stop. Opened the hood, found the problem and disconnected the cruise control, then when back on my way.
Nope, although my dad’s Landrover (which I learnt to drive in in paddocks) had pressure problems with the brakes, sometimes you had to pump the pedal a couple of times to actually stop. No real danger when toddling along at walking pace though.
I had an old vw bug with pedals that swung from the bottom instead of the top. A screwdriver found its way behind the brake pedal and prevented it from being applied as I was entering my coul de sac and heading straight for my garage door. I jerked the e-brake and spun the steering wheel and came to a stop sideways in the driveway. It was scary but I was sure it looked bad ass and wished a neighbor had been outside watering the grass or something to witness it.
[QUOTE=Gatopescado]
I forgot the funniest part: When he realized the brakes had failed, he went for the parking brake, which on that truck is a T-shaped handle you pull straight back from under the dash.
He did this, and the whole handle came out in his hand, as it was not connected to anything. The mental image of this happening still makes me crack up to this day!
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I always thought that was just a thing from the cartoons. Did it at least come out with some springs or coily wires?
About 25 years ago, I lost brakes and all other vacuum-mediated things on my car. Standing on the brakes slowed the car to the point where I could shift to Park and lurch to a stop.