Yup. My dads old truck, some 70s model. I pressed on the brakes at a street light and the brakes (mostly) gave out. I coasted through the red light and pulled over on the side of the road.
Apparently the brake fluid cable (or whatever it was) had sprung a leak. The brakes still worked, but you had to press really hard on them.
I never drove the truck again after that.
I snatched a plastic bag from behind my front wheel at about 6pm Friday, I went out for an early morning drive the next day and, yep, no brakes. Thankfully since it was 6am sat morning, there really wasn’t other traffic, so I was able to coast to my local garage and wait until they got there.
This sounds unbelievable, and it was unbelievably stupid. I drove from Aspen CO to Ocean City MD with no brakes.
In 1985 or so I was moving from Aspen to Ocean City. I had a 1969 ish Volvo 144 with a manual transmission. The brakes had been getting worse for a couple of weeks but I was running out of money and didn’t see any other options. By the time I was leaving Colorado the brakes, including the parking brake, were completely gone. It was incredibly stressful in traffic but otherwise not too bad. I would just downshift to slow down and turn the car off to stop. I went too far through a toll booth once but otherwise had no accidents. Amazingly stupid.
Jeez. Good exercise in throttle control, though.
Once had a caliper get stuck and overheat, and the brakes failed right as I was pulling in to a friend’s driveway - pedal to the floor with no resistance. I coasted to a stop about a foot from her house - I didn’t even think to use the parking brake, I was too busy crapping my pants. Since then, whenever I smell burning brakes, I get a streak of fear running right through my, erm, special no-no naughty places. Luckily, I live in a mountainous area, so burning brakes are a rarity indeed.
Add me to the master cylinder failure/emergency brake lever gang.
A guy I once worked with put one of those 2x2 carpet samples in his oldsmobile’s drivers side footwell to soak up winter slush. On snow/ice covered roads, his gas pedal got caught underneath the carpet scrap, causing sudden, uncontrolled, acceleration.
He tried braking, but that made him go into a skid. He eventually ducked down and yanked the carpet away once he figured out what had happened.
I’m amazed that no one has mentioned how the old drum brakes would fail when wet. So if you went through a deep puddle, you gingerly tested the brakes when you came out and if there were no brakes, you drove slowly and carefully, pressing hard on the brakes which dries them out and you are okay. Happened to me more than once. No fun, but if you were careful, no danger. Although it help to have a stick shift.
Brake line failed while I was trying to stop in traffic. Ran into the car in front.
But, now you mention it, yes, before that there was also a time when I was poor, and one day the brakes went from faulty to not working at all as I pulled out on the road. There was a garage just down the block, and he charged me charity rates.
I was pulling into the auto parts store to get a new master cylinder. I was already in the parking lot, and was pulling into a space when the brake pedal went to the floor. The building stopped me.
Naturally, everyone in the store came rushing out to see. The building was okay. I was okay.
When I sheepishly told the parts manager what I had come in for, he laughed his ass off, and agreed that a new master cylinder was probably a really fabulous idea. First time I ever bought parts without having to argue about it! (Because apparently, “girls” don’t know anything about cars.) I don’t even live in that town any more, but I still shop at that store whenever possible.
Not me, but my morbidly-obese cousin. She and her husband were driving a rental car down from the summit of Haleakala on Maui, when their brakes failed. The rental agent subtly hinted that her weight was the cause (I’m not entirely sure he was wrong).
Me too, irresponsibly drove my truck ~10 miles with only the e-brake to stop me. It stopped, just took a while. Needless to say I didn’t tailgate anyone.
One time I drove my mom’s car when I was visiting relatives, and upon parking I put on the handbrake at the suggestion of my cousin since the driveway was on a slope, but my mom was not in the car at the time and I forgot to tell her about it. So when we drove away we lost the brakes halfway through Pennsylvania. I then remembered the handbrake was still on, and the brakes slowly recovered over the next 10 miles. Luckily there wasn’t anyone at the first stop light she couldn’t stop at.
I was driving near Mt. Rushmore, on those awesome wicked roads, and braked hard in a little Nissan pickup. Pads were worn out and it made the tell-tale metal-to-metal sound.
Drove it all the way back to western Nevada without hardly touching the brakes again.
Replaced the pads when I got home and the rotors were undamaged.
If you drive with your head instead of your foot, it can be done.
'61 Falcon. Master cylinder failed on highway. Made a hair-raising turn on yellow onto a street that was uphill, and put it in second, then pulled the emergency brake. It didn’t work terribly well, but it did slow down the car a lot. These cars are not made to go into first except at a dead stop, but I slammed this one into it when it was crawling along, then turned it off, and turned the wheel to the extreme right, then jumped out and made sure it stopped.
Had it towed to a garage about 1/4 mile away. I could have pushed it if it hadn’t been for the busy, multi-laned streets. Anyway, it was fixed the next day.
I also had a wheel cylinder blow on a car once. It doesn’t leave you totally brakeless, but you want to drive straight to the repair shop.
Another time I had a drum seize. I gunned the motor and pumped the pedal to unstick it well enough to drive it to a shop.
Ask me about the time I drove a car five miles without a clutch.
I usually do my own brake work, but several years ago I was pinched for time and let a local shop change the front pads. We were leaving on a trip the next morning and it had to be done. I picked up the vehicle that evening and drove through some heavy traffic to get to the highway. When I tried to slow to take the exit the brakes went to the floor with no effect. I used the E brake to make it a mile or so to the nearest parking lot to see what had happened. Turned out that the shop had forgotten to close the bleeder valve. Every time I had touched the brakes in traffic more fluid had squirted out the valve until none was left. I bought brake fluid, filled the reservoir closed the valve and drove back to the shop. I lit into them with the fire of 1,000 suns. If my wife had been driving with my kids in the van she probably would not have known what to do and could have very well been killed. I explained to them how it was a rookie mistake and the potential liability it exposed the shop to. They offered to refund me - not the brake job - but the cost of the extra brake fluid I had to buy :rolleyes:. Needless to say, I don’t do business there anymore.
Do tell!
I drove one of my cars for *years *with only the odd gears. Then 3rd failed, leaving me with 1st and 5th, and so time to fix it.
Still own/drive that car.
1971, I was a newly married mechanic. My wife asked me to take her VW to work and adjust the brakes. I drove 1 block to the first intersection, brakes went to the floor I rolled into the intersection and was creamed by a truck. Problem solved.
as long as you don’t have to stop, it’s not that hard. you can either rev match, or just ease it into the gear as the engine RPMs drop. the latter one is hard on the synchros, though.
Yep, once on a race track. I was riding third in a line of a group of good friends, everyone following very closely to the next person.
Downhill, into a hard braking turn. My brake line wasn’t positioned correctly and wore/melted through. Brakes were fine, up until that point, then the suddent loss of pressure/fluid meant that when I pulled the brake lever on hard, it just went all the way in with no resistance and no effect…
I was going way too fast to tip my bike into the corner, so tried bleeding off as much speed as possible with the rear brake before I ran out of track. I hit the tyre wall reasonably hard. It was lucky none of my friends followed me in, and no major damage done. Scared the crap out of me for that split second when it happened. Then my subconscious brain went into damage / crash limitation, while my conscious brain was still screaming “Brakes???” In hindsight, I was pretty lucky with the outcome and probably should’ve attempted the turn and had a gentle low-side crash.
Twice. Both times the emergency brake worked, and I didn’t hit anyone or run off the road. But that first second or two were absolutely terrifying.