Finished early so I could go and see our oldest son at the school Christmas play. Picked the wife and daughter up and off we set. Just coming up to a mini-roundabout and pressed the brakes (as you do) because the car in front had slowed too give way. Heard a slight 'clunk' and the brake pedal went to the floor, swerved to the right avoiding the car in front and grabbed the handbrake. Finally stopped about half way into the roundabout. The wife's asking what the f I'm doing and I'm a bit shaken myself, the brake's have gone, pump the pedal,, nowt. Got off the roundabout and pulled into a lane leading towards the golf course. Had a look under the bonet and around the wheels as best I could, but the roads were wet so could only see drips everywhere under the car. Abandoned the car and walked the rest of the way to the school for the show. Afterwards I found that one of the rear brake hoses had split, almost in half! Fitted a new one and got the car back home. I'm trying my best not too think about what could have happened if this failure occurred only an hour earlier when travelling at 60-70mph on dual-carriageways or A-roads? I've been very, very lucky. I'm ganna get pished the morra, I know that! :S
Must have been leaking for ages for the brakes to totally fail, they are a cross sided system so if like yours the hoses splits you would still have one front and diagonal opposite rear working normally until the fluid all disappears. But well done for averting an accident.
Holy carp. That was a close one. However I don't understand how the brakes could totally fail if a rear brake hose fails (or any single hose for that matter). Brakes are designed to be fail safe so if one part stops working, it doesn't all stop working.
It becomes quite a shock to the system when something like that happens and you can walk away from it but I would stay indoors for a bit you may have used up this months portion of luck
Checked the fluid before looking under the car and was still between max/min. Yep, I always thought that too about brakes being a dual setup for that very reason, but there was literally nothing left of any braking force whatsoever! Have been reading up on it and maybe I should get the master cylinder checked as a precaution.
7 year old mondeo. A push bike would probs have better brakes than what I was left with. Honestly. Luckily I was only going about 15mph, the scary thing is what could have happened!
Dug out my 'fundamentals of motor vehicle technology' book and after looking at how these systems work I can only think that a problem with the dual piston setup in the master cylinder could be the cause.
Sounds like you have got more than 1 problem then if that is the case. A problem with master cylinder at same time as a hose failing. I would be inclined to get it onto a brake tester (mot station) for a check to see if its putting out correct pressures at each corner etc. Sounds more like an abs pump issue to me?
if you still have fluid in the master cylinder,,then I would say the seals have gone in it, when you push the brake pedal the seal around the rod is letting by so it doesn't hold pressure allowing the pedal to go to the floor. If its a 7 year old mondeo is it worth the cost of fixing it. ?????
If the master cylinder wasnt holding pressure he would have had very poor brakes before the issue. Hence why I say Inthink he has more than 1 problem if 1 hose failure caused total brake failure. Abs pump failing and allowing "open circuit" of brakes sounds only plausible explanation to me. But im notvsure how they are plumbed, is it even possible to allow it to fail in such a way. Really needs pressures testing at each wheel to see what is happening.
Right have had a good look around the net, master cylinder is almost certainly the problem, very common problem with mondeos.
Glad you're ok Longs...extremly scary. Happened to me a good few years back...not a good outcome for me though!
Had the MOT done back end of August with nothing flagged up regarding braking efficiency or hoses etc. Haven't noticed any differences since then either. You could be onto something with the abs system tho. No warning light's showing a problem, but I don't suppose everything is sensed and monitored. Tis strange why the whole lot went? It was a big leak tho, the hose was just about split in two.
Brakes are working fine, now the hose has been replaced. Still driving like miss daisy tho. Never had something like this happen before, and I've had some right bangers when I were a lad. Almost everything is a common problem with mondeos, because they're a common car. ;-)
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