Thread: Brakes failed !

Originally Posted by pjh4159

Because you have pumped an old master cylinder through its full travel and it has likely had scale and debris beyond the normal brake pedal travel when the brakes were working you have likely damaged the master cylinder seal causing fluid to leak past this seal and causing the pedal to push to the floor. As others have already said brakes are a critical safely system and should not be worked on if you are unsure of what you are doing. You will likely need all new components seals and cylinders so get it done by an expert!

What are you talking about? My original master cylinder had a slow leak from the bottom seals. I replaced it with a new one! Followed the proper bleeding procedures and my pedal is rock hard .
I have new discs and pads all round. And haven't damaged anything! I've replaced many brakes and worked on a lot of cars in the past. All of them English cars. So you know I'm a sucker for punishment.

That's the issue isn't it? Too many not willing to see the consequences of their actions. So if being too impolite and unsupportive gets the point across then so be it.
Stop thinking of yourselves and see the big picture , if the situation WAS different, and the vehicle sailed through a school crossing killing someone else's children, private school crosswalk or not, then I would suggest the whole story would take on a whole new light.
I DON'T CARE who gets offended in this particular scenario. I see this crap ALL the time, and so help me I will call the authorities if I see this criminal neglect first hand.

No apologies from me on this life and death topic.

Originally Posted by justinc

That's the issue isn't it? Too many not willing to see the consequences of their actions. So if being too impolite and unsupportive gets the point across then so be it.
Stop thinking of yourselves and see the big picture , if the situation WAS different, and the vehicle sailed through a school crossing killing someone else's children, private school crosswalk or not, then I would suggest the whole story would take on a whole new light.
I DON'T CARE who gets offended in this particular scenario. I see this crap ALL the time, and so help me I will call the authorities if I see this criminal neglect first hand.

No apologies from me on this life and death topic.

FFS...I have allot of respect for all your knowledge and help you have shared on this site. But your coming across as a grumpy old ****! Maybe if you want to force your opinion on to people there are better ways of doing it. Would you speak to people like that to there face, if they were breaking the law and doing 5kmh over the limit. Do you call the relevant authorities?

Originally Posted by SPROVER

FFS...I have allot of respect for all your knowledge and help you have shared on this site. But your coming across as a grumpy old ****! Maybe if you want to force your opinion on to people there are better ways of doing it. Would you speak to people like that to there face, if they were breaking the law and doing 5kmh over the limit. Do you call the relevant authorities?

You know exactly where I'm coming from, and YES i have had to get this point across to a customer or 2 over the years, to their face. Once theyunderstand the seriousness of the issue, we move forward and rectify the problem. And for the record both are still customers many years later because I was upfront enough to point out the consequences of their actions, and dare i say it, they were thankful.

If forcing an opinion that is focussed on preventing deaths, maiming and huge costs to families and the public is what I have done, then great, I'll keep doing it....

Mate you walked into that one and maybe you should have seen it coming. The moment you admit to doing something wrong don’t try to explain. All those sitting on the moral high ground will let you know about it. They will pontificate about all the things that you should not have done and all the things that could have gone wrong. After all that, best not play with brakes unless you know what you’re doing.

Now for all the moral high ground sitters, ok he stuffed up. If we all just throw our hands in the air and paid a professional every time we encountered something we had not done before how would we learn? What happen to the spirit of give it a go?

Regulation/laws only allowing professionals to do certain types of work! In order for these things to work you have to have the ability to enforce the regulations. Otherwise it just ads to the volumes of laws that just sit there and makes some feel good but not much changes in actual practice. I can imagine plenty on here have done a bit of house wiring or pluming. Not me of course.

To the OP, you’re on the right track now. A professional should sort your brakes out.

Originally Posted by pjh4159

Because you have pumped an old master cylinder through its full travel and it has likely had scale and debris beyond the normal brake pedal travel when the brakes were working you have likely damaged the master cylinder seal causing fluid to leak past this seal and causing the pedal to push to the floor. As others have already said brakes are a critical safely system and should not be worked on if you are unsure of what you are doing. You will likely need all new components seals and cylinders so get it done by an expert!

The car is getting towed to a workshop and going to obviously tell them at length what has happened. My insurer has agreed to take the LR for free as they listened to my original call and said they had got it wrong as I clearly said I had total brake failure, and they were very disappointed at what happened with the tow truck, even though I have specifically said I don't want anything done against the tow truck driver as we all have bad days.

Thanks again for the help, I have spent a lot of hours researching brakes these past few days, and as has been suggested, I now know that this part of the car I am going to leave for the experts. I will finish this post next week and update with what the problem turns out to be.

Originally Posted by Bohica

Yes mate, that's what we need, more bull**** regulations. How about bringing back a fellow to walk in front of the car waving a red flag. That will ipmrove safety no end. Road deaths willgo to zero.

The OP was in low range so the flag bearer pro'ly could've walked in front. The D2 would've been going so slow, that eventually he would've travelled back in time to the days of flag bearers.

Edit: To add something (hopefully) positive and useful to this thread, if you are ever washing/hosing your car and you notice white foam in/around wheels, almost like soap that can be from leaking brake fluid as I discovered once.

Well all is finished, I have a new master brake cylinder, the old one was leaking from the rear seal. I have found myself an excellent LR mechanic which I am very pleased about, he only uses original LR parts mind, system needed a good flush, he had trouble getting fluid out from the front passenger side. The rear calliper I changed is working fine, and glad to have the car back and shame we cannot go anywhere right now, I let him take his time, hence the late post, and the brakes feel good.

It has been a learning curve that is for sure, and after all that has been said, I just count myself very lucky they did not go when I had been going at a greater speed.

Matt.