Brake Failure

[darkt]

Hi, just thought I would bring this up on the forum, I've just had the brakes fail on my Avensis.

Not very pleasant thing to experience and some thing I thought didn't happen with today's cars.

I know the car is nearly 10 years old but brake pipe corrosion is some thing I thought you didn't have to bother about these days.

The pipe that's corroded is the one that runs from the front to the back brakes and at the back does a u-turn and joins the flexible hose to the rear brakes, it's on the u-turn were it's corroded and went with a good 1/2 inch split.

Seems that at that point on the bend it nearly touches the wheel arch liner and to look at it when the car is stationary there does appear to be a slight gap but when the car is moving it must have been catching and that is what has rubbed off any protective covering on the pipe.

So today pipe splits foot goes to the floor and only half the braking I was expecting, luckily nothing in front off me so got away with it.

Had a look at pipe on other side and that is nearly as bad, at first glance every thing appears OK it's only after you wash all the grime of that you can see the problem.

I may just be one of those unlucky people this has happened to but maybe it's an idea to check your brake pipes in the same area.

My wife runs a 20 year old Pajero and I've only just replaced the brake pipes on that car because I thought that after 20 years it's about time and they were still not bad.

[alan333]

Just a handy hint for anyone who may experience a similar nightmare...if you pump the brakes you usually get a bit of "pedal feel" back, giving you half a chance of stopping.

[gazza1286]

It was very common with Toyotas to suffer from corrosion on their rigid pipes running from front to rear.

I had to replace the pipes on both of my 1987 Corollas - my 1990 Carina II and my 1994 Carima E. This was when each vehicle was around 10 - 12 years old. All were MOT advisories. I used and still use the same Testing Station.

Maybe the inconsistencies in the MOT testers may have something to do with this.

[Exvec]

Or maybe its just bad engineering by Toyota,however this can and does happen to other car manufacturers as well.In particular Vauxhall springs to mind ,and it's virtually the same pipe from front to back that fails.

Just to confirm if this happens to you immediately start pumping the peddle

[darkt]

gazza it was fairly common on a lot of cars 20 years ago but with most modern cars the brake pipes are protected with a plastic coating plus anti rust protection but with this failure the wheel arch lining had rubbed through the coating, it may have taken nearly 10 years but it has rubbed through.

The rest of the pipe is completely untouched and free from any rust and as for pumping the brake peddle all I did was empty the master cylinder all over the road resulting in just having braking on 2 wheels and just think about it, I was coming up to traffic lights that had just changed to amber with about 50 yards to travel try pumping brakes then.

This posting was all about the positioning of the brake pipe in relation to the wheel arch lining, I was lucky when the pipe split that nothing was in front of me, I should hate the same thing to happen to some one else.

[t-spiritpete]

Hello mate,

that's something I shall be looking at in the future on my car and thanks for the valuable information it could be a life saver. I fully understand your comments about not pumping the brakes but I'm 100% sure alan333 means it with good intentions.

Regards Pete.

[darkt]

I didn't mean to sound dismissive about pumping brakes to increase brake pressure and yes it can help if you have soggy brakes and you already know about them, but only if you already know there's something not quite right with your brakes.

[old fiver]

Must still be a problem I had to have brake pipe front to rear replaced on 54 plate t spirit due to failing mot

[alan333]

Just to clarify what I meant by pumping the brakes. Obviously pumping the brakes will empty the system of fluid but, at that initial moment when your foot goes down to the floor when there's traffic lights turning to amber 50 yards ahead, it should give you a bit of firmness in the pedal and activate the brakes better, albeit probably only on two diagonally opposite wheels.

I apoligise if anyone reading my original handy hint thought that I meant it would be ok to pump the brakes to somehow restore them.

[Azzawacker]

The very same brake failure happened to me rear u bend near flexi pipe fluid went everywhere and had to go wrong way around island because couldn't stop in time . Both sides replaced now with copper pipes