Avensis Brakes - Wooa There Boy

[shenderson]

Has anyone had the same scary experience as me?

A couple of months ago on a very wet Motorway my brake pedal needed to be almost completely depressed to bring the car from 80 down to 30mph. Scary but almost understandable.

This morning whilst driving at 15mph the same thing, except the weather is bone dry. Very nearly crossed into a busy road without stopping. ABS kicked in at the last moment but the brakes were, to be polite, "poo". Arrrgh! Braking performance improved as the journey went on and seemed to improve with pumping the pedal.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

[mbx]

Does the same happens when braking next times? If not, then various problems with brakes can probably be skipped.

If driving in wet motorway for long time without braking - first attempt is usually much worse because there is water on the brakes (as well as oil from the road surface - especially such as diesel or leaking oil from trucks). Therefore it is good to push brake pedal several times when braking for the first time - this will increase temperature of the brakes).

Also you have to be very careful when braking on the road surface few minutes after rain starts - then the road surface is very slippery.

The same is in the wet mornings. Even if the weather is not rainy - there might be a water condensaction on the brake surface.

Also if the weather is very very dry - then the dust comes on the brakes surface and the result of that is similar to the water.

Especially this happens when car has alloy wheels.

[uumode]

Has anyone had the same scary experience as me?

A couple of months ago on a very wet Motorway my brake pedal needed to be almost completely depressed to bring the car from 80 down to 30mph. Scary but almost understandable.

This morning whilst driving at 15mph the same thing, except the weather is bone dry. Very nearly crossed into a busy road without stopping. ABS kicked in at the last moment but the brakes were, to be polite, "poo". Arrrgh! Braking performance improved as the journey went on and seemed to improve with pumping the pedal.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

My first thoughts are your brake fluid is low! - and you have a leak somewhere because brake fluid does not usually just disappear.

Or there is air in the system.

http://autorepair.about.com/cs/troubleshooting/a/bl302a.htm

Get it checked out quick!

[mbx]

I think if it is a leakage he would be dead by now, because first time he had the non-braking problem couple of months ago :)

however I have not mentioned, that I do have the same experiences in the wet mornings (also depends on temperature - has to be +5 to 0C). Also I do have the same in motorways, when going 200km without braking :) It does not depend on car I drive, can be Avensis, can be Mazda6 or Opel Astra.

Btw, there is other funny things during winter (real winter) - when it is very snowy and you leave a car with parking brake on, then in the morning the wheels are not turning for some time - the brakes are frosen to the discs :D