Brake Failure.......

Sounds like you did not bleed the system properly and got an air bubble in the brake line circuit which will cause the pedal to hit the floor and do nothing. Depending now on whether the bubble has escaped to atmosphere or is merely 'locked' somewhere the brakes will now appear to work perfectly fine, if the bubble is 'locked' heat can again dislodge it and cause the same fault to occur. Get you brakes bled by someone who knows what they are doing before you use the car again :)
 
also, the seals in the master cylinder can.. i don't know what'd be the proper term - turn? When my master cylinder was ill, if i braked firmly the pedal would get to a point and then hit the floor, loosing all brakes. Let go of it, and press it again and it felt fine and worked ok.

I'm 99& sure it was down at a master cylinder fault, but i replaced the entire braking system when i took the car off the road - so it *may* have been a fault elsewhere, but i seriously doubt it.
 
doofer said:
Sounds like you did not bleed the system properly and got an air bubble in the brake line circuit which will cause the pedal to hit the floor and do nothing. Depending now on whether the bubble has escaped to atmosphere or is merely 'locked' somewhere the brakes will now appear to work perfectly fine, if the bubble is 'locked' heat can again dislodge it and cause the same fault to occur. Get you brakes bled by someone who knows what they are doing before you use the car again :)
Click to expand...

How would air have got in when i only took the top off the reservior ?
 
Right, what I'm about to propose may not exist at all, so don't flame because I haven't studied the mechanics of a car that much.

Basically when I traded in 03 clio (was nothing wrong with it), one of the traders wasn't too keen on them because of the electronics. Something about the accelerator being a 'fly-by' (maybe) system, that basically uses electric sensors from the pedal to accelerate the car. Now if this is the same case with the brakes, perhaps the sensors failed at that time, and is an intermittent issue which would explain it working later.

Now that may be some absolute hog wash, I don't know. If any of you know any more, feel free to explain it fully.

Although I have to admit, when I intially read this - I thought driver error.
 
Brakes are not electronic because you'd have to 'feel' otherwise, the accelerator doesn't have any feel anyway, so nothings lost by having it fly-by-wire.
 
The only thing electric on the brake pedal is the brake light switch...i wouldn't put my trust in electronics for brakes.....at least if something goes justnow you can still use the brakes albeit without the servo or whatever.
 
Jonny ///M said:
The only thing electric on the brake pedal is the brake light switch...i wouldn't put my trust in electronics for brakes.....at least if something goes justnow you can still use the brakes albeit without the servo or whatever.
Click to expand...

If it fails you keep the servo assist for a few presses of the pedal.
 
only other thing i can think of.. is one of your pistons was sticking and it became lose when she tried to brake making the pedal feel like it went to the floor.. but as you drove like 50-60 miles before she even used it.. id say thats very very slim to none.
 
My pedal had loads of travel in it. One of the Callipers had stuck (We think) and the one piston was way, way out more than the other. Freed it up, new discs and pads good as new.
 
I drove it as soon as she brought it back after the incident and it worked, ive drove the car around all day yesterday (all be it very carefully) and it worked. The only thing i would say is it feels like your taking up slack in the pedal when braking at speed before anything happens but if going slow you can feel the car braking as soon as you touch the pedal........other than that they are working fine so to speak. The car still pulls to the left slightly as before but what is new is when braking at slow speeds and just about to come to a stop (so braking gently) you cna see the front of the car shudder left and right to indicate uneven braking - im talking literally just about as the car comes to a halt.
 
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