Pass me my other brown trousers please, these are dirty ...

SB118

SB118

SB118

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
7,699
Location
"Sunny" Plymouth
Was doing the school run this morning, no problems, went to the scrappy to get a window for a metro (good swap eh?), no problem, driving home i hear a faint whining, then a loud whining. And then it died.

The brake vacuum pump that is. 2.5litre transit, half loaded, with about as much braking ability as, well, a transit with no brakes. Apart from the handbrake of course, that's always been really efficient at stopping the van (can bearly hold it on a hill tbh) :eek:

Coming up to a busy roundabout i can honestly say i no subtle swearing myself, thank god for the engine braking on a diesel. Got the machine home, rang around and found the only place i can pick one up today, is the breakers yard i was at this morning :rolleyes:

/me goes off to have nice strong cuppa
 
Had a similar thing happen once driving a Mk1 Astra, which decided to lose its brake fluid all over the shop. Handbrake and gears, managed to bleed enough speed off before anything nasty happened, but I still needed a new set of trousers when I got home. Not a nice experience, glad to hear you got back in one piece!
 
Doesnt that just assist the brakes, sounds dam dangerous that it could just go like that.

Reminds me of the time my throttle cable stuck wide open as I tried to brake for a roundabout
 
Without the vaccum pump, it's braking with no servo assist at all. which comes in quite low on my list of "fun things to do" :p
 
SB118 said:
Without the vaccum pump, it's braking with no servo assist at all. which comes in quite low on my list of "fun things to do" :p
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Had that on my 620SDi, I also lost my PAS :(

Fortunatly was just around the corner from a mate and he was good buddies with the Rover parts guy in(or near) kidlington.
 
It's the one thing that scares the hell out of me with modern cars: power assisted EVERYTHING. What do you do when it fails and you have no brakes and no steering? I know it doesn't go completely but I also don't know many people strong enough to pull up the weight of a car with their right foot alone.
 
heh, should have seen my missus trying to drive our sj410, it's "old" tech, doesn't even have a servo in the design :eek:
 
only the servo went? u big girls blouse!! you just have to mash the brake pedal a lot harder. what does give you a brown pants moment, is when the rear wheel cyclinders go suddenly and when you brake your foot goes right to the floor!! handbrake helped quite a bit when that happened :D
 
Kamerad said:
and lose engine braking?
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I'd guess most people will have difficulty performing engine braking AND having both their feet on the brake pedal :p

Probably best to make a choice depending on the circumstances...
 
NathanE said:
I'd guess most people will have difficulty performing engine braking AND having both their feet on the brake pedal :p

Probably best to make a choice depending on the circumstances...
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if you lost engine braking and pressed the brake too hard you will lock the wheels and skid... bad idea
 
chopchop said:
only the servo went? u big girls blouse!! you just have to mash the brake pedal a lot harder. what does give you a brown pants moment, is when the rear wheel cyclinders go suddenly and when you brake your foot goes right to the floor!! handbrake helped quite a bit when that happened :D
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This happened to me on christmas day. Luckily it drained overnight and I realised it when pulling out of a driveway, but the damage had been in place for weeks and only christmas eve I was doing 110 up the M1.

The thought of what could have happened softened the £150 blow from kwikfit.
 
chopchop said:
if you lost engine braking and pressed the brake too hard you will lock the wheels and skid... bad idea
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You'd have to be superman to lock your wheels with no servo, surely?
 
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