Brake line burst!
Discussion
So yesterday I was driving along in M'cr city centre and I could feel the brakes becoming spongey.. Cue alarm bells in my head! Anyway, drove on with caution and the intention of bleeding the brake system myself when I got back to my house.
A minute later at the next traffic light I put my foot on the brakes and the pedal went straight to the floor, no brakes whatsoever! Just about managed to stop it using the handbrake and pumping the pedal to get a small amount of pressure back in them and bailed it into a side road where I got it recovered. Turns out the brake lines to the back wheels split and it pee'd all the fluid onto the tarmac.
Got it recovered to a Vauxhall main dealer who are doing the job for me now, at great expense, so that I can catch my ferry tomorrow morning..
Anyway, the reason for this post is that it was MOT'd by the garage I bought it from only 2 months ago... anyone know where I stand with this as the lines are visibly knackered, just by looking underneath the car you can see the rubber lines perishing and cracking. Surely it shouldn't have passed the MOT if the lines were in that bad condition?!
A minute later at the next traffic light I put my foot on the brakes and the pedal went straight to the floor, no brakes whatsoever! Just about managed to stop it using the handbrake and pumping the pedal to get a small amount of pressure back in them and bailed it into a side road where I got it recovered. Turns out the brake lines to the back wheels split and it pee'd all the fluid onto the tarmac.
Got it recovered to a Vauxhall main dealer who are doing the job for me now, at great expense, so that I can catch my ferry tomorrow morning..
Anyway, the reason for this post is that it was MOT'd by the garage I bought it from only 2 months ago... anyone know where I stand with this as the lines are visibly knackered, just by looking underneath the car you can see the rubber lines perishing and cracking. Surely it shouldn't have passed the MOT if the lines were in that bad condition?!
It certainly shouldn't have passed if the lines are in such bad condition. Get the dealer's MOT tester to have a look at them, if he thinks they could have been in an unfit condition at the time of the MOT you can raise it with VOSA.
If it's just a random part failure then there's no reason the seller should be liable, the MOT can only test the condition at the time it was presented.
If it's just a random part failure then there's no reason the seller should be liable, the MOT can only test the condition at the time it was presented.
Krikkit said:
It certainly shouldn't have passed if the lines are in such bad condition. Get the dealer's MOT tester to have a look at them, if he thinks they could have been in an unfit condition at the time of the MOT you can raise it with VOSA.
If it's just a random part failure then there's no reason they should be liable.
They may get into trouble with vosa if they missed an obvious defect, but they won't be liable for anything as they didn't make the item faulty.If it's just a random part failure then there's no reason they should be liable.
Foliage said:
fflyingdog said:
I thought cars now a days had a split braking system,where as if one side had a failed brake line then the brakes would work diagonally?
Depends on the car I think.Matthen said:
If there is no fluid left in the system only the cable driven handbrake will work. OP says both sides failed anyway, so all braking was lost.
The MC is divided so that only the upper volume is shared between both circuits, and once the fluid drops below around half way it is kept dividied. Cars have had split circuits since about 1970 IIRC - certainly way, way back.
Sidewindow said:
Scary stuff! How long had you been driving the car for when this happened? You haven't made any enemies recently have you? Just a (slightly Hollywood) thought..
Had driven it all the way from my flat in Liverpool, so must have broken on route! When I saw the rate it was losing fluid I was in two minds as to whether it had a helping hand, but garage say it's just an excessively worn part!It will be a steel line burst at the back . 28 days from the issue of the test you can go back to Vosa to inspect it . Did the mot have any advisories re brake pipe corrosion ?
Unless the garage are particularly stupid and want Vosa to be notified I would imagine they will replace the parts foc .
Thankfully it's very rare but if we miss something and its picked up we have always put it right at no cost
Unless the garage are particularly stupid and want Vosa to be notified I would imagine they will replace the parts foc .
Thankfully it's very rare but if we miss something and its picked up we have always put it right at no cost
Edited by mighty kitten on Friday 27th February 13:40
thespannerman said:
Had driven it all the way from my flat in Liverpool, so must have broken on route! When I saw the rate it was losing fluid I was in two minds as to whether it had a helping hand, but garage say it's just an excessively worn part!
That's a relief then, at least you can rule that one out!I always thought brake lines perished from the outside (i.e. rusted where there is moisture and oxygen), rather than the inside, which suggests that it should have been picked up on visual inspection at the recent MOT.
Matthen said:
Foliage said:
fflyingdog said:
I thought cars now a days had a split braking system,where as if one side had a failed brake line then the brakes would work diagonally?
Depends on the car I think.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff