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?!
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!Picked the car up yesterday morning, the mechanic doing the work even advised us to seek legal advice as the vehicle was not in a roadworthy condition... the front to rear lines snapped in about 5 places just while he tried to remove them! Said I was lucky to not crash it!
Pretty sure the garage sold us a dodgy one, the lines were visibly f****d!
Managed to blow both back brake lines simultaneously too, so irrespective of a symmetrical split system the whole thing drained!
Pretty sure the garage sold us a dodgy one, the lines were visibly f****d!
Managed to blow both back brake lines simultaneously too, so irrespective of a symmetrical split system the whole thing drained!
Matt UK said:
How old is the car?
Only a 2006!ADEuk said:
The failure criteria for a metal brake pipe is something along the lines of 'reduced in thickness by a third'. There is no VOSA approved measuring device for this so without cutting the pipe to measure it the tester has to rely on the good old Mk1 eyeball. Should have covered his arse with an advisory though..
Confused me as it came back as no advisories, been told that even with a check by eye the lines were in need of repair.MGJohn said:
Be interested to know if the selling dealership was the same outfit which completed the MoT test.
Dozen years ago, whilst watching my TomCat 220 Turbo being tested, with the front wheels on the rollers and the tester's foot hard on the brake pedal, ( looking for "pedal creep" ) his assistant standing near the nearside front wheel was suddenly sprayed with brake fluid. The previous owner according to the various Invoices in the wodge of history which came with the car, showed both front brake lines had been replaced with braided items. It was the braided item which had burst under the "pedal creep" test.
I replaced both front braided lines with solid steel and rubber original ones.
For legal reasons the garage is a separate company to the sales, but all the profits end up in the same persons pocket! Dozen years ago, whilst watching my TomCat 220 Turbo being tested, with the front wheels on the rollers and the tester's foot hard on the brake pedal, ( looking for "pedal creep" ) his assistant standing near the nearside front wheel was suddenly sprayed with brake fluid. The previous owner according to the various Invoices in the wodge of history which came with the car, showed both front brake lines had been replaced with braided items. It was the braided item which had burst under the "pedal creep" test.
I replaced both front braided lines with solid steel and rubber original ones.
And the way I see it, if it doesn't have a TUV pass then it aint' going on my car!
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