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2.4 Total brake failure

2.4_Roar

2.4_Roar

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Location
England
Car
Accord MKVIII 2.4
I'm a happy owner of a 2.4 Exec 6spd since 2009 and I just thought I'd share this one with you all:

Car had been parked up unused since December. Hopped in and of course started perfectly first turn of the key.

A couple of things needed looking at however. O/S/R brake was smoking on the first run due to the handbrake not releasing. Wire brushed any muck and rust away and oiled the mechanism until it was moving as it should. Then covered everything with copper slip to protect it.

Windscreen washer motor was not working/responding at all. Took the wheel arch liner out and tapped it with a nylon hammer and is now working perfectly so it must have just gotten a little stuck.

Then after checking the oil, coolant, brake and clutch fluid I gave it a proper run with a mix of motorway and A and B roads and everything was fine for about 220 miles. In the early hours this morning however it suffered a total brake failure and there was a "POP" sound followed by the brake pedal going all the way to the floor as I was approaching a red light going down a steep hill....(nice). As I'd just cleaned up the handbrake that worked very well and brought the car to a safe stop.

Here we go I thought - another rusty brake like that's failed on a 10yr old car.

However there was absolutely no fluid loss and all of the brake lines and hoses were fine. Got to be master cylinder I thought. I was wrong.

The friction material on the O/S/F brake pads had just come away from the metal pad base and flung off down the road. That caused the piston to travel very far on one wheel which gave the log pedal travel and stopped enough pressure going to the other 3 discs = no brakes!

Local Honda dealer is fitting new discs and pads as I type this. Annoying because I could change discs and pads with my eyes shut but after spending the last month solid on an engine change in another car I just haven't got the energy or patience right now.

Hopefully I'll be enjoying a 2.4 ROAR again today...but this time with brake to stop it too!!! lol
 
Ah well, could have been a lot worse, if they'd gone just when you needed them to stop pulling out in front of an 8 wheeler for example.
 
Welcome to TA Ross you were very lucky mate with the brakes not failing like on the motorway.
 
Welcome to the forum Ross. What an intro. Sounds like a rubbish experience and I hope you have happy motoring from here on.
 
Welcome along, as other said could have been worse.

I'm surprised you lost all braking though, as brake lines are normally split for this very reason.
 
^ yes, I thought this. I'm sure the brake lines on our cars are split 50/50 to opposing corners. I'm pretty sure my manual has something about that in it. Crazy!
 
I always ***umed that the split brake circuit was for balance? Otherwise it's a bit strange that you can push the brake pedal to the floor when bleeding the brakes one at a time.
 
Brake circuits are split 50/50 to opposite corners for safety. It's a requirement on the manufacture of every modern car. It's so if 1 corner fails at least 2 brakes should still work. They are split to opposite corners so when you brake the car still brakes in a relatively straight line. If they were split to the left and right sides the car would pull to one side or the other.

The reservoir should be big enough that even with no friction material on the brake pads there should be enough fluid in the system to enable safe operation. I've seen people wear both front sets of pads down to the metal backing and they still have an all-be-it 'limited' braking ability.

I would say that if you had have pumped the brake pedal it would have drawn more fluid into the system from the reservoir and restored your braking ability.
 
Doc said:
Brake circuits are split 50/50 to opposite corners for safety. It's a requirement on the manufacture of every modern car. It's so if 1 corner fails at least 2 brakes should still work. They are split to opposite corners so when you brake the car still brakes in a relatively straight line. If they were split to the left and right sides the car would pull to one side or the other.

The reservoir should be big enough that even with no friction material on the brake pads there should be enough fluid in the system to enable safe operation. I've seen people wear both front sets of pads down to the metal backing and they still have an all-be-it 'limited' braking ability.

I would say that if you had have pumped the brake pedal it would have drawn more fluid into the system from the reservoir and restored your braking ability.
Click to expand...

Yeah I bet you're right - the thing just totally caught me out though. I've had a brake line suddenly fail on another car before and it felt exactly the same as this. So I thought if I keep pumping the pedal I'm going to splash brake fluid over tyres/bodywork or worse a hot exhaust. I also thought that running the system completely dry would do more damage so I was determined not to use the pedal at all.

See photo of the old pads - the tight git at the dealer that sold me the car had fitted non Honda cheap pads!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/do6hy2b001b14s7/DSC_0507.JPG
 
Mad! I've never heard of this happening before.
 
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