Lost my Brakes Yesterday
 

So I drive up to the bank teller yesterday. Take care of business and leave. I get to the end of the bank parking lot, hit the breaks and nothing. I ended up rolling onto the highway :) I jumped out and looking under my truck and there, near the middle of the truck was a puddle of break fluid. Jesus, I could have killed myself or someone else. You should have seen me driving home without having breaks :)

Dude...thank your lucky stars you are ok.

Is there also rust holes in the floor of your truck that you can watch the road go by?

DAMN MAN!! glad your ok, thats no joke right there. is it a busted line? did ya run over any branches or anything on the way to the bank?

The break line must have just blown out. Not a drop of break fluid in the reservoir. Believe me, you don't want to get run into by my truck no matter how fast it is going :)

Just an FYI - this happened too me about 3 years ago in a friends old van.
Shift to neutral, leave the engine running and apply the parking brake.
The parking brake is always mechanical so having no fluid doesn't matter.

Good thing you're ok! :)

My emergency break doesn't even come close to stopping my truck when it is moving. :) I really don't expect it to happen again.

next time try your Fred Flintstone breaks...

That's what Kobe said after the Lakers lost their 7th in a row.
Hope for the best, expect the worst, Jim. Better safe than sorry. Be careful.

Holy crap. Glad nothing worse happened :)

I'm glad you didn't heart yourself or somebody else Jim

do you have any pics?

I know that problem - sometimes I go and try to get a new top speed limit on the "German Autobahn" - so when trying to break down from about 200m/h it feels as if you don't have any breaks anymore :(

good thing you are ok Jim... what kind of truck do you have?

Yikes! Glad you got it hauled down without an event there Jim. Well, other than perhaps needing to change your trousers! lol

Been many years since I've had brakes fail, but I do recall it's an eye opener for sure |shocking|

Damn Jim I am glad all is ok

Wow.. that is scary. Glad to hear you're OK.

So did you piss someone off recently that might have a personal vendetta against you?

I've lost brakes a couple times in my life- it's an extremely scary experience.

There's a trick that will stop most vehicles, better than the parking brake, which isn't strong enough to really stop a vehicle that has any momentum.

Reach down, turn the key, and shut the engine off, leaving the car in gear.

The mechanical resistance of the engine is the strongest force you can apply to a moving car when you have lost the brakes.

I learned this the first time I lost brakes- I was 17, lost them on a busy road, and was lucky enough to weave in and out of cars, on the side of the road and into oncoming traffic, untill i was able to pull into a parking lot where I was just able to dump enough momentum to stop by bumping lightly into a building.

When I talked to a mechanic, he suggested the 'turning the engine off" trick, and I drove from there to the garage, braking by shutting off the engine at lights and stop signs.

That'll put hair on your chest...

Yeah..unfortunately, its enough to make you lighter on top of the scalp too!

I told that cocksucker to not park in front of my house. :D

Glad to hear you didn't scratch that big truck running over anyone's bones, Jim. My father once drove into a bridge embankment intentionally when he lost his brakes. Totalled his car, his nose and a couple of ribs. The bridge was fine though. ;)

Been there, done that.
Unfortunately, this also kills your power steering pump. Good luck steering if your vehicle is over 2k lbs.

Still suggesting you use the parking brake. However, Bill is correct on using the engine, downshift 3 2 1 in addition to the parking brake.

Not exactly sure as to what I did, it was on instinct as I flew through an intersection at about 40 mph.

Fuck! That must have been a rather pants-filling moment.

It might have been easier to stop with a manual gearbox.

"And that is honestly the reason why I didn't stop for you, Officer". :-)

The title of this thread is driving me crazy. I keep on thinking that Jim is having a coding problem and lost his breaks
somehow.

eeeek thats something I have nightmares about! I am so glad you are okay Jim and it didnt happen when you were flying along the highway or down a steep hill :|

I think its strange that GG havnt posted here "Ohhh Jim, Im so glad your ok!"......

Strange......

/Thomas

lol or maybe they are in contact with each other apart than here... (some people have phones or icq)
Didn't your dealer warn you about the paranoia asscociated with those kind of substances? lol

WOW.. thank goodness you are safe :D