Brakes went on dual carriageway

aliasojo

I was overtaking a line of traffic on the main A9 dual carriageway this afternoon when my brakes suddenly went.

There was a large lay-by and a big grassy verge nearby so I pulled back into the line of traffic I was in the process of overtaking and swerved into the lay-by cutting up a lorry driver slightly in the process. I have never experienced such fear in all my life. I don't know what would have happened if that lay-by and verge hadn't been there.

Called the AA and they sent out a local recovery truck who towed the car to a garage. We're now in a Travelodge as we're over 150 miles from home.

Couple of questions...rear wheel was smelling really strongly of smoke and rescue bloke said there was a lot of fluid round the wheel, he suspected a burst brake pipe. We also thought we might have had a bearing problem before this happened, and the car was due in to the garage next week for this. Is this something that can be fixed easily or not? The garage was shut when we arrived so we can't speak to anyone until the morning. I have no idea how the practicalities of this are going to work out, we need to get home and if this is a big time consuming problem then lord knows what we're going to do.

Also any ideas of rough cost? Mondeo btw.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

what year mondeo?

after time the rear flexy brake hoses crack and fray and eventually give out. or the copper lines just rust away.

aliasojo

2005.......

harveybobbles

Probbaly a seized rear caliper, which is common on the Mk3 Mondy.

I know its slightly off topic but why did you brake when overtaking?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

aliasojo wrote: »

2005.......

ditto on the calliper they do seem to be a bit weak.ive known some for the seals go around the piston leaking fluid and not actually grasp the disc at all.

asbokid

aliasojo wrote: »

rear wheel was smelling really strongly of smoke

that could just be the smell of the brake fluid evaporating on the hot brake disc.

and rescue bloke said there was a lot of fluid round the wheel, he suspected a burst brake pipe.

Sounds like a good diagnosis.

We also thought we might have had a bearing problem before this happened, and the car was due in to the garage next week for this. Is this something that can be fixed easily or not?...

What sort of bearing problem? Wheel bearing, or an engine bearing?

Also any ideas of rough cost? Mondeo btw.

replacing a wheel bearing, especially a back one, shouldn't be very difficult nor costly to do.. maybe £50-£60 including the bearing itself.

The brake caliper may have given up. Was the area of the rear wheel very hot? Maybe the brake caliper had seized, this can cause overheating and that could cause the piston seal in the caliper to leak. A reconditioned caliper should be <£100 and £30-50 fitting.

if it's the flexible part of the brake hose that has split, these are about £15 to buy and perhaps £20-£30 for the labour in fitting, including refilling with brake fluid and bleeding the system.

if there is a split in a solid part of the brake pipework, you can put a joint in it, but it's normal practice to replace the pipework all the way back to the engine bay.

If the pipework is found to be corroded, the mechanic would probably be happier replacing the pipework to both back wheels and perhaps even to the front wheels as well. It's quite a labour intensive job - you take the old pipework off and using new pipe, you copy all of the bends onto it, so it could be a £250 job if they found that the pipework to all four wheels needed replacing.

It might be something really trivial like a sheered or loosened bleed nipple on the brake caliper.

Can you get your husband to take off the roadwheel, and have a look? It should soon be obvious where the problem lies.

forgotmyname

Any noises? Slight whistling one? My old car had sticky calipers and would sometimes
get a noise, Stopped to check it and the wheel was very hot.
Melting the grease in the bearing which caused the initial noise.

New calipers sorted the problem. about £70 from europarts.

Gloomendoom

I had something similar when the handbrake seized on. In my case the thing actually caught fire.

The heat from the seized handbrake melted the piston seals that allowed brake fluid to leak onto the hot disc.

jackthenipper

asbokid wrote: »

that could just be the smell of the brake fluid evaporating on the hot brake disc.

Sounds like a good diagnosis.

Have to agree with asbokid with the AA breakdown guys diagnosis.

Did he not even check the brake fluid in the reserviour, it could be something simple as a broken bleed nipple, or a cracked/broken break pip that has broken under vibration especially if it was loose.

jonnyd281

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

what year mondeo?

after time the rear flexy brake hoses crack and fray and eventually give out. or the copper lines just rust away.

Copper doesn't rust it oxidizes (Green colouring on copper a copper roof) rust is Iron Oxide.

reeac

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

what year mondeo?

after time the rear flexy brake hoses crack and fray and eventually give out. or the copper lines just rust away.

When was it last MOTd? You'd expect signs of such hose cracking and brake pipe corrosion to have been picked up then.