4G Intermittent brake failure (Scary)

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 11:00 pm

My lad was coming up a slip road onto a dual carriageway. The traffic had backed up half way from a roundabout a quarter of a mile further on. The ABS light had been on for a while - something it's prone to do when it's wet (as is the 4WS) - but he was not expecting what happened next: total brake failure. The inner lane was more full than the outer, so he crossed over, all the while trying the brakes.

Eventually, they worked, but too late, especially as they locked on the rainy surface, giving virtually no actual retardation. He took the only option available (and I've seen the video!) and ran between the lane and the Armco on the central reservation, skimming the barrier but missing the traffic.

Next, the busy roundabout ... He switched the engine off and on again as quickly as he could. The car had rolled onto the roundabout by this time, but the engine fired immediately and he was able to boot it out of trouble.

Since then, the ABS light has been off and the brakes are working. We'll try to pull some codes at the weekend.
In the meantime, what the hell was that all about?

Post by **Donald** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 11:06 pm

Glad to hear he's alright, doesn't sound like an ideal situation. Kudos for fast thinking though.

I don't really know the technicals on how ABS works so I'll leave the speculation to the others.

Post by **Thebusofwoe** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 11:10 pm

When you say total brake failure, as in how did the pedal respond? Go to floor or went hard with no brakes??

Post by **NafemanNathan** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 8:14 am

First time I've heard of this on a lude!

As said, I'm glad he's ok and no-one else was hurt/involved.

Sorry I don't know much about ABS either... I've always had Preludes without it.

Seems especially strange that everythings hunky dory again though

bb1boy · Post by **bb1boy** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 9:31 am

Does seem odd that it works again now after total failure. Is it auto or manual? I've seen a lot of auto's crashed because the wrong pedal was accidentally stamped on in an emergency.. (mainly by pensioners though I hasten to add).

Post by **4th Gen Doug** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 9:40 am

Does the brake pedal slowly sink to the floor occasionally when sat at traffic lights etc?
Mine used to do that, then failed completely a couple of times (foot straight to the floor with no resistance)..
It only happened a couple of times, and would brake normally 99.99999% the time.
scared the living bejesus out of me when it did tho!
It turned out to be the M/C leaking fluid into the booster..
Only difference was I never has the ABS light on at the time (it had been on before all that happened, but that was down to grease leaking from a split front boot onto the ABS sensor and gunking up the sensor wheel.)

As @Donald says - Kudos for the fast thinking, glad everyone involved was OK..

Post by **indigolemon** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 11:15 am

Sounds properly terrifying

The ABS on a 4G is a piggy back system, so when it's disabled you lose ABS but have normal brakes. Based on this, I would suggest the faults are not related - deffo worth investigating the M/C though.

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 5:21 pm

Thanks for the responses. The dash cam picked up the passenger saying "this isn't going to end well". A slight dent/scrape in the wing is all ...

The car's manual. The pedal moved, almost normally, although the expected ABS feedback didn't occur.

It seems that switching the engine off and on at the roundabout didn't do much more in the end than reset the ABS light. I was out today getting some nasty quotes for work on the ATR, so didn't get a chance to try the car myself. But when, in the 3 minutes our paths crossed earlier, I asked him how the brakes were, he merely grunted "jobby".

M/C looks favourite, I guess.

Post by **NafemanNathan** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 5:40 pm

So do we get to see this video footage?

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 5:44 pm

NafemanNathan wrote:So do we get to see this video footage?

I doubt it. It's not been uploaded anywhere. I'll ask, though.