what the hell happened my brakes?

bladebrew

hey all,
having fairly serious problems with my brakes, (its a 00 saxo by the way)
at the start of the week the pedal was nearly on the floor but would still stop the car,
then during the week i was reversing and there was a massive clunk from the rear wheels, then the brakes went back to normal, they stayed like that for 3 days until this evening agian, there was a massive clunk and now my pedal is right at the floor, it will barely stop the car
the handbrake wont hold the car anymore either, its goin up way higher than it should,

anyone have any idea what is wrong?, or is there anything i can do?, i had a look at the brake fluid and its full,

sorry for the long post!

edit: by the way the pedal will sit in a normal position but when i press it it keeps going down

Wolfe Tone

Dont drive the car!!! Why on earth would you drive it when it has dodgy brakes???

Rear brake assembly has collapsed on one or both sides. probably corrosion related.

Absolutely do not drive the car

wonski

bladebrew wrote: »

at the start of the week the pedal was nearly on the floor but would still stop the car,

Still stop the car doesn't sound like good brakes...Just take the car to the garage to have this fixed. That's all you can do.

bladebrew

yeah i have the car at home now, i didnt realise they were so bad until i tried to stop,
i will have to drive to a garage though!
i just dont understand why they worked then stopped working again,

they were perfect when i parked up one night and the next morning they were fecked!

jamescd

It's your brake shoes/pads. Exactly the same thing happened to me. Massive clunk while I was reversing, handrake up higher than it should be, etc. Then couple of days later, brakes got stuck so I couldn't even move my car anymore. Had to call a recovery truck and your man removed the worn out and rusty pads/shoes on the spot. Had to drive to garage without any brake shoes/pads !! You should drive yours to a garage while you still can.

Gary ITR

bladebrew wrote: »

yeah i have the car at home now, i didnt realise they were so bad until i tried to stop,
i will have to drive to a garage though!
i just dont understand why they worked then stopped working again,

they were perfect when i parked up one night and the next morning they were fecked!

Get it towed dude. If your brakes are that bad then do not drive the car under any circumstances.

bladebrew

cheers for the replies lads,

yeah i dont know what to do with it to be honest,
i was hoping for a magical solution i suppose!!

if this problem is related to the rear brakes which im almost certain it is due to the handbrake failing, how come almost all braking effort is gone
should the front brakes not be still doing something?

YouTookMyName

Pipes could all be corroded together or the discs/pads/shoes were all changed at the same time and just worn.

johnayo

bladebrew wrote: »

hey all,
having fairly serious problems with my brakes, (its a 00 saxo by the way)
at the start of the week the pedal was nearly on the floor but would still stop the car,
then during the week i was reversing and there was a massive clunk from the rear wheels, then the brakes went back to normal, they stayed like that for 3 days until this evening agian, there was a massive clunk and now my pedal is right at the floor, it will barely stop the car
the handbrake wont hold the car anymore either, its goin up way higher than it should,

anyone have any idea what is wrong?, or is there anything i can do?, i had a look at the brake fluid and its full,

sorry for the long post!

edit: by the way the pedal will sit in a normal position but when i press it it keeps going down

Usual thing that happens to these is the rear lining comes off the brake shoe. Rear drums need to be removed to check. Don't drive it.......

bladebrew

just to update this,

i got the car fixed, the problem was the brake shoes had fallen off:eek:,

i think it was only one but they replaced all 4 together,
im still not fully convinced one brake shoe was causing almost total loss of brakes though
the parts were only €25, and the brakes are fine again:)

mickdw

bladebrew wrote: »

just to update this,

i got the car fixed, the problem was the brake shoes had fallen off:eek:,

i think it was only one but they replaced all 4 together,
im still not fully convinced one brake shoe was causing almost total loss of brakes though
the parts were only €25, and the brakes are fine again:)

Of course it would cause it.

Gary ITR

bladebrew wrote: »

just to update this,

i got the car fixed, the problem was the brake shoes had fallen off:eek:,

i think it was only one but they replaced all 4 together,
im still not fully convinced one brake shoe was causing almost total loss of brakes though
the parts were only €25, and the brakes are fine again:)

So the brakes are fine again after fixing the problem, but you're not convinced that was the problem?

The Saxo and 106 are murder for rear shoe problems. I've never heard of one fail like yours though, generally the handbrake become stuck on, in all the cases I've come across, admittedly only 4 or 5 iirc.

bladebrew

Gary ITR wrote: »

So the brakes are fine again after fixing the problem, but you're not convinced that was the problem?

what i dont understand is how one brake shoe could cause such massive problems,
what the hell was the one good rear brake and the front brakes doing when i was pushing the brake pedal?
dont get me wrong im delighted it was such a simple fix,

bladebrew

mickdw wrote: »

Of course it would cause it.

how though

im not being smart, im just wondering what the rest of the rest of the brakes were doing when i was pushing the pedal,

Generally what happens them is that the lineing comes away from the metal part of the shoe, the lining is glued on so it wears off from moisture etc. The lining when unstuck then basically falls into a position where the effect is the brake is applied.

Unless you were losing fluid through your wheel cylinders I don't understand what happened in your case either.

SilverBell

bladebrew wrote: »

how though

im not being smart, im just wondering what the rest of the rest of the brakes were doing when i was pushing the pedal,

Depends how the brake lines are split, but one possible answer may be that

1 the wheel cylinder piston stopped making contact with the brake shoe.
2 you push the brakes, but all the hydraulic fluid goes to the cylinder with no resistance (the one with no shoe in contact), therefor no pressure can build up in the line.

I dont know the exact details of your car, but it might be something along those lines. Usually brake lines are split diagonally (1 front 1 rear on each circuit), and have 2 circuits from the master cylinder so you will "always" have some sort of brake even if one circuit fails.
Maybe others more knowledgeable will have some ideas.

corktina

sounds to me as if your brakes were pretty marginal anyway and this was the final straw.

Nissan doctor

bladebrew wrote: »

what i dont understand is how one brake shoe could cause such massive problems,
what the hell was the one good rear brake and the front brakes doing when i was pushing the brake pedal?
dont get me wrong im delighted it was such a simple fix,

The titanic only had a small hole on one side and look what happened.

The brakes are all connected, the pedal won't firm up until all shoes/pads are pressing against the drums/disks. If one shoe has failed then it can't press against the drum, therefore you don't get a firm pedal.

2 stroke

bladebrew wrote: »

what i dont understand is how one brake shoe could cause such massive problems,
what the hell was the one good rear brake and the front brakes doing when i was pushing the brake pedal?

You dont have a four brake pedals, brake effort from the pedal is normally shared between all four wheels, the other 3 brakes dont know 1 isn't working and is taking more than its share of fluid. Also problem with nut in car behind steering wheel, continuing to drive a dangerous car.