brake failure

[Dennis Shelley]

2001 ST. Saturday, driving in town, approached a stop sign the brake pedal had pressure, then went to the floor. Mashed the parking brake, the ST stopped in time. Limped it into the parking lot at that corner.

The drivers side front flex brake hose gave way and ALL the FLUID went out the hose break. I thought this was two system braking. In that if the front or rear failed the other was on reserve. Not this time. Had no warning. After the failure the low fluid light came on.

Only 500 miles earlier changed the oil and checked brake, P/S and coolant.

Lucky it was on a level city street, not on a mountain pass going down hill.

Does the ST have two braking systems??? The fluid reservoir in mine is one non-segregated unit.

thanks for your input.

Dennis

 

[Yardsale]

One system with separate pistons for front and rear on the same shaft that share the one reservoir; there is no "reserve". Each piston pressurizes the front or rear brakes independent of the other.



With a small leak that causes the front or rear to fail, the other end will have sufficient fluid to function ... in theory. In that (the rear) drum brakes do not self adjust as well as discs, and may require more than one pedal press, or enough to allow air into the system if the reservoir were drained, they can be less effective than a disc, or not effective at all.



My '01 had both front lines fail at the same time and the rear remained functional, however, because the rear drum brakes do not self adjust as well as discs do, they were reduced. I manually adjust the rear brakes at each oil change, so they did work well enough to drive to a shop. If yours were not manually adjusted recently, they may not work well at all. My guess is that this is what you felt as not working.

 

[Todd Z]

Normally the FWD cars had the dual system, But not any more. Its the way it is described above.



Todd Z

 

[Dennis Shelley]

to fix this, removed the flex brake line and the caliper. Could not be sure if the flex line was bad or if the connection to the caliper was bad Replaced both. the flex brake line was rusted solid to the chassis line to master cylinder, cut it off. then removed the remainder of the line to the master cylinder.

Plumbing is my weakness. However this time, was able to create two dual flare connections W/O leaks. got my brakes back. Had this day for good weather and got it done. Brakes are rock solid. :banana:

 

[Yardsale]

:haveabeer: