What a way to start a Monday morning!
So I hop into my car this morning (after hubby already left for work) and back out of the garage. Imagine my surprise when the brake pedal hit the floor and had NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER on the motion of my car. Luckily I live on a very quiet street, so not being able to stop my car as it backed up was not fatal, and I was able to coast it to a stop by the curb. I called him on his cell...no answer. I called him at work...switchboard not on yet. I was shaking like a leaf. Not that he could have done anything over the phone but when you have an awakening that rude you just need to share with someone. Once I stopped shaking my stubborn streak kicked in and I refused to leave my poor car on the street, so I backed it into a neighbour's driveway, let gravity stop me and get me going forward, gave it a small amount of gas, and pulled back INTO my own driveway, allowing gravity to stop me once I was up far enough. Luckily I judged it well and gravity did its job BEFORE I arrived at the closed garage door. So, a twenty dollar cab ride later I made it to work, and hubby took off early this afternoon to pick me up, bring me home, and bleed the air out of the brakeline. He said, "Oh yeah, I feel kinda bad. I shoulda seen that coming." Thanks darling. I am just so very grateful that it didn't happen in the 60 zone partway to work. THAT would have been a story I couldn't laugh about later. |
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Heart failure time for sure!!  I'm glad it all ended safely - for both you and your trusty car  |
| Oh yikes you had me at: I stepped on the brake pedal and it had no effect! A flip flop moment of the heart for sure. I woulda been thinking okay now what do I do? It's one of those moments that in retrospect you get the willies thinking of all the what ifs? What if you had been on a busy road/intersection/freeway...ect...whew so glad you were okay! Marianne |
Eeeeek so scary! I'm glad all was ok!  |
| Heart stopping! I'm glad ur ok. |
OMG! I'm so glad you're safe!  |
Holy Cow  ....once my heart started working again I would have been cursing up a storm  Thank goodness everything worked out okay |
| How scary! I wouldn't have known what to do! |
| I remember this tip from over 30 years ago in drivers ed in high school and from my dad. Use your parking brake to help slow down or stop. If your parking brake is a pedal like mine, keep the release lever pulled out and then use the pedal to control braking. If it's the handle type of parking brake, keep the button pushed in and use the handle to brake. My motto is always have a back up plan....lol Cindy |
Yikes Tracy, glad no one/thing was hurt. Did you punch him when he picked you up?  jcc9797 wrote: How scary! I wouldn't have known what to do! Emergency brake!!!! All automatics still have emergency brakes, not just standards. It's still a good habit to put on the emergency brake when you park an automatic car, my dad instilled that in me. Of course, in an emergency, like your regular brakes not working, use the emergency brake carefully, it depends on your speed and context. If you're cruising along at 60, you don't want to yank the emergency brake real hard, you'll spin out. You also want to put the car in neutral to disengage the motor from the wheels, in an automatic car, the entire time you're in "drive" or "reverse" your engine is making the wheels spin, putting it in neutral means no more power is going to the wheels and you will stop faster (with gentle use of the emergency brake). In Tracie's case, popping it in neutral and pulling the emergency brake relatively hard the moment the normal brakes failed should have stopped the car before it left the driveway. On a related tangent, this is what drove me crazy about that whole Toyota brake-failing/acceleration scare a year ago, in every one of those cars, whether it was the brakes that failed or the acceleration got stuck, there exists a number of ways in ALL makes of cars to counter it and avoid or mitigate the accidents that resulted. And it was clear the drivers involved had no clue. All drivers should be trained in these emergency techniques! (and to be completely pedantic  , this is why I think everyone should have to learn how to drive standard, at least as part of learning to drive, you become much more aware of the mechanics of a car and thus a safer driver, that people can completely ignore in automatics) |
| That's not the way to start a morning! Glad all worked out well and you got your cardio for the day. |
| I think you did very well Traci, at least you got it back in the driveway and David is right there are other ways to stop a car. I think sometimes when something like that happens you forget everything you know. I am usually good for oh, oh, oh, oh but not anything I ever learned. |
| WHEW! Glad all is well. |
| Glad it all worked out!! Definitely an adrenaline jolt... |
| Wow! Glad you're OK! I've had two brake failures while driving and they were both very scarey events! Baba wrote: On a related tangent, this is what drove me crazy about that whole Toyota brake-failing/acceleration scare a year ago, in every one of those cars, whether it was the brakes that failed or the acceleration got stuck, there exists a number of ways in ALL makes of cars to counter it and avoid or mitigate the accidents that resulted. And it was clear the drivers involved had no clue. All drivers should be trained in these emergency techniques! Not my understanding. In the REAL cases, the cars continued to accelerate no matter what the driver input was; turn the key off, brake, gear selector, it was full-on 100% accelerate with no way to stop the engine and an e-brake isn't going to stop that. If it began at speed on the highway, it's unlikely that the normal service brakes will last long enough to get the car stopped from speed while accelerating before the fluid begins to boil and the brakes fail, just like a runaway truck down a mountain. That's what makes it so scarey. You're going to die and there's nothing you can do from inside the passenger compartment to stop it. Maybe pulling the fuses -- if the key fuses (like to the electronic fuel pump) were inside, accessible and you could find them while going 110 mph. |
| I would find that very surprising, particularly shifting the car into neutral. The power to the engine could have continued (and increased), but the engine would be disengaged from the wheels. I would also be surprised if any but the tiniest fractions of automatic drivers have any idea what neutral means and realize their cars can be shifted into neutral. All the more reason for people becoming at least minimally competent with standard transmissions as part of getting their license! |
| With electronic automatic transmissions, driver input is only one factor in determining gear selection; try downshifting your auto into 1st while going more than 25 or 30; it will not try to downshift. In fact, my motorhome transmission gets shifted into 2nd from 6th at highway speeds by my engine braking system; the transmission decides what gear to use; my throttle pedal overrides the downshift, so touching the accelerator disengages the braking. I wonder what would happen if was running downhill, pushing on the brake, needing help from the engine brake but my foot was also touching the fuel treadle... sigh. So I wouldn't be surprised at all if the tranny wouldn't disengage under acceleration input. Here are very gory details of the Lexus accident; the driver was a 19-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol. The floor mat was jammed against the accelerator. His brother-in-law in the backseat was on the phone with 911 for a minute before the accident. The brakes were heat destroyed. There was a keyless ignition, so no key to turn off (although a three second button press and hold might have shut off the engine -- the car was a loaner from the dealership. Would you have known to ask "How do I shut off the engine while I'm driving down the road?") and if I recall, he was pressing the off button repeatedly... I don't know if he tried putting the transmission in neutral, but I'd guess he did.  http://www.safetyresearch.net/Library/N ... nspect.pdf There's a loooooong report on/with NHTSA and Toyota... the electronic accelerator can be requesting 100% acceleration and there are other "torque requestors" in the system as well. I have not read all of this material: http://www.safetyresearch.net/2011/05/2 ... deficient/ The title of the website notwithstanding, I have read the executive summary from NASA engineers and they can't find a defect that wouldn't cause a trouble code... what all of this means in context of the issues is not clear to me, except I'm glad Tracie is OK! |
| Tracy, glad that everything turned out all right...after a scare of a life time. This happened to me...once...a long time ago with my 6 and 7 year old niece and nephew in the car...going 65mph. I was driving from Florida and had the cruise on for a few hours and was coming up behind a truck, went to tap the brake to disengage the cruise and the brake pedal went to the floor. Oh yeah, heart in the throat time. Lukily they pumped back up as I was jabbing my foot on the brake pedal and I did stop at a service station to have it checked but let me tell you I did a lot of testing the brakes the rest of the way home. |
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