My cabby tried to kill me

I was on my way home driving down mosborough bypass at 70 mph in Sheffield towards woodhouse roundabout.

It was steep down hill, I went for the brakes and it was loose and my foot went to the floor. I screamed like a little girl, I dont mind admiting.

The handbrake didnt have much effect.

I went accross the roundabout at 55mph, Only just made it round the roundabout. Just missing the front of a lorry. I was so lucky no cars were in front of me.

I went home, changed my pants and found the brake fluid had leaked out of the rear brake cylinder in a spectacular fashion I mights add, my rear wheel and arch was covered in brake fluid

New cylinder on but the trust in this relationship is seriously damaged  

Glad you're ok mate, must have been a six pence/half crown moment!!

Holy poop,someone must have been looking down on you not to hit anything.I'd be the same with being wary about the whole trust thing .just drive extra slow,it gives others the chance to see the mk1 .so your making peoples lives better by seeing a nice piece of engineering lol

Thanx, I just didnt have any way of slowing. It's an automatic so I just didnt know what to do. Part of me wanted to bail and jump for it.

Will go extra slow from now on

Oh my god! I didn't know that would happen. When my rear cylinder started leaking a while ago, the warning lamp/handbrake lamp flashed like a git at me the whole time, but even if that wasn't working, my braking performance was unaffected by the leak.  :?
Well done for not crashing!  

Scary, unless the rear cylinder let go suddenly in a big way the fluid warning light should have appeared as the level dropped? And having dual circuit brakes you should have retained some stopping power, alteast for a short time?

I had no warning light. It pulled to the left slightly but definately no stopping power, just went to the floor.

Check your brakes people and check them again

sounds like the piton popped out, happend to me once but no drama so all was good. another time the vacume pipe split on my miss's Ibiza and she got no brakes but again she wasnt driving fast. so basicly if theirs the slightest sign of anything wrong with the brakes i see to it straight away.

jeez glad your ok mate, scary stuff when they fail

chris

i had the same thing last year got up to warp speed 6 and wasnt hanging around pressed the brakes as a car coming up fast in front and pop pedal went straight to the floor very scary had to floor it past and let the car coast to a halt

the old bum trumpet was going big style turned out a rear cylinder had popped

yer that was the main reason i fitted discs to the back. easyer to work on, look good and i found they give a better pedal feel. i know some people say thay dont stop you any better but the pedal feel is worth the effort in fitting them. and if you fit mk4 ally ones then they shoulnt seize up too!!

This happened on my old mk2.

The handbrake seal on the caliper had gone, and when i came to drive away after taking the HB off there were very little brakes.

 I topped up the fluid to get home and they were all fine and i couldn't see any problems after a quick inspection.

 A few days and uses later the same thing happened, thats when i had a proper look and found the problem. Think they were dumping fluid when i had my foot on the brake and pulling/releasing the HB. Something i dont do much as i only uses the HB when parked.