Failing Brakes

[dangerous]

everyone is complaining of tyre wear and other problems, i wish that was my problem. Our problem is the brakes, they have failed completly,after first time, garage took car back, and gave it an idependant inspection but when, recieved copy of report said that they could only test for 4 miles as there was insufficient fuel to drive further, garage said there was nothing wrong, and was probably due to the mats (rubbish) car is fine most of the time until gettig caught in stop start traffic. eg outside schools and supermarket carparks husband managed to stop car using handbrake. this now happens on a weekly basis, accompanied by a loud grinding noise which can be heard from the pavement which is embarrasssing. now dont feel safe and have to refuse our childrens friends lifts incase of accident,garage said they would replace car but only had one other which was newer but had no extras as our car did, and 10,000 extra miles but was 2,000 dearer plus the extra cost reworking our finance. so we are now stuck with a car which noone wants to go out in . anyway that isnt even the half of and i could rant for hours but i wont. if anyone has had these problems please let me know thankyou

[kfk]

You dont say how old the car is.....is it under any warranty and was it bought from a main dealer?

 

When the brakes decide to fail, does the brake pedal go all the way to the carpet?

 

Once it has failed does it 'fix' itself?

 

Has the fault only occured wit one of you driving or have you both experienced it from the driving seat?

[dangerous]

car is 2003 warranty ran out in march, bought the car april, 2005, problems with it right from start, mostly due to main dealer, not fixing all things properly first time, when problem with brake first started, it was the worst incident and pedal went straight to the floor accompanied by a loud grinding noise, all other times pedal seems to stutter, to the floor again with grinding noise, as i said only in stop start traffic, we let the sales manager use the car for the weekend, to see if it happened when he used it, but as it happens about once a week, nothing . After brakes have failed they are completly fine until next incident. This has happened with both of us driving. we contacted trading standards and finance company but garage had an answer for everything and we were forced to have the car back, and cannot afford to take the car to the garage every week, or replace .

[Guest CE05LDB]

Get in Touch with Trading Standards or get legal advice because at the end of the day if you bump into the back of another car of even worse hit someone its your Insurance they will claim off. Because this should be classed as a MOT failure as its not safe to drive for you or your family and the members of the public. I wouldn't put up with that. You are paying for a car that you don't feel safe in.

 

Citroen are getting worse

[dangerous]

we have got in touch with trading standards, and told finace company car is not safe, but because they had done an independant test on it , there wasnt much we could do garage had an answer for everything, said if we didnt collect it they would drop it back to us, collecting the briliant ( i dont think) berlingo courtesy car. Its not so much hitting another car that bothers me its the poor lollypop man outside the kids school, or worse a child. Car passed an MOT even though i offered the tester a bonus if he could find something wrong with the brakes.

[Guest CE05LDB]

Its like if you are in a no win situation. I know what you mean by the dealer havng answere for everything. My brother's previous 2003 52 reg C3 1.4Ii SX Auto nearly killed me and him.

 

I was driving it stopped at a top of an hill to let a car come up I pulled away I said to my brother this car sounds quiet and I went to apply the breaks there was nothing the engine had cut out so I couldn't stop I must have been doing nearly 60mph coming down the hill and I knew there was houses at the bottom on the corner I just made it my brother helped me turn the wheel as there was no power steering. If there had been a car in front or coming the other way I don't id be here today. I do have nightmares some times. In my C3 now im always got the breaks applied when going down the hill. I wouldn't drive down that hill for a few years. The dealer did a check. Couldn't find nothing wrong.

[kfk]

C8's dont suffer with problems of this kind, so obviously unles the fault occurs whilst the garrage is driving it its unlikely they will come up with an answer.

 

when you say it makes a grinding noise, does this apear to be from inside or outside the car, left or right hand side?

 

For the brake pedal to go all the way to the floor you would expect to find the mastercylinder had failed......but that wouldnt make a grinding noise.

 

However,.......and this may be worth considering.... if you applied the brake pedal normally and then panicked because of the travel......i wonder if its kicking the abs into use because it suddenly stops abruptly......is that the grinding noise....and the pedal pulses (stutters)?

 

You say you have had other problems with the car, without going into detail and confusing this post, did the fault occur after any repairs had be carried out.......driveshaft replacement, wheel bearing, abs fault maybe?

 

do you feel in general that the brake pedal drops over time even though the 'full fault' isnt present?

 

Sorry there are lots of questions, you've probably answered them over and over again..........but the only thing i would suggest at the moment would be a leaking master cylinder loosing pressure......do you have to top up your brake fluid?

 

And one last question, any idea when the brakes were last bled, have they got air in the abs block through not being bled properly?

[dangerous]

sorry havnt replied sooner been busy,,, noise is not abs althoughit does seem to come on at strange times, we have not had any work to do with brakes other than work after problems started,,, anyway might have had a bit of a breakthrough, took car to local garage this morning to have new brake pads, ( as i refuse to deal with maindealer any more) and got them to check tyres etc , and was told by them that one of our tyres (fitted by main dealer ) had been put on wrong way round. so have had it sorted and hopefully this might be something to with problems if not back to your other suggestions thanks.