this morning i was on my way to training in my pickup and something bad happened. i was coming up on a stoplight with some cars stopped at it, and while i was braking my brakes popped and then they weren’t working. at all.
fortunately i’d already slowed some, maybe to around 15 or 20 mph, and conveniently there was a side street i was able to whip into and then collect my thoughts. i downshifted, then tried my parking brake, which still worked. so i drove back home using downshifting and my parking brake to come to stops. i left my pickup at home and took the element to training.
personally, i think some of the bad mojo that’s on the vw camper bus rubbed off on me while i was working on it, and managed to transfer itself to my pickup this morning. i’ll be calling some sort of witch doctor soon to see if i can get rid of what’s already been transferred, and put some kind of protection on my pickup since i’m going to have to work some more with the camper bus. all i need is yet another vehicle that is unreliable and is generally a pain in my butt. of course, so far the pickup has been good to me. plus there’s always the fact that i actually like the pickup and have been planning on sinking money into it anyway, so it should be a different experience no matter what. (and to be honest the pickup’s brakes had been making a cyclic thumping sound when i broke hard for the last week or two, so it’s not like i had no clue something might be on the verge of happening. i just didn’t expect it to be the brakes going completely out.)
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failure is not an option. it's a requirement.
Brings back deja vu for me. When I was in high school and had a 1949 Plymouth, my brakes went out at a stop sign! Luckily no one was coming. That was the end of that car. And yes I can remember back that far!!!!!
Eek. No fun.
Spot any fluid leaks?
if i did my math right, it seems like a reasonable vehicle age for brakes to go out. not an enjoyable experience for a younger driver though, i’m sure. i’m pretty glad i was already slowed and there was a side street readily available — i don’t think i would have thought to use the parking brake in time.
i didn’t spot any fluid leaks on mine, but then i never looked. it sounded mechanical and i just assumed it was something metal. i guess i should have done some more scene investigation. i’m planning on taking a look this weekend to see if i can see something obvious.
i was already planning to look for a good shop that works on older pickups (since i’m planning on dropping some serious coin on the thing) but i hadn’t gotten around to it yet because i was planning on doing it after the move. guess i’ll have to shrink the timeline on that task.