ford c-max 2007 - sinking brake pedal

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Sat 29 Jan 2011 20:05
ford c-max 2007 - sinking brake pedal - kevinzz

I recently had complete brake failure while driving in slow moving stop start traffic.

The pedal went right down to the limit & no braking. I ran into the back of another vehicle.

The brakes have worked perfectly before & after this event. I had them checked at a garage & no fault was found.

With the engine running the pedal sinks to the limit & feels like a master cylinder fault but I checked on another c-max with only 20000 on the clock & it felt exactly the same.

Can anybody explain this?

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Sun 30 Jan 2011 08:14
ford c-max 2007 - sinking brake pedal - Mike H
Can't explain, but there is clearly some sort of fault, whether it is a design issue or component failure. It can't just "happen" randomly*. I'd not be driving it until was resolved.

If you must drive it, try pumping the pedal when/if it happens again to see if that restores any sort of braking power.

*the only exception I can think of is that the brakes may fade after repeated hard use, and restore themselves when they have coold down, but this is unlikely in the circumstances you describe.
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Sun 30 Jan 2011 13:51
ford c-max 2007 - sinking brake pedal - Vitesse6

Had a similar thing happen years ago. Rear brake pull off spring had weakened so one brake was binding. The brake fluid (or more likely some water in it) vapourised and the brakes failed. Once it had all cooled down normal braking was restored.

I would get all the brakes checked over again and see if any are binding or if you have any hot wheels.

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