Brakes in the wet

[grasmere59]

I don't know if there is anything wrong but i've had a couple of very scary moments when braking in the wet.I only normally use the car for long journeys (approx 100 miles at a time) and i was trundling down the motorway in the pouring rain and hadn't had to use the brakes for a while and i came up a slip road to a set of lights and hit the bakes and................nothing ! i pushed harder and eventually it pulled up (after my heart had missed a few beats),i was on B roads after that and all was fine from then on.Last night i was driving the car again in horendous weather (sleet/snow/rain) and had been travelling for miles again without having had to use the brakes and when i needed to at the next junction again nothing at first then after a small heart attack it pulled up.Has anyone experienced anything like this in the rain? because i never have.

[madmadmax]

just before the brakes start working is the pedal normal or hard like when the engine is off

[grasmere59]

The pedal is normal,thats what i can't understand.It's like the brakes are soaking wet a bit like when you've driven through deep water and have had to "try your brakes" senario

[teamster1975]

I've had it on the bike when the discs get a bit of surface rust; to clear them up I roll the throttle on gradually with the brakes engaged.

[madmadmax]

it may be that one of the pistions in the brake calipers is slugish and as you put the brakes on it is moving slower and relieving the presser as a side effect, thus haveing no brakes and all of them

[grasmere59]

I'll check that out when the snow clears,the rear calipers are new so if anything it'll be the fronts playing up.

[Ares]

Mate,sort that fast,its very dangerous.
I belive the problem is with that caliper piston.
Report what the problem was,im very interested in this.

[Sonia406]

Mate,sort that fast,its very dangerous.
I belive the problem is with that caliper piston.
Report what the problem was,im very interested in this.

I agree... sounds very scary and I'd hate that to happen to you again..... Please sort it and let us know how you get on.

[DaiRees]

Don't know whether it's related but I've just remembered that I had a weird brake thing a couple of times in my Pug. I used to arrive at the place I used to work quite early so the car park was empty and no-one around. I remember coasting in through the gates at about 30mph and riding the brakes very lightly for maybe 50m to the point where you swing around 90deg into the parking area and another 90 into a space. Of course I then increased the pressure on the pedal but the brakes didn't want to know, pulled up OK in the end but had applied massively more pressure to the pedal than usual. This happened only a handful of times in about 5 years, and I don't recall it ever happening elsewhere, just the works car park.

I always assumed it was an anomaly of the car's braking system, maybe something to do with the EBA or EBFD? Perhaps because I'd ridden the brakes for a while the system had adapted to the pressure or something?