Quote:
The brake pedal went slowly to the floor. With minimal braking action. Thank god for the recently adjusted Emergency brake! On repeated pumps, I got some braking action back. But it wasn't right.
I drove slowly home, on pins and needles. With the Emergency Brake as my backup. It worked beautiful, by the way. Better, I thought, than a 2 wheel mechanical brake ever would.
Funny, but that almost exactly describes my experience with the dual (tandem) master cylinder, diagonally-split, ABS on my
1998 Chevy.
It was on my way back home from work, about five years ago. I had just come down the steep west hill, through the stop-n-go gauntlet of downtown (with no problem), and pulled into BK to grab a Whopper. Yet, coming up to the drive-thru window, WITH NO WARNING WHAT SO EVER, the brake pedal went to the floor. I would have blown right past the window and into a busy state highway, except for the "parking brake".
(Luckily, I knew how to work around GM's modern type of release.) Instead, I was able to baby the car home, another mile or so, on the p-brake. When I looked under the car, I found the rear brake lines were rusted and dripping at just one spot, but I was unable to sufficiently cinched them to stop the leak. I didn't feel like pissing around with this kind of work in the driveway during the winter, wasn't sure I had compatible flaring tool, and didn't have the means to park the ABS for bleeding. So, I called a tow truck, and insurance co. picked up the tab for that.
Turns out only ONE of the lines was leaking, but I had both rear lines completely replaced - front-to-back. Yet, the fact remains that I would NOT have been able to stop the car safely had it not been for the "parking brake" - though it only applied the rear DRUM brakes. That's not the first time that something like that happened to me in a vehicle with a dual-reservoir master cylinder, either.
DON'T get lulled into a false sense of security with ANY dual-reservoir master cylinder. No matter what vehcle you drive,
DO make sure that your "parking brake" is in good working order and that your brake servos are properly adjusted.
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