I am having a bad day....

I spent this morning making some new cycle wing brackets, all went very well.......

Went out for a joy ride, came up to a set of lights (with a camera) applied the brakes and all was well for about a second, then a loud pop, and one of my front flexible brake pipes 'braided' burst. Yanked on the handbrake, and slid across the line, so am now waiting for my 3 points….

Got the car home (about 10 miles) with only the handbrake, to find brake fluid has efficiently removed all of the paint from the wishbones, then I snapped a mirror off putting it into the garage quickly to avoid more brake fluid on the drive.

I walk around the car to put up my mirror, and then noticed that my fuel cap has dropped off.

I am now going out for some cider.

Grrrrrrr

B

Very bad day indeed, but do you not have a split baraking system ?

hopefully it will all look better
after a gallon.At least you didnt get hurt and your car can be fixed.you may not get even the dreaded letter.

Andy

yeah..... but every time i pushed the pedal, i got a face full of brake fluid. then to make matters worse it sprayed over the exhaust manifold...... cor i was glad to get home!!!!!

Cheers,

B

Good job no one was in front of you...

At least its all minor and is easily fixed.

You could always contact the camera people and explain what happened, you never know they might let you off. Or the camera might have been empty or fake.

Go and have a couple of large bottles of cider and forget about it

Take some dated photos of the broken brake line as future evidence if you want too...

yep - bad indeed
look on the bright side at least there was nothing or noone in front, that would have been more expensive.


what hoses were they? braided or OEM rubber, and how old?

not heard of them bursting before

Yup. Take some dated photos and if you get a letter just reply saying "not my fault govnor" and say you'll appeal and take it to court/ tribunal...

bad luck though!!

Totaly braided, as i thought they would be stronger as they are exposed etc.

I was mildy aware they something clonked the front when i was drvining it earlier, and just assumed it was a stone, unless it was something which was sharp enougth to damage the braid ?

B

i was braking down a hill in the van a few weeks back and with a loud bang, a brake pad fell out! A similar sliding moment to yours no doubt.

Didnt knock them when doing the cycle wings? or weld near them? Both could of caused possible failure..

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Baron
I was mildy aware they something clonked the front when i was drvining it earlier, and just assumed it was a stone, unless it was something which was sharp enougth to damage the braid ?

---

My wife is a hydraulics technician and has read me the riot act on braided hose being unsuitable for use as brakelines a couple of times.

Stainless braided teflon is apparently designed for use as a chemical transfer hose in nice happy clean non-mobile environments.

The exposed stainless braid is quite vulnerable to damage and the inner teflon liner has no intrinsic strength whatsoever -- thus leading to failures as described when the stainless gets damaged. It also apparently has a fairly poor bend radius capability when compared with the multi-layer fabric braided rubber used by the auto manufacturers.

There are varieties of stainless braided teflon which have an out sheath of clear polyurethane which are apparently better suited, not sure if it's available in -3 though.

I continue using it on projects due to the "Ooh, Shiney" factor but her warnings at least convince me to look things over frequently.

t

[Edited on 13/9/09 by andkilde]

quote:

---

Originally posted by BenB
Yup. Take some dated photos and if you get a letter just reply saying "not my fault govnor" and say you'll appeal and take it to court/ tribunal...

bad luck though!!

---

or, thanks for that sir, have 6 points.....