Has anyone experienced a catastrophic brake failure like this? I was driving along and as I approached a traffic light, I pressed the brake pedal and it went all the way to the floor. I was extremely lucky that the light turned green and the cars in front of me got out of the way in time. Otherwise I would have plowed through several others.

I was able to drive home slowly as I was only 0.1 mile away and pulled into the drive way. What I saw was shocking. There was brake fluid all over the wheel, tire and wheel well.

 

Brake line blew out? I would say that is quite rare.

 

The brake line of my SUV also failed during driving. But it took a while for the fluid to empty. the brake line was corroded by the heavy salt on the road during winter. Yours looks like it was caused by something else.

 

I couldn’t figure where it was leaking from. Pressing the pedal when I went back to check, it was making a loud noise and the pedal was vibrating too. So I didn’t want to mess with it. Have an appointment for Monday to get it checked out.

 

Do comment back, I'm curious what happened here.

 

Hmm... shouldn't there be a brake warning light when there is loss of brake fluid?

 

If there was any Brake fluid that got on the car body paint I would clean it off. Brake fluid can eat paint and make it bubble and flake off too.

 

Ok update on the issue. They put it up on the lift and showed me the leak. It was leaking from the tip of the bleeder valve. The dealership claims they have never seen anything like it ever. They’re sending it to Lexus for diagnosis.

It’s being fixed with a new valve and complete bleed of the system.

But what am I getting out of this..!? We could have been in a serious accident. We were coming back from a doctor’s appointment for my pregnant wife..!

 

There was no warning. The brakes went from a 100 to 0 in a matter of a few feet, literally all in a sec.

 

If it happened that fast, like if a line blew the moment you pressed the brake, then there would have been no warning as prior to that exact moment there was no issue.
And even if a warning popped up while it was happening, I'm sure 110% of your focus was on the wall of cars in front you that you were about to pile into, and not on what's on the cluster.

I think we're all waiting to hear what the failure was as you're the first to ever report something like this.

 

See above for the issue that was found.

 

Wow.. that was scary, glad that you are fine....keep us apprised

 

That's crazy! Like the others glad you're ok and I hope they can come up with a cause.

 

I meant to say we are waiting to hear what the source of the failure was...I read what the event was that happened...now we are waiting for what caused it since you're the first this has happened to as far as I'm aware on the forum.

 

Just got the car back. Looks like there is some paint, wheel and tire damage. I tried all kinds of chemicals that I have to wash it off. Nothing is working.