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My brakes failed today.

Josh Ryan

Josh Ryan

- that dog won't hunt, Monsignor.
Supporting Member
Mar 24, 2001
12,356
97
MA
www.youtube.com
#1
I was in the jeep with the kids, only going 35 or so, but it's still a little scary. No crashes or anything, I know how to drive.

This sort of highlights how old my jeep is though, and I'm thinking of moving on. Maybe I should get a 4x4, 4 banger Taco? What say the Talkbass 4x4 drivers? Gas mileage is a concern and a backseat are needed, though 4 door is not. I do not need speed in this truck at all, but OK torque is required. Short bed would be nice. Anything else up there or close to the Tacoma? any GM or FORD offerings I should look at?
 
#3
Mon Rominee said:
How is the Jeep otherwise? How exactly did the brakes fail?
Click to expand...

brake lines, 2 of them. they were pretty rusty.

the body of the jeep is in good shape, the transmission (manual) is good AFAIK, the engine runs OK.

there is a lot of rust on everything except the body, almost as if I have been driving through salt water and carefully cleaning the body but nothing else. It's sort of weird actually.

it would have more fun and exciting if the kids were not in the car, that spooked me a bit.
 
#4
Oh, I can imagine. Personally, if the vehicle owes you nothing, just fix the brakelines. If yer more into getting a different vehicle, I'd suggest something along the lines of a Ford Escape if you wanna stay "domestic" and get decent mileage... I just can't recommend Ford Explorers or Chevy Trailblazers with all the bad things I hear about them.

Have you thought about Nissan Xterra or Toyotas at all, like the highlander?
 
#8
Get a '92-'96 Ford Bronco. You'll never look back. They are considered by many to be one of fords finest trucks to ever be produced, even though the Bronco and the F150 are both based off one another in design, the Bronco does have some superior build qualities.

Mine is a '94, and I have owned it for 7 years without any issues at all. Engine still runs like new. You can easily pick up one in good working mechanical/and body condition for $3,000-$4,000. And don't let any of them scare you because it's over 100,000 miles. These trucks are long runners. Plenty of torque in a Bronco as well. A Bronco with a 302 5.0L V8 (like mine) will throw out 185hp and 270 ft/lbs of torque. One with a 351 5.8L V8 will put out about 205hp and roughly 300 ft/lb of torque. 351's did not come with a manual transmission from the factory, only the 302 had the manual option.

Oh and by the way, mine is a manual as well, lots of fun to drive.
 
#11
Jiggybass said:
Scary stuff, I had that happen on the highway 2 weeks back, and let me say that I'm happy my car is manual, down shifting pretty much saved me and my car from disaster.
Click to expand...

Yes, that helped a lot!

As far as mpg goes, I really would like to stick with a small engine and pay less than 8 bucks a day to go to work.

age is less important than condition. I just need a 4x4 for a few places I travel to on a regular basis, and a winter car when I garage the bmw.
 
#12
Yes, gas mileage would be the only problem (I get about 13mpg city, and up to 19/20ish highway). For me though it isn't, for one I'm single with no children, and I love Ford trucks too much to ever let gas prices for me to not drive one. Bronco's are excellent 4x4 though. Mine has manual locking hubs and the Borg-Warner 1356 manual transfer case. Dana 44 front, Ford 8.8 (3.55 gear ratio) posi rear.
 
#13
jsbass said:
Get a '92-'96 Ford Bronco. You'll never look back. They are considered by many to be one of fords finest trucks to ever be produced, even though the Bronco and the F150 are both based off one another in design, the Bronco does have some superior build qualities.

Mine is a '94, and I have owned it for 7 years without any issues at all. Engine still runs like new. You can easily pick up one in good working mechanical/and body condition for $3,000-$4,000. And don't let any of them scare you because it's over 100,000 miles. These trucks are long runners. Plenty of torque in a Bronco as well. A Bronco with a 302 5.0L V8 (like mine) will throw out 185hp and 270 ft/lbs of torque. One with a 351 5.8L V8 will put out about 205hp and roughly 300 ft/lb of torque. 351's did not come with a manual transmission from the factory, only the 302 had the manual option.

Oh and by the way, mine is a manual as well, lots of fun to drive.
Click to expand...

i got a 94 bronco as my first truck with over 100,000 miles only $900 :hyper:
 
#14
jsbass said:
Yes, gas mileage would be the only problem (I get about 13mpg city, and up to 19/20ish highway). For me though it isn't, for one I'm single with no children, and I love Ford trucks too much to ever let gas prices for me to not drive one. Bronco's are excellent 4x4 though. Mine has manual locking hubs and the Borg-Warner 1356 manual transfer case. Dana 44 front, Ford 8.8 (3.55 gear ratio) posi rear.
Click to expand...

If my job were closer maybe.

-that's a nice truck. :bassist:
 
#15
My car's brakes failed once. It was a Friday night and I was tooling around San Francisco. Hopped onto Divsidero (sp?) heading toward Lombard (Hwy 101) and the first stop sign came. Hit the brakes and nothing happened. Realization set in as the second stop sign went by a bit faster. About the 3rd stop sign it hit the other two people in the car the brakes had failed and they started freaking out. Remember, this is a '72 Ford Gran Torino and the trunk is loaded to the gills with 2 people's worth of stuff so there's a bit of weight to keep everything going.

Anyway, there was this little dip / flat spot in the road at about the 5th stop sign. In typical 70s TV show cop chases we achieved flight for a second. At this time I slam on the E-brake. I've got one foot on the regular brake, one on the E-brake and my arms are locked straight on the steering wheel, wailing my horn as loud as possible.

I'm coming down to Lombard, which is a 4 lane street since it is the conduit for highway 101 through the city. I have a red light. There is this super fat guy crossing the street and even though my hi-beams are on, my horn is wailing and I'm doing about 70 he still continues to cross the street. Somehow I manage to squeeze my car between this guy (he never stopped walking) and this gold Mercedes that was on my other side. I had maybe 6 inches on either side.

Anyway, now I'm blasting into Friday evening traffic. It's not my turn to go, and the 4 lanes of traffic have no clue I'm about to blast through them. I whip through the intersection. I watched blurs of cars cross in front of me. How I didn't hit anyone I'll never know. Since my arms and legs were locked up, if I had hit anyone, I would've turned into matchwood. Luckily that wasn't the case.

On the other side of the intersection there was a lady who was pushing a stroller with a kid in tow. She wasn't as stupid as the fat guy and had started retreating back to the sidewalk so she was out of my way. About 2-3 blocks past this intersection my E-brake finally kicks in. The car stops and all 3 of us hopped out of the car. I kissed the ground because I was so happy I was still in one piece. Actually it was probably the street I kissed, but whatever I was still happy.

The rear brake rims were smoking. The tires were super hot to the touch. I let the car sit in the street for a couple of minutes. Amazingly enough no one came by that I noticed. They may have and I just missed them because I was trying to keep my heart from exploding through my chest. It was about this time I looked and noticed we had only a couple more blocks of street left and then a short brick wall. What was on the other side of this wall? The Pacific Ocean of course. So again I'm very happy the E-brake worked.

So, the 3 of us are a bit calmer now so I drove my car (very slowly) to a gas station that was close by. I bought a pint of brake fluid and started pouring it into my car. About this time a buddy of the gas station attendant goes up to the guy and starts talking animatedly in some foreign language I didn't understand. He's pointing at this huge hill, then pointing at my car then pointing back at the huge hill.

The attendant then came back to me and handed me another pint of brake fluid and says in broken English, "Here, you may need extra. Keep it." I'm sure some of you who live in this area know you don't get anything for free so I must've made quite the impression.

It turned out my brake fluid was indeed low. Probably due to a slow leak. We did a quick brake bleed right there in the gas station parking lot, then made our way onward, taking the flattest route we could find. It took us a bit longer to get back, but we were all about finding the slightest slopes possible which can be tricky in San Francisco.
 
#16
Get a Nissan Xterra. I have one and Love Love Love it. It gets decent gas mileage, im roughly getting 20mpg in city. I dont drive alot to be fair. I can haul all my gear around. If you have kids in the backseat youll def need step up bars, but the backseat is comfy. Plenty of tork, and its a v6 so it doesnt kill you in gas.
 
#18
I'm glad you are OK. The entire incident is a reason to really keep up with maintenance on older cars. Given the split braking systems common on vehicles after the early 1980's, this should not have happened. It must be astronomically rare for lines on both halves of a split braking system to fail. Also makes me wonder what else (frame, other brake lines) is ready to go on that vehicle.

A related incident also reinforces the need for paying attention to warning lights (mentioned in another thread)....I got a brake warning light in my 280ZX and it turned out the master cylinder was leaking INTO the power booster. No brake fluid was leaking out where it was visible, but the level was dropping. I checked and refilled it a couple of times before figuring out what was wrong - replaced the needed parts - no problem. If I'd disregarded it for a couple of weeks, I might have lost the brakes - and it would have been my own fault for not checking the light.
 
#19
Never .. ever drive an early '60's VW 'Bug'....

unless you've had extensive work and safety upgrades done on it first.. A 1963 VW bug was my first car as a Jr. in high school. Was coming home one afternoon from a summer student job on a local 2-lane road in Raleigh, N.C. The traffic suddenly stops in front of me, I stomp on the brakes.. nothing! It was just like the "Flintmobile" where Fred puts his bare feet out a hole in the floor.. I had no where to go so I pulled the wheel 'hard starboard'.. clippin' a motorcycle on my way into the ditch. Opened up his exhaust like tinfoil, his right knee caves in the side of his gas tank.. So to avoid the insurance increases I pay for all of his damage with cash after I get the estimate.. I've despised VW's ever since that day.. Oh... same car..I step on the gas and the cable connecting to the carburetor frays and snaps! grrrrrrrrr.... So happy the day I unloaded that "car" soon after the cable snapping and sideswipe incidents.
 
#20
I have a '96 4Runner. Great truck for what it is. It's big enough to carry whatever I need to carry but small enough that it's not a PITA to drive or park. The relatively short wheelbase gives it a great turning radius. It's dog slow but it does have decent torque. They do very well offroad in stock form and even came with a selectable locking diff in the rear from the factory as an option. Gas mileage isn't so great though. EPA mileage numbers for the manual are 17/20. I get more like 15 in the city. I have a bad O2 sensor though. The 4 cylinder gets a couple more mpgs, but many will say the tradeoff in power is not worth the extra 3 mpg. The 3rd gen Toyota 4Runners are pretty much bulletproof and are Taliban proven.
 

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