How to Guard Against Brake Failure When You're Driving
Many people take vehicle operation for granted and may not think of the consequences associated with an unexpected emergency. They may have full confidence in their car's braking system but may not have thought about their actions should an issue be encountered. Would you know what to do if the brake pedal became unresponsive?
Checking Before You Drive
While some vehicles require you to put your foot on the brake pedal before you can engage a gear, it's a good idea for you to test the efficiency of the pedal before you begin a journey anyway. This may give you an early warning of an issue, if it doesn't feel 'right' based on what you are used to. A brake pedal should never be solid to the touch; should always provide a bit of resistance along with a small amount of movement.
In addition to your initial pedal test, you should get into the habit of braking the vehicle very soon after you have started moving and before you get to a place where you definitely have to stop.
The pressure that you feel when you touch the pedal is associated with the hydraulic fluid within the system. This fluid is specially designed so that it does not compress but is instead able to apply the same amount of force to the other end of the system at the road wheels. If there has been a leak of fluid, you will definitely notice a difference, as the pedal may travel further than it should or feel 'spongy'.
What to Do During Brake Failure
If you do happen to encounter complete brake failure when you're driving, you do have a couple of other options to decelerate the vehicle. Begin by depressing the clutch and changing to a lower gear or shifting into 'low' mode if you're driving an automatic. You will notice that the engine noise increases significantly, but it is resisting the forward momentum of the vehicle and will gradually slow it down.
If your car is also equipped with a manual parking brake, you can gently pull on this. It is connected (usually) by cables to the road wheels and will have the same effect as the foot brake, albeit nowhere near as efficient. Do not pull on the parking brake too sharply, however, as it could lock the wheels and cause the vehicle to go into a skid.
Whatever you do, do not panic and turn off the engine as this will have the opposite effect. It will also deactivate the power steering and could potentially lock the steering wheel in one position, preventing you from steering at all.
Checking the System
Your best defence against a rare but unexpected failure will be to take your vehicle in for regular checks and brake repairs at recommended intervals. If it's been some time since you did so, schedule that right now.