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Technical Total brake failure of 4 month old 1.4 dualogic. EEEEK

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Technical Total brake failure of 4 month old 1.4 dualogic. EEEEK

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wowee

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Is there any history of this?

A member of my family acquired a Grande Punto 1.4 Auto back in June, it has since covered 4K miles of ordinary road driving.

Yesterday on the way home from work, the ABS warning light came on. On getting the car home, the driver braked hard in a safe area (to check if ABS was faulty, or if it was just a warning light fault) , a loud thud then came from somewhere in the rear of the car, and lost all braking capability, including operation of the parking brake.

The car is currently propped against the rockery, waiting for the dealer to collect it.
 
Last edited:
wowee said:
Is there any history of this?

A member of my family acquired a Grande Punto 1.4 Auto back in June, it has since covered 4K miles of ordinary road driving.

Yesterday on the way home from work, the ABS warning light came on. On getting the car home, the driver braked hard in a safe area (to check if ABS was faulty, or if it was just a warning light fault) , a loud thud then came from somewhere in the rear of the car, and lost all braking capability, including operation of the parking brake.

The car is currently propped against the rockery, waiting for the dealer to collect it.
Click to expand...

can't see how the parking brake could have failed its independent of the hydraulic system (parking brake is cable opperated)

only thing i can think is that its blown a slave cylinder which has contaminated a rear shoe.
 
Andy Monty said:
can't see how the parking brake could have failed its independent of the hydraulic system (parking brake is cable opperated)

only thing i can think is that its blown a slave cylinder which has contaminated a rear shoe.
Click to expand...

You sure they are cable parking brake. I thought the GP was a self-adjusting hydraulic handbrake.

P
 
Most odd and worrying but No I can say I have not seen anything about that in this Forum before...
 
mehstg said:
You sure they are cable parking brake. I thought the GP was a self-adjusting hydraulic handbrake.

P
Click to expand...


yeh fairly sure........
 

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:yeahthat:

Depending on the spec it's either drums or discs at the rear, either way the handbrake is cable-operated. In the case of rear discs, the cable pulls a lever which winds the caliper piston out mechanically to apply the force.
 
Had something similar in my old Peugeot, but that time it was the front. The brake disc at the front had sheared due to a weak area in the original design being corroded (altough not by much). Not a total loss of braking, but heavy pulling and poor braking.

Sounds like yours could be a loss of hydraulic fluid if all braking lost, although there should be flow valves to stop it. The parking brake should still work unless the fluid contaminated the drums.

Let us know when you know the cause.
 
Thomas_Si said:
Did you go to all the trouble of taking that off to prove a point lol:p
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Oh yes love to prove a point not going to sit here arguing one way or the other with out proof :p


(or should i say i was half way through hovering out the car and had the car in bits anyway bloody saw dust from work gets EVERYWHERE)

whilst it was off lubed the cabes up where they enter the outer sheath
 
Well, apparently a brake drum has failed. Looks like it was a pretty explosive failure, it sheared the handbrake cable on it's way out, which is why there was no braking at all.

The dealer says parts alone will come to £800 (all under warranty of course), and Fiat might want to take a look at it first.

And do they have an automatic courtesy car to lend out in the meantime ? Nope ...
(The owner of this car holds an auto only licence).
 
wowee said:
Well, apparently a brake drum has failed. Looks like it was a pretty explosive failure, it sheared the handbrake cable on it's way out, which is why there was no braking at all.

The dealer says parts alone will come to £800 (all under warranty of course), and Fiat might want to take a look at it first.

And do they have an automatic courtesy car to lend out in the meantime ? Nope ...
(The owner of this car holds an auto only licence).
Click to expand...

wow never heard of brake drums disintigrating before(n)
 
Drum disintegrated? or the internals? The internals failing/liners disintegrating or seizing are quite common, but drum failure is new. Like i said I had a disc fail on me under harsh braking with new pads, but the drums not normally under as much work.

One off or design flaw? Might result in a recall as its definately safety related, total failure of braking system and emergency brake!
 
This is twin circuit system, so there will always be a single hydraulic circuit still operating even if this was to occur. So not total loss of braking system.
 
NumanR said:
This is twin circuit system, so there will always be a single hydraulic circuit still operating even if this was to occur. So not total loss of braking system.
Click to expand...

You may think that Numan, but the bl%%dy thing couldn't be stopped, and the parking brake didn't work either. Only the fact that it was shoved into reverse stopped it from hitting the house.
 
You can lose all the fluid out of one circuit and the brakes will still work, the pedal goes long but you still have a brake.
 
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