Further to my post last week we are still none the wiser as to why the brakes failled just the once....!!!?? Pedal was solid, did not drop to the floor but absolutely no braking effort returned...

The local garage have now tested it all on the rolling road and all the braking forces are even.... Servo seems to be working fine ie pedal drops about an inch when held down and the engine started....

As a precaution they took both front and rear pads out and cleaned everything and then reassembled and the brakes feel fine... Pulls up sharp and despite any amount of eractic pumping or hard braking I cannot fault the brakes...

Anyone got any more suggestions or had a similar experience with their Marea...

that is a very odd thing to happen & I can think of only 2 possibilities:
discs were covered in condensation and that froze
ABS system was activated but this is usually obvious by the ratatat feel to the pedal....

Thanks for the reply....

No ABS on my old girl so that rules out any funnies on the ABS front....

Frost..?? Hmmmmm.... Had not thought about that..... Can this effect brakes ....??? We have had the car about 8 years and had a few bad frosts etc and never had this happen before, but that does not rule out a series of events adding up to it happening.....

Brakes still behaving perfectly all week.... Cannot fault them at the moment but still wish I had a definate answer to explain what happened...!!!

Can I trust them or not....!!!!!?????????????

Might be air?

air in system would have meant less or no resistance to pedal
other possibility is something stuck under the pedal......

Usually when drivers complain of brakes locking solid it is a servo failure. In this case maybe it was frozen fluid. Its surprising how mucky the fluid in the cylinders can get. Years ago when I put stainless front pistons in the MGB I was horrified to find I had been relying on a mixture of water and dissolved rubber seals. This usually shows up by boiling on an Alpine descent when you get pedal to the floor and no brakes, but in a hard frost it could happen that yuo push, and nothing moves. Fix is to bleed the brakes.

Definately going to bleed the brakes through thoroughly...

It has been suggested that there might be a build up of debris in the master cylinder from seals starting to break down after a while that might be catching in the piston bores and preventing it from moving properly..... Hence solid pedal but reduced or no movement equallying no brakes...

Could be frozen water in the lines \ hoses aswell... The brakes have not been bled through for years so will not do any harm and I will see what the fluid looks like when it comes out and whether or not there is any solid debris in the bottom of the jar....!!!!

Cannot think what else I can do....

Thanks for your suggections.... I want to keep the old girl going for as long as poss as we still really like the car..!!

When I have heard of master cylinder failures it has either been pedal going to the floor intermitently with no braking and no leaks at the wheel cylinders, or loss of fluid with none showing at the wheel cylinders. Not to say its impossble for one to jam sometimes, si if it is please let us know. Prolly get a low mileage one from a scrapper if you need to.

Bled all 4 brakes through today..... Got rid of all the old brown dirty looking fluid and now filled with nice clean new stuff from Halfords...!! My friend who was acting as my "pedal man" commented that as we went round each wheel his pedal effort reduced each time... May be moving the master cylinder through its full travel flushed out all the old mucky fluid and freed up the seals..!!?? Who knows, but I have now done everything I can to make the brakes work as efficiently as possible....