hey guys i have an 06 f-150 fx4 with about 45k miles on it. so i drove to my girlfriends house the other day and i had to move my truck for some reason while i was there, i backed up in her driveway and heard a pop noise like something busting, and then i had no brakes. my front left brake line had busted. what if that had happened when i was going to leave later that night on the road?

 

It would of been a bad situation then. When I had my ranger, my brakes when out while I was driving, thank god there was nobody in front of me.

 

It is were to happen while on the road. Put it in neutral, reach down and pull the E-brake release, then with it out, slowly press down on the E-brake. This is what I would do anyway.

 

Ford OEM brakes are known for being, well... not quite up to par with these trucks. Sounds like a good enough excuse to upgrade to bigger drilled and slotted discs, calipers, and pads.

 

ahh it was the brake line not the brakes themselves....

 

Uhhhh, it's still a good enough excuse to upgrade to better brakes.

 

Never heard of the brake lines busting before...not judging but could the 9" lift be causing stress, pinching or rubbing of the lines?

 

I suggest to not put it in neutral but start downshifting to bring your speed down...even if you have an automatic. There is a lot of gearing there to significantly slow your rig down. Applying the e-brake while pulling the handle will help prevent lock-up.

I had this situation happen to me in my last truck and this was how I was able to exit the freeway. Passenger-side brake line started rubbing against the tire till it nearly wore through. Hit the brakes when trying to exit and the pressure burst the line. I popped out of the lane to figure out where my brakes went, then got off the next exit by downshifting and feathering the e-brake. This was steel braided line too so I suggest checking this out for all guys with larger, aftermarket tires. The wire tie I had on there was not snug enough and slipped.

Anyway, glad no one was hurt.

 

If you can stop gracefully, do what others have recommended with the braking and downshifting.

If you can't stop gracefully, slam the truck into reverse. Yes, it will destroy your transmission. I had that happen to me with an old station wagon back in the day and it saved my life.

 

Even if a front break line fails you should have rear breaks. Two stage brake master cylinder should apply the rear breaks, at least that's what I would think should happen. The pedal will feel weird for sure but you should have some breaking. Designed that way for the reason you mentioned.

 

I knew a guy that did that with an old S10, him and his truck survived with no damage. I doubt he was telling the truth, but oh well.

 

i think it rubbed a hole in it because the little hanger thing in the front wheel well was kinda loose, oh and about the slamming it in reverse, it's happened to me before. actually it was this past spring break in panama city. me and a bunch of my friends were riding back from panama city beach and my drunk friend gets a call from this girl to come back so when we didn't he put the truck in reverse, or tried to, while we were going about 60mph. the truck made a loud pop and then it immediatly shut off. so we pulled over thinking that he screwed my tranny but after a couple of minutes the truck started right back up and we were on our way. he said that the truck has a saftey mechanism in it but idk if we just got lucky.

 

What do you expect from a non stock lifted truck! Don't blame Ford!...

 

i didn't

 

Upgrade to braided lines. Topic kind of scares me because I just bought a lift and going to install it next week. Hopefully nothing like that happens to me