First off, i drive a 1997 Ford F15, Over this past july 7th weekend, i was hauling some items for my event decorating business. 150lbs max. the posted speed was 60km/h and i was going no more than 50km/h. as i began to press my breaks there was no tension and my break pedal had went right to the floor, when therefore had caused myself to collide with another vehicle. My brake pads had just been changed less than 3 weeks proir when i had put my 19" Harley Davidson rims on the truck for the summer.My first guess was that the master cylinder was blown, because that had not been changed. When i took it to my mechanic he checked it and had said that the was a problem with the master cylnder but it should of still made some sort of restriction causing me to stop. Any ideas of what else it could of been, maybe some sort of internal problem. I need to help myself out of a $325 ticket!

 

Do you have more details on what the mechanic said was the problem with the master cylinder?

To be clear - when you pressed the brake pedal there was no stopping force at all? Or was it just a much smaller stopping force?

 

much much smaller, i will have fuller details as to what the mechanic did say when i leave my office.

 

Based on the information provided, I would guess you had a half-system failure. When this happens, you need to push the pedal through half of its travel before you start building any real pressure in the brakes. And then you are only braking on 2 of the 4 wheels.

Things to check/ask the mechanic
- Does the problem repeat?
- Is the level of brake fluid in the reservoir dropping? (this would indicate a leak somewhere, the most-likely cause of a half-system failure)
- try checking the level, pumping the brakes (with the engine running so you have vacuum boost), and then checking the level again.

Best of luck

 

next time that happens try pumping the brakes up a couple times to boost pressure enough to make the stop before you hit someone.

I agree sounds like half a system situation

 

I had the same problem, pulling out of a parking lot went to stop, pedel slammed right to the floor -NOTHING- blu right into the street, thankfully i didnot hit anyone, popped it into nutreul and used em brake on the sholder,

as soon as i got my wits back, i applied presure to the brake pedel and everything was fine, shop could not find any problems and it happened twice in a one month period - that was 4 yrs ago and still no explination