Chris , I would suggest going to a dealer and getting them to check it over. There is a plug down by the drivers feet where the service crew can plug into and check the board computer for any failures... This would be the first thing I would do.

Neal

[Edited by cheeseboy - 9/1/2003 10:57:05 AM]

 

Had exactly this occurence on my wife's Vauxhall Astra a few years back. Happened three times (once to me, twice to her) and luckily it always occured when there was no immediate danger.

Despite many hours of inspection Vauxhall could never find anything wrong so I just put it down to Vauxhall's iffy build quality. But being as the BMW 3 series is well know as the best car in the world that can't be the case here can it?

tiggers.

[Edited by tiggers - 9/3/2003 4:21:22 PM]

 

I know it's a funny question for this forum but rather than post to some poncy BMW forum I thought I would ask on here as it's what I know!

My Dad was driving in his year-old BMW 325 estate the other day and had the brakes fail on him when he was approaching the Thurrock crossing toll gates. He said he went to press the brake and it went "straight to the floor"!
Now my Dad's not that old and so I don't reckon he got the loud pedal by mistake (he's only mid-50's!) and I would say he's a pretty safe driver. Luckily he managed to stop it with the handbrake but narrowly missed a lorry and the barriers.

The strange thing is that after he had restarted it, shaken as he was, the brakes were fine! I know that this now must sound like driver error but knowing my Dad, he's not prone to these mistakes and I just wanted to know if anyone out there has heard of any other BMW drivers having similar problems and what (if anything) they managed to get BMW to do about it.

I know that most new cars have more electronics than you can shake a stick at and I have heard tales of how some of these new BMWs can troubleshoot and fix minor problems themselves with only a notification to the driver after it's done it but the braking system is something that 99.999% of the time working is just not good enough!

TIA

Chris

 

Hi Neal

Thanks for that - the car is a 325 MSport touring, bought brand new last June after he had heart bypass surgery. Think the surgery must have addled his brain for him to go out and buy a beamer!!
Anyway, he has taken it into the garage he bought it from for them to look at and they are keeping it for a week to do tests on it.
At the moment he has (understandably) lost all confidence in both that specific car and the brand but is waiting for the results of these tests to see what options are open to him.
I just wanted to know is this is something that has occurred to other people or if this is a one-off thing. I will be checking the car mag websites etc and other internet areas but since I spend a lot of time on this forum figured it would be a good place to start.

Thanks

Chris

 

I’ve heard of BMW's with random brakes, a fault with the EBS (whatever) system, but not random brake failure.

 

Things like this pop up very seldom.. I havent heard of this particular problem though..

As for the tests - well, if the garage has a good team they will find out whatever it was. Hopefully they find it and fix it promptly.! there are a few bmw forums around - cant remember them off my head, but perhaps someone out there could also shed some light on it.

Good luck!

Neal

 

It is certainly strange for the pedal to go to the floor and then recover again. It could be an internal valve in the brake master cylinder which normally closes when you apply the brakes but would allow the brake pressure to escape if it does not close off properly. The only other possibilities are problems in the power braking system or the ABS. Hope they find a positive reason for it at the dealers.

Les

 

Could be he clippd the wrong pedal, BMW 3 series has an offest driving position and limited pedal space due to a engine/gearbox tie bar running down the R/H/S of the car due to it being for the LHD market and BMW did not redesign for RHD.

 

Yeah, but if he'd pressed the 'loud' pedal, wouldn't he have noticed an increase in speed, especially if said pedal went all the way down to the floor?? Didn't think the 3 series was THAT unresponsive....

 

Clutch?!

MB

 

Thanks for all your responses. I didn't think it would be something that had cropped up many times previously.

If it was a brand new car that he hadn't driven before I may lean toward him 'accidentally' pressing the wrong pedal but not in a car he has driven for a year every day more or less.

Hopefully the garage will find the reason for this although I still think Dad will end up getting shot of the car now. Maybe then I can work on him to get a STi8 ...

 

We have a year old 325 Sport saloon.

Never had problems. There is a hydraulic link for the brakes so no reason why it should suddenly do it, its not like its brake by wire like say the SL500.

 

perhaps it was a brake servo failure? though the pedal wouldn't go to the floor as such, they force required to stop the car would obviously be greater...

 

I had an ABS light come on in my (council) lorry a few months back. It was ages before they got their **** in gear but once just after I started moving, I went to put the brakes on and there was nothing there, well as good as. I was only doing 5mph, but not slowing noticably. I thought **** this and pulled up at the side of the road and went to double check things 5mins later and it was all OK. The manual quite clearly says, losing ABS will not affect your braking. Make of it what you will.

 

BMW have told my Dad that they are replacing the master brake cylinder and the brake controller!
I know dealers won't replace anything they don't have to so I am guessing there is a problem with these parts. What's worrying is if they know this to be a problem, should they have issued a recall notice?
Maybe I'm jumping the gun a little as I don't have all the details at the moment (will find out more at the weekend!)

 

Clint. Actually it is just the opposite for two reasons:

1. The dealer makes a lot of money out of it - they invoice BMW GB for the parts and labour. It is common knowledge and occurs with every car marque.

2. Anything safety related will be changed as a preventative measure - think of the implictions of a brake failure.