Renault 19 - Brake pedal hits the floor - Yikes!
 

Out driving with the girlfriend this morning (she's learning to drive) and everything is fine until we get to the a roundabout and the brake pedal reaches the floor with no stopping power. Worked a bit if the pedal was pumped.

Anyhow, I get the car back - pretty nervy with no brakes. But within a minute or so of pulling up at home the brake pedal is firm again. I checked the fluid level and it's fine. Went back outside just now and the brakes are fine still.

Any idea what is causing this? If it's intermittent it'll probably be a ******* to fix.

Only thing I noticed was that the girlfriend was riding the clutch a quite a bit. That is, not taking her foot off the clutch between gear changes. Quite a smell when I got out the car. Does the clutch share the same fluid and could this be related?

Oh, been a while since ive owned a 19, i take it this is the 1.4 energy model?
Cant remember if they share the same reservoir for clutch n brake though, but wouldnt have thought that riding the clutch would have put that much heat into the fluid, though i do remember the clutches being heavy anyway, brakes always felt reasonably decent.

Tony

Yeah, it's a 1.4 Energy