Heart attack!!! (failed brakes)

[Henry_herald]

Woooh, just had a mini heart attack!

We were driving along the A13 from London at about 50mph and the traffic suddenly slowed in front, my gf was driving and we were fast approaching the traffic, we were not slowing down and i shouted at her to brake as it was stopping, but we still didn't slow! I looked at her and she was white and just said the brake pedal is flat down!!

Luckily she literally found a tiny gap in the lane next to us and swerved around the traffic into lane 3, it was easily the closest i've been to a crash though.

anyway, we pulled over and the brakes were dead, i got in and pumped them and it gave some feeling back to the pedal and they worked a bit. We tested them in a car park and they were intermittently working and after sitting for a while they seemed to work fine! Managed to get home driving very slowly and testing them just now they work fine??

Any idea what the problem will be? I am guessing at master cycling, it looks fairly new though and the fluid is full to the top. We won't drive it again until its been looked at as its not worth chancing it with brakes, bloody car!!! I think it was revenge for him getting rained on earlier on in the day.

[nang]

If fluid level has dropped, probably leaking wheel cylinder or burst hose.Sorry but it's probably a wheels off job :( Have a look underneath and see if you can see any leaks.
If reservoir still has plenty of fluid in it you could be right and master cylinder may need overhauling.

[Nick Moore]

A good bit of defensive driving there, your girlfriend deserves a big round of applause. So often people drive without a plan B "if I can't stop, where will I go?".