Brake failure..any others??

[ehastra67]

My wife recently had an accident in our 2008 Astra 3dr XR Auto. The brakes simply didn't work. They seem to work now, but I know that with today's drive-by-wire technology that systems can fail intermittently.

Has any experience any braking issues with their Astra?

Thanks!

[MesaMike85]

Sounds like a severe case of "Faulty Driving" The brakes are mechanical, sounds like the wife didn't push the right pedal!

Hope all is well with her. Don't let her see that I said this!

[fdryer]

ehastra67, as long as your wife and anyone else involved is OK, some self reflection may be needed. If the brakes were in working order before and after the accident, it can be possible for them to fail when they're needed the most but everything must be taken into account. The black boxes in commercial aircraft are the some of the first things searched for in a horrendous incident and can reveal many pieces of info leading up to an accident. Some of our cars are already utilizing a small form of this for insurance investigation and until the legal hurdles are dealt with the insurance companies still deal with accident investigation through standardized methods. Perhaps some informaton should be pointed out to help determine whether a brake failure occured or not.

Drive-by-wire systems in our cars are for the throttle/pedal control and not for our braking systems. The electronics portion of braking that you may be referring to would most likely be the anti-lock brake system and traction control. Our car brakes have always been mechanical/hydraulic systems while ABS/TC were added as enhancements to braking. What this means is that for any detectable failure to occur with the self contained tests that are done at every engine start up, the ABS/TC unit will automatically disable itself from interfering with tried and true mechanical/hydraulic brakes; they'll lock up our brakes (just like they always did before ABS became available) during panic stops. Early users of ABS found out the hard way that ABS doesn't prevent crashes and to add insult to everyone from abusive/reckless drivers using ABS as a crutch to stop in reckless behavior, the insurance companies threatened to raise insurance rates because they determined drivers were deliberately driving beyond what weather and road conditions permit by using ABS as an excuse to engage and stop sooner. The results were the opposite; reckless drivers found that ABS lengthened the stopping distances that resulted in crashes that were avoidable. The most incriminating evidence were the remarks made by these reckless drivers, "but I thought that's what ABS was for, to prevent crashes!?" Blindly relying on new technology without familiarization lead to early accidents caused by poor driving attitudes. Another case of the best laid plans of mice and men.........

If you followed the Toyota "sudden unintended acceleration" crashes and demands for accountability, the news is both good and bad. It has been painstakingly proven that Toyota's dbw technology was not at fault and further shown by retrieval of a vehicle version of a black box Toyota reluctantly turned over to federal investigation. I'm keenly aware of this information and followed the news as my '03 L300 has the same dbw system as does the Ions, Vues, Outlooks and Auras. More and more cars and trucks are being upgraded to electronic drive-by-wire systems for their reliability. Safety is an utmost concern; if this weren't then none of our fighter jets or large aircraft in the military or commercial sector today would have them. Virtually every aircraft made since the '70's or '80s has used throttle by wire or a hybrid technology that finally gravitated to the car industry. Its a tried and proven concept.

If your Astra's brakes failed then you have a genuine cause for concern not only for you and your wife for insurance liabilities but there may be repercussions for the Astra as a whole. Hopefully you will find out.

[MGGDTW]

I could swear that one random time I had a strange brake experience. I was simply coasting to a stop (while in neutral) going maybe 20mph. I applied the brake as normal to come to a full stop, the pedal pushed in like normal but the car didn't slow or brake! Believe me I noticed this right away because I panicked and literally slammed on the pedal and at that point of course the car came to an abrupt stop. It just seemed like the brakes were inop even though the pedal felt fine. Thats the best way I could explain. It hasn't happened again since.

[polizzi82]

I parked on a hill and swear the brakes had a one second delay causing me instead of slowing down to slamming on the brakes and smashing my face into the steering wheel honking the horn. That'll teach me not to put my seatbelt on right away...
I think it was freezing (30F) and wasn't sure if that had an effect on the disc brakes... I'm in San Diego so don't have much experience in freezing temps.

[lgodave]

Originally Posted by polizzi82

I parked on a hill and swear the brakes had a one second delay causing me instead of slowing down to slamming on the brakes and smashing my face into the steering wheel honking the horn. That'll teach me not to put my seatbelt on right away...
I think it was freezing (30F) and wasn't sure if that had an effect on the disc brakes... I'm in San Diego so don't have much experience in freezing temps.

Seems unlikely if this is a fairly new Astra (for you and the original post)... but have you considered the Brake Fluid might have frozen, from Water Contamination? Maybe a loose or open lid/connection someplace is allowing the system to take it in...

[CadiEldo67]

Originally Posted by MGGDTW

I could swear that one random time I had a strange brake experience. I was simply coasting to a stop (while in neutral) going maybe 20mph. I applied the brake as normal to come to a full stop, the pedal pushed in like normal but the car didn't slow or brake! Believe me I noticed this right away because I panicked and literally slammed on the pedal and at that point of course the car came to an abrupt stop. It just seemed like the brakes were inop even though the pedal felt fine. Thats the best way I could explain. It hasn't happened again since.

This exact same thing happened to me, although after thinking about it I'm pretty sure it rained that day, and I just coasted down the driveway in 1st, never actually touching the brakes. I think when I did actually attempt to stop, the brakes were wet, its just weird because you would think they would have more water when you are driving in rain but that is my only explanation for it. I thought I was going to run the intersection when it did it though.