My wife drove my 03' R53 mini to work today, and on her way home...according to her "I pressed the brakes and the pedal went to the floor and the car wouldn't stop".

She managed to make it to a parking lot where I met her with my truck. I drove the mini home a few miles from there. I must have hit the brakes 100 times...hard stops, easy stops, etc....not a single issue. Everything is working like it should.

Any ideas? Usually when a master cylinder fails, it doesn't just start working again. Any check valves in there that might stick and bypass fluid pressure?? At this point I can't duplicate the problems, and I'm not finding any issues at all.

Any ideas?? Is my wife just going crazy?? 😁

 

Riding brakes excessively could cause overheating of the brake fluid to the point where it boils and fails to create the pressure needed in the brake system. Dragging brakes could cause the same problem.

 

Does your wife normally drive an automatic? Does she "Left Foot Brake"? Could she have used her left foot on the clutch pedal, assuming that she was pressing on the brake pedal?

 

I wish it was something like her riding the brakes, or pressing the clutch instead of the brake......but she's driving stick shift cars for years, and driven the Mini hundreds of times. She had just left the gas station when she said the pedal went to the floor. I drove it all weekend, and never had a single issue. I'm wondering if it could have been some sort of glitch with an ABS sensor? Maybe as she was slowing down the ABS activated? When the ABS comes on it sort of has that soft pedal feel when it's pulsing the brakes. Just as idea.

She's told me she won't drive the car again until I can figure out what happened....so it must have startled her pretty bad when it happened. I'll get the car up on the lift tongiht and see if I can see anyting else odd going on. The fluid is full, and I didn't see any leaks around the ABS system or lines. Very odd issue.

 

There are a lot of similar threads on google in general, and there are some specific to mini. Here’s a mini specific thread, https://www.mini2.com/threads/brake-...8/post-4515734 that might help. an aside, I check my emergency brake periodically. I’m not thrilled with the electric version in my 2019. I would feel a little better being able to adjust the pressure with a cable type, but anyway, it’s good to keep in mind that this exists as an alternative.