Brake failure while coming to a stop sign

[grg]

I was enjoying a good ride on my 2011 RT and slowed down, then used my foot brake to come to a stop. The brake pedal went totally spongy and then I had no brakes at all. I was on a bit of an incline and the spider started to roll forward. Lucky me, I steered it over to the sidewalk where I was able to stop the rolling. There was NO failure light or indication from the Nanny. I shut off the engine.... start it up again and then I got my brakes back !

What happened?

I checked my brake fluid which was changed last fall. Levels are good.

Could this be overheated brakes? I did come down a rather large hill where I needed to use them ( gearing down was not effective ). Did I accidently "ride the brake", not realizing that my foot was still on it? ( Don't know )

Has anyone had a similar experience? For a while there I was a bit nervous to say the least. A search of the forum has not revealed any information on my particular experience.

Thanks in advance for your feedback on this.
g

[RinconRyder]

This is just a guess because I have no idea what size hill you were descending or how much you used the brakes on that hill but it is possible you overheated the brake fluid and doing that will cause loss of braking. Braking forces must be pretty severe to do that however so you be the judge.

Other things to check: when your brake fluid was changed did they use the proper fluid? This is very important. Brake fluid absorbs water and the older it gets (in the bottle or on the trike) it "decays" and should not be used. That is why new fluid containers come with vacuum sealed lids. Did you examine one of the front brake pads and see if it is discolored or glazed? Either of these conditions will exhibit signs of overheating.

[Grandpot]

Sounds like a couple of issues:

1. There are three brake switches. The first turns on the brake lights. The second is the pressure switch which obviously senses hydraulic pressure in the system. The third senses the brake pedal went too far and should have turned the screen orange. If that third switch was not activated, you should have had some brakes available. If it was activated, but didn't function, you need to see the dealer.

2. Going down a hill and riding the brakes is never a good idea. If there is any water in the brake lines, it will turn to steam as the brake fluid heats up. The steam is compressible unlike the brake fluid and will cause that spongy feeling and not actuate the brakes correctly. When you stop and the brake fluid cools down, the steam turns back to water, so the brakes feel fine again. The brakes should be bled completely to remove the water.

[grg]

thanks for this great information. I will need to focus on water in the hydraulic fluid. I just had it changed at the Dealer last fall. ( Now I have suspicions)

[OKey]

I was enjoying a good ride on my 2011 RT and slowed down, then used my foot brake to come to a stop. The brake pedal went totally spongy and then I had no brakes at all. I was on a bit of an incline and the spider started to roll forward. Lucky me, I steered it over to the sidewalk where I was able to stop the rolling. There was NO failure light or indication from the Nanny. I shut off the engine.... start it up again and then I got my brakes back !

What happened?

I checked my brake fluid which was changed last fall. Levels are good.

Could this be overheated brakes? I did come down a rather large hill where I needed to use them ( gearing down was not effective ). Did I accidently "ride the brake", not realizing that my foot was still on it? ( Don't know )

Has anyone had a similar experience? For a while there I was a bit nervous to say the least. A search of the forum has not revealed any information on my particular experience.

Thanks in advance for your feedback on this.
g

I would bring it into the dealer immediately. They will flush the brake lines and look for any other sign of failure.
Good luck.

[Bensonoid]

I don't have a theory to throw at you, but I sure want to know what you find out.

[Chupaca]

Though you can do the fluid change without it the best way is with the buds system which can actuate the VSS Hydraulic module (the nanny braking system). I have not seen something like what happened to you so I tend to feel you need them to see what happened. Water in the line causes problems all the time where you have to pump the brakes to get it out of the way but the downgrade may be the cause of such a failure. But then type, condition and age of the fluid can do this as well. Let us know what you find....

[WilderThomas]

I was enjoying a good ride on my 2011 RT and slowed down, then used my foot brake to come to a stop. The brake pedal went totally spongy and then I had no brakes at all. I was on a bit of an incline and the spider started to roll forward. Lucky me, I steered it over to the sidewalk where I was able to stop the rolling. There was NO failure light or indication from the Nanny. I shut off the engine.... start it up again and then I got my brakes back !

What happened?

I checked my brake fluid which was changed last fall. Levels are good.

Could this be overheated brakes? I did come down a rather large hill where I needed to use them ( gearing down was not effective ). Did I accidently "ride the brake", not realizing that my foot was still on it? ( Don't know )

Has anyone had a similar experience? For a while there I was a bit nervous to say the least. A search of the forum has not revealed any information on my particular experience.

Thanks in advance for your feedback on this.
g

I wrote earlier about obtaining a parking brake failure indication on the dash of my '12 Spyder. The manual states that the likely culprit was either a blown fuse, #3 or the parking brake sensor itself. Took it in to have it diagnosed and was told that the following needed to be replaced:

Rotor,
brake pads,
parking brake cable
cable pulley

total cost including labor will be $523. With a veteran's discount. So its underway to being repaired as I write this.

[Madincalif]

I had this happen a couple years back on my 2010 RTS and come to find out I had a bad O ring in the master cylinder.......Not a cheap fix but at least it stops very well now.