No breaks when the weather is cold/damp

[No breaks]

Have a Mazda 3 2007 sport. When the weather is cold damp I experience the breaks to be very sensitive. They go from no breaks to full breaks with hardly touching the pedal. Have also experienced no breaks at all, I puched the break pedal to the bottom and nothing happen. The car slowly stopped, thank good it was no cars in that intersection. This has happen twice. This morning my wife to the car to work it happen again, but this time we where not so lucky.....she crashed the car.....:flaming Have any heard about this before, have similar experience...???



No breaks

[Jeff-TheBiz]

Couple of questions.

1) How cold? Below 0?

2) Do you have stock tires?



BTW I think you mean 'Brakes'

[Wild Weasel]

First off, I hope your wife is ok. Sorry to hear about the crash. :(

The car is brand new and under warranty, so as soon as you thought you might have an issue with the brakes, you should have gone to get it checked out.

Brakes just aren't something you want to mess around with when you're not sure they're all ok.

I'm assuming you'd have mentioned if you'd changed the pads or something, so I'm assuming it's all stock right now.

With that being the case, you really shouldn't be experiencing what you're describing. The only thing I can think of that might contribute to such a thing would be water in the lines, but that's just idle speculation on my part. There'd have to be a lot of it to have an effect like that. You really need to have it checked out.

Unfortunately, if she's deemed at fault for the crash, even if the brakes are faulty it's not going to matter, especially since you already had prior suspicion that there was a problem.

Is the damage serious?

[Chuckie]

I think you should of taken it in for someone to check it out if you had periods where the brake would not respond. This is a big safety issue that you should of taken it right away not wait a few more days and see what happens type of thing.

I experience the sensitive brake issue all the time in the mornings, when it's cold, and damp but it goes away after 2 or 3 times max.

-Chuckie
Welcome to the club btw, but really did you have to make your username no brakes?

[Wild Weasel]

Maybe the pun was intended.

"Man... I just don't get any breaks at all!"

Of course, that doesn't explain the spelling mishaps in his post...

http://www.precizion.org/forums/images/smiles/gotme.gif

[No breaks]

Thanks for reply's....forgive me if my English is not perfect. I am from Norway and moved to Toronto in 2005. But I am getting better by the day. The break problem goes away after a few hard breaks. The breaks sound different like it's lots of rust on the disks even if the car haven't been used for more then 12 hours. The no breaks problem have happen on both dry but cold and snow and cold conditions. My guess is that the disk is of poor metal quality and rust faster than it should and ice on disk and/or break pads. All problems happens when the weather is cold.......

[Wild Weasel]

If it's just the rust buildup we're talking about here, then that's normal and will happen more when the car has been driven in wet conditions and then stopped.

Rotors are made of cast iron, and they rust. It's the nature of the beast.

They should never fail completely like you said they did though. They'll just need a bit more pressure the first couple stops to clear the rust off.

Are you sure your wife didn't just slide into something? Conditions were pretty miserable this morning and she may have thought she wasn't braking when in fact she just slid along.

[Chuckie]

yup.. are you sure you weren't just sliding?
one incident this morning on the RS-A's on the snow, I was braking so i could slowly start the turn back into the drive way, couldn't stop because I was just sliding forward.
The brakes were fully engaged because the abs was kicking in very hard. It was definately not the brakes.

because the abs was working so hard though.. it definately gives you the illusion that it was the brakes.

[No breaks]

The thought crossed my mind. But the ABS brakes would kick in and they make a very distinct sound. That did not happen according to her. But it still is an possibility. The stock tires on this car are bad at best on winter conditions. But it do not explain the fact that I had the car on dry road and it did not stop at all. I agree that a cast iron rotor will rust. But should it rust in a few hours....and why not when it is above 0 C this only happens when it is cold. The car and the brakes worked perfect till winter came along....Had a Mazda Presidia V6 before this car and it never was a problem. Rust on the rotors yes but that only happens after a few days. You could hear it but it did not affect the brakes ability to stop at all

[Wild Weasel]

When they're wet, they'll rust within a couple hours easily. When I wash the car, they're rusted by the time I'm done.

What you're saying about them not stopping at all is cause for concern though. That doesn't sound like just rust on the rotors and you should definitely have the system inspected.

[No breaks]

You are right about that and I now have a front to fix. My wife hit a suv, the bumper is more or less OK but every thing above that is not pretty. And the suv....not a scratch. Her next car will be a sherman tank......

[S.F.W.]

Her next car will be a sherman tank......
Great line!

[Fuman]

my brakes are also on/off during cold weather until the car warms up...