Off and on brake failure...

Ok, so I'm heading to a friends house and I hit the brake going down a hill and nothing happens and the pedal goes to the floor. I left off and push the pedal in again and the brakes work. I get there to realize that I had left the parking brake on and the light hadn't come on >_<. So we head out and i'm going towards an onramp and it does the same thing. The brakes have worked fine since the second incident.

Has this happened to anyone?

Same thing happened to me last week. Entering a ramp at pretty good clip and the brake peddle went clear to the floor. I pumped hard 8 - 10 times before I got the car to stop. A gas station checked it out and found nothing wrong. I assume the problem starts with capital F.

You did not say what year the vehicle was. If it is a new model, look on the left rear axle suspension bars ans see if a weird looking brake line block is there. If so, this is the level sensor for the rear brake pressure. I have this damn thing on my 03 and it drove me crazy with a fading brake pedal. You could have the brakes applied and go around a sharp curve or hit a bump and the pedal would hit the floor.

The repair: Get the break adjustment tool from Snap-On and tighten the rear shoes up until you hear them drag on a complete spin. Then use the parking brake everytime you park the car. The parking brake is what adjust the rear brakes.

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out, even though this is a "company" car, driven by several different people. I believe it is an '02 or '03 model, with on 12,000 miles on it.

PS, with a crazy set up like that, where you can lose the ability to brake, it sounds like Ford just started making cars. That's why I have bought Toyota's since 1986. My '90 Camry has 196,000 + miles and I never had a major problem, braking or otherwise. It just keeps going. Not to brag, just a fact.

the springs inside for rear drum brakes like to break way to often giving th above effect and usually a grinding noise of the spring being ground down.