Brakes Went Out

[ThatFireGuy]

Ok, my fiancee was driving the car the other day and the brakes failed on her and she got into a collision.

What is weird is that the brakes were acting like lines cut or no fluid, no brake response, no fade just simply not there at all, she pushed the pedal down with ZERO resistance and nothing, then BAM. Crashed, minor front end damage but still runs.

Heres what i dont understand, after this she was able to drive it and the brakes were working fine, just as always, until the drive home at a stoplight it happened again, just nothing, ran right thru the light.

When she brought it home i checked it out but i wasnt able to repeat the problem, brakes work fine up and down the street, admitedly i havent drove it much to try and recreate the issue but still.

im no mechanic (electrician) but im pretty decent with a wrench but i cant figure this one out.

Master cyl appears good, pads & rotors are decent, fluid level is high with no leaks, im baffled.

Im wondering if this could be the power booster, or the master cyl being bad but im just not able to tell, i thought i would try and gather some input before i go replacing parts.

Any input on how i would check this would be greatly appreciated, or any past experience at all. Again what baffles me is how one minute they work fine, and then all of a suddun...nothing, no pedal resistance at all, and then bam right back to normal. in my experience when brakes go out there is some warning not weirdo symptoms like this.

Car is 1996, 4cyl 2.0, don't know if its abs or not.

i just wanted some input before i go and start replacing parts at random.

Thanks in advance, sorry for the long read.

[rhandwor]

Normally when a master cylinder goes out you can pump the brakes and they will come back. Drive slow until it goes down and pump the brake pedal if it comes back change the master cylinder.
Check if it has abs and reply back to the list. You can pull the fuse to check this.
I assume you mean the pedal goes all the way to the floor. If it just got very hard to push it could be something else.
Remember you have to bleed a new master cylinder.