I was recently in an accident, from what I could tell that happened was that the brakes faulted. I was in a coffee shop drive thru, moving forward with the line of cars to order, the car in front of me moved ahead and I went to follow, I depressed the break and naturally the car should just move. I was not stuck in a hole or rut, I didn’t press the accelerator, weather conditions were cold but fair and the pavement was snow packed and clear, and all of a sudden the car jerk forward, I tried to press the brakes and they were locked. By the time I could get the brakes to work I had already rear ended the car in front of me. I am of course at fault, but I would love to prove to my insurance company and the other drivers insurance company that the brakes faulted. Would it be recommended I take it to a Dodge dealership and have them look at the brakes and brakes switches and maybe the computer?? If anyone has any similar occurrence, I encourage you to come forward and help me get Dodge to do a recall on this specific year, to at least, at their cost do a recall for service of the brakes.
No reason for a recall until it can be shown that a design defect caused the brakes to fail. Have the dealer or independent shop inspect the car. As a firefighter I have responded to a number of accidents where the driver hit the gas instead if the brakes. Until a professional mechanic says otherwise I will suspect the wrong pedal
It could be a mechanical issue, however unless it repeats the issue, it will be almost impossible to track down what happened. The most likely senario is that you were inadvertently pressing the wrong peddle. Sometimes while wearing boots I will accidentally depress both pedals when stopping.
+1…
…especially in view of…
I can’t speak for anyone else, but if my BRAKE pedal is depressed, I don’t think that my vehicle should “just move”.
The mechanical link between the brake pedal and the calipers on your car is hydraulic. So if you press on the pedal and the car doesn’t stop the following are the most likely possible causes
- faulty brake pedal mechanism
- brake master cylinder internal leak ( this would usually be quite noticeable as the pedal would go to the floor if you press on it solidly for 30 seconds or so)
- external brake fluid leak (you’d notice the brake fluid level was too low in the plastic bottle and you’d have to be adding brake fluid frequently)
- Some sort of weird ABS fault (this sort of failure might be impossible for you car)
- Faulty calipers (seems pretty unlikely all 4 would have the same problem though)
- Some sort of slick substance is coating the pads or the rotors.
If you aren’t having to top off the brake fluid and haven’t noticed any weird ABS symptoms, suggest to start by a careful examination of the brake pedal mechanism, looking for broken welds etc. After that remove one of the front wheels, remove the caliper, looking for potential problems, as well check the surfaces of the pads and rotor.
In my opiniom the two most common causes for this are stepping on the gas at least partly when intending to step on the brake and the second is not realising your left foot is under the brake pedal.
Third would be that a bottle has rolled under the brake pedal.
I have seen GM pickups ,full size vans and suburbans do this but it is accompanied by the chattering sound of the ABS preventing the vehicle from stopping in conditions when the ABS should not be deploying.
My vote is for the wrong pedal. Trying to lay a brake problem on a 7 year old vehicle is grasping a bit.
I’m sure if you read (or not…) the owners manual you will find regular inspections of the brakes listed at certain intervals. The schedule says at 12k miles intervals. So; done this or not?
I assume you meant you released the brake, and naturally, the car should just move, i.e. the automatic transmission “creeps” forward when you take your foot off the brake. This sounds to me more like a malfunction of the “drive by wire” throttle system than a brake malfunction. However, who cares? Whether you made a mistake, or a mechanical malfunction occurred, you are just as much legally responsible.