You say the police won’t care till there’s an accident ?
But they may be able to help you help your dad understand.
Have an officer speak to your dad face to face and tell him, eye to eye, “you must fix the brake leak” as they’re applying a big red/orange sticker to the driver’s window.
( y’know that bright sticker you see on cars abandoned on the hiway for a week or more )
Even if that sticker isn’t really for this kind of situation, have the office play along to drive the point into dad’s head.
Dad or NOT…it’s time to take the keys away…I’ve had to do it with my mother-in-law…and my father-in-law. It’s a major inconvenience for everyone else in the family…but it needed to be done.
the issue is that my dad believes that tape will work, that is our problem, he feels that since he doesn’t drive that much that the tape will be fine and that he will “monitor” the fluid and keep adding it when it gets low. Sis is going to stop at our mechanic tonight hopefully to get an idea of what it might cost to repair. We have AAA so we can have the car towed to the shop for no cost.
You don’t have the money for a dead dad.
You don’t have the money for his hospital bills.
You don’t have the money for another car after dad wrecks this one.
You don’t have the money for the additional damage ( other people’s medical and property ) done when wrecking this car.
GET THE MONEY ( eat beans for a month ) to fix those brakes…
– or –
disable the vehicle to not be driveable.
Good for you and sis. You two are doing the right thing. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have our parents live to an old age all have to deal with these issues at some point. It’s good to hear that you and sis are actually doing something about the problem.
If he wrecks it there won’t be another car, he can’t afford another car. As for the others those would be covered by insurance. As for the other people, I would feel sorry but not responsible finacially. My dad would be. Disabling the car is a possibility, but odds are he would just solve that problem and drive. My hope is he will come to grips with the issue and not drive. But he is an adult and able to make his own choices. Both me and my sister can advise him, but he is of sound mind and able to make his own decissions. My hope is he will try and tape, see the tape doesn’t stop it and figure out he will have to have it fixed.
As for the others those would be covered by insurance.
Better hope your insurance adjuster doesn’t catch wind of this thread, then, and find out who you are, and you’d better hope they don’t inspect the car and find the tape, because if you drive around in a car that you KNOW has a brake leak, and you cause an accident because your brakes stop working, that’s grounds to deny coverage - at which point you are personally liable for whatever, and whoever, you hit. And just from a personal standpoint, I would sue your dad into oblivion if he took out one of my relatives by driving around in a car that he knew was broken.
If he doesn’t have the money to fix the brake lines, then he doesn’t have the money to drive. Simple as that.
Start calling the local tech and high schools that have auto shops and see if they’ll fix your dad’s brake lines. You pay parts, they get to learn how to do a brake line. Both of you win, and your dad doesn’t take out a pedestrian.
As for the tape, it probably would work for a while. But when it fails, it will probably fail catastrophically, meaning he will have brakes one minute, and will not have brakes the next, because you’re going to be putting tape, which has chemicals in it, on rubber that is obviously already weak - since it leaks. That coupled with the fact that the tape will alter the flexing of the brake line, means that once the tape gives up (which depends on how long it takes the brake fluid to eat through it) you will no longer have a little leak, but a split brake line that spews your brake fluid out in one fell swoop.
thing is you could sue my dad and not get anything, so that is why I am also against him driving because the other parties would be screwed. My dad has no income outside of his monthly SS which we all know ain’t much in our society. It is just a week or so till he gets his next check and hopefully he has enough after he makes his house payment to cover the brake job.
At 93 he might think he can do it, but he can’t do it in a way that would be any better than what he’s got.
We haven’t done a good job of explaining the problem. It’s not that the line is leaking, it’s that the next time he uses it and pushes a little harder, like having to keep from running over a child running into the street, the line could give way completely, with total and instant loss of braking and a dead child.
The ONLY way to fix it is to replace the corroded line with new line, using the correct fittings.
Some reinforced hoses have steel mesh woven into the rubber so they can be flexible and withstand pressure. Radiator hoses are usually like this. However, those are only used in certain applications. Most hydraulic lines are metal, and when you replace a metal hydraulic line, you should replace it with another metal hydraulic line.
There are both metal and reinforced rubber lines in the brake system. I would guess (but don’t know) that it’s a metal line that has corroded, and is now leaking.
As for the other people, I would feel sorry but not responsible finacially
The law may feel differently. Read up on “contributory negligence.”
And your moral responsibility is pretty clear. If not, picture yourself at the funeral of a 10 year old that your father ran down and killed, and telling the grieving mother, “I knew the care was unsafe and I knew his eyesight was bad, but it’s not really my fault.”
All four corners of your dad’s car have flexible “rubber” brake lines to allow them to move up and down, and turn, with the wheels. These attach to metal “hardlines” that route the brake fluid from the Master Cylinder. The MC contains two pistons, both pushed simultaneously, that push fluid through the hardlines and the flex lines into the brake cylinders when you push the pedal. Pistons in the individual wheel cylinders take the brake fluid force and cause the calipers to close on the rotors and/or the brake shoes to push against the drums. These actions create friction, stopping the vehicle.
All brake systems have worked the same way since hydraulic brakes became universal in the early part of the 20th century. ABS, which you dad’s '93 does not have, simply employs a system that interferes with the hydraulics when one wheel stops turning while the others still are.