1990 5.0L Mustang brake/tire failure - Opinions from experienced mechanics needed.

Being ignorant in the field of car repair, I took my vehicle to my
trusted mechanic this previous weekend to have the following service
performed:

- Steering/Wheel alignment (Off by -2)
- Tire rotation and two new tires for the front
- Fix a hole in my muffer
- Oilchange
- Fix a transmission leak (Transmission filter/pan gasket & speed
sensor - two leaks apparently)

I got the car back on saturday afternoon, and drove home. As I was
driving home, I smelled a rubber smell (not burning rubber, but, just
mild rubber smell) which at first I attributed to the new tires.

I parked my car at home and did not notice any problems such as fluid
leaks or anything else. Two hours later, I decided to drive to a local
electronics store to get some computer parts, and as I was coming down
a hill towards a red light, I began braking and found that my brakes
had failed completely - the pedal went straight to the floor with
absolutely no resistence whatsoever. I managed to stop the car by
pressing the brake pedal all the way to the floor to engage the manual
assist, and gradually applied & then fully pulled the e-brake to assist
with stopping. I came about 10 feet from flying into cross-traffic and
hitting half a dozen cars.

Needless to say, I was shaken up and angry. Being saturday afternoon,
there were no places I could send my car to, so I had it towed back to
my apartment garage. In the garage, I began examining it to see if I
could spot any brake fluid leaks, and found that brake fluid was
leaking from around the left front wheel well.

I jacked the car up and peered under it, to see the brake line making
contact with the left front wheel. It did not appear to be properly
clipped to the wheel strut, and I surmised that this may have been due
to carelessness or negligence on the part of my mechanic, but I'm still
unsure of that.

Monday morning, yesterday, I towed the car back to my mechanic, and in
the process of doing so, both the inner and outer sidewalls of the
brand new left front tire completely disintegrated, leaving the tread
intact. Upon outfitting my vehicle with the spare in my trunk, the tow
truck driver immediately saw where the brake line had been worn through
by the wheel and commented that I was extremely fortunate that this
incident did not happen on the freeway.

Unfortunately, my webhost is down right now, so I can't post the
picture I have of the disentegrated tire, but when my webhost comes
back up, you can click this link to see a picture I took with my
cameraphone.

http://www.ramenbudget.com/miscgraph...re_damage1.jpg

(Note: That picture will not work until my webhost resumes operation).

At any rate, I need to get some opinions of experienced professional or
amateur mechanics or 5.0 Mustang enthusiasts in regards to what might
have caused this. I should be able to provide detailed answers to any
questions you may ask that might help shed more light on this incident.
Thanks ahead of time for any replies!

In article .com>, Visigothan wrote:

> I jacked the car up and peered under it, to see the brake line making
> contact with the left front wheel. It did not appear to be properly
> clipped to the wheel strut, and I surmised that this may have been due
> to carelessness or negligence on the part of my mechanic, but I'm still
> unsure of that.

> Monday morning, yesterday, I towed the car back to my mechanic, and in
> the process of doing so, both the inner and outer sidewalls of the
> brand new left front tire completely disintegrated, leaving the tread
> intact. Upon outfitting my vehicle with the spare in my trunk, the tow
> truck driver immediately saw where the brake line had been worn through
> by the wheel and commented that I was extremely fortunate that this
> incident did not happen on the freeway.

If it were one sidewall or the other I would expect it was fromm rubbing
bodywork or some other component.... both leads me to believe the tire
was severely underinflated. This of course would be two totally separate
failures to the same corner of the car since underinflation doesn't mean
a thing to the brake line wearing through against the wheel.

In article om>, Visigothan wrote:

> In regards to the brake line or brake fluid causing the tire to
> fail...is this possible? I know brake fluid is corrosive to paint, but
> unsure about other surfaces. Could friction between the brake line and
> the tire, or corrosion from brake fluid cause the ensuing tire failure
> as well?

Not that I know of. Even if so, only the inner sidewall would be damaged
as it would be exposed to brake fluid, not the outer.

COuld they be old stock dry-rotted tires?

Well, I just got it back from the shop;

The deal is exactly what I thought it was; the brake line was rubbing
the tire, however, and not the wheel. I mistook a groove that the brake
line had cut into the tire, as "styling" of the tire itself and didn't
notice it because it was so uniform.

Basically, the right front tire had the same thing, because of the
brake line cutting into it. My mechanic showed me a 1/4" deep groove
that ran the entire way around the tire, on the inner sidewall right
below the tread. He said if I'd driven it on the freeway instead of
surface streets, I definitely would've gotten my ticket punched.

Anyway, he fixed everything (with no charge) of course and gave me two
new tires (again), and put the car up on a lift to show me the brake
lines they replaced, and showed me how the new ones were properly
clamped in place, out of the way of the tire as they should have been
in the first place.

(Brent P) wrote in
:

> If it were one sidewall or the other I would expect it was fromm rubbing
> bodywork or some other component.... both leads me to believe the tire
> was severely underinflated. This of course would be two totally separate
> failures to the same corner of the car since underinflation doesn't mean
> a thing to the brake line wearing through against the wheel.

Yes, it could. A the tire began to shred and took out the brake line.

I'm glad you got if fixed; but why were the brake lines modified in the
first place? Or were they that way when you took it in? Your original
list of repairs had nothing to do with brakes. Just curious...