I had a big scare yesterday as my brakes suddenly failed <U>completely</U> without any prior warning on my '95 Integra. Fortunately, by some miracle it happened at just a right place and time that I was able to avoid a wreck, and somehow managed to keep my pants clean.

I haven't been able to get under it to do a complete inspection, but upon refilling the reservoir it appeared that there was a substantial leak about midway back along the car's centerline just ahead of where the the brake lines go into some sort of a block. It looks like there might be some corrosion on what I can see of the lines (they are visually obstructed by some sort of shield) so my assumption is that one of the lines has corroded and burst suddenly.

My question:
I thought that all these braking systems were designed with two independent diagonal circuits so that if something like this happened you would still have quite a bit of braking to two of the wheels in an emergency. In my case, however, If I mash the pedal all the way to floor there was just enough to barely stop the car from 5mph in 20 feet or so (with engine braking in 1st). Is it be abnormal to have this catastrophic a loss, or is my thinking wrong on how the split system is supposed to work?

 

well theres sposed to be a little reserve brakes but if all the fluid leaked out while you where driving, then when you pressed the brakes the rest came out. get new hard lines made?? you live in a salty area?