Total braking system failure?

[Phlier]

My first car was a 1964 Buick Skylark with manual brakes. The Skylark was the smaller option of the Buick lineup back then... shorter body, two doors, pretty lightweight car for the times.

And it took all the force my 16 to 18 year old body could muster to stop the thing. Not only were they manual brakes, but they were manual DRUM brakes, too.

My right leg was noticeably larger by the time I finally parked that car for the final time.

 

[MikeHolliday]

The only way that you could have total failure would be for someone to literally cut the front and rear brake lines. Inside the Dual Master Cylinder you literally have a divider so that both sides have a reserve of Brake Fluid. You also have a warning on the dash to a partial brake cylinder failure. And both front and rear do not loose fluids at the same time. As I mentioned in an earlier post Dual Brake Cylinders have been a Federal requirement since the 1960's...

 

[Gasaraki]

I had an alternator go in my 2016 Subaru WRX. When the 12V died, I lost power steering and boosted braking but I was still able to use the brakes... However I was already going at a slow speed when everything failed.

 

[MikeHolliday]

When the above happens you may loose Power Brakes, but you can still stop. It just takes a lot more force on the Brake Peddle...