[gokulr97]

Dear Friends,

Hope all of you are keeping well.
I happened to go through a rather dangerous experience the other day while I was travelling to my hometown on my 2012 model Hyundai i20(Diesel engine, sport edition). Having travelled around 70 kms and barely a few kms away from home, I suddenly lost pressure on the brakes of the car. Since the traffic was low and i was on an incline, i was able to slow down my car and park it to the curbside. Following this, the brake pressure was back. I was close to my home and was able to get back here. Could anyone let me know what the issue could be? My car has clocked around 1.43lakh kilometers now.

On contacting the Hyundai service center, they tell me that such cases are being reported on older versions of i20 these days. Somehow I am unable to maintain my cool on this very shameless answer because our lives depend on it. I have periodically serviced the vehicle as per the schedule and my last service was a month back.

Could the members kindly let me know how to proceed with this as the service center is asking me to get my vehicle to them to get this checked and I don't know if this is the right path to choose at the moment.

Thanking you all in advance.
Warm regards.

[PetrolHead2272]

Originally Posted by gokulr97

Dear Friends,

Hope all of you are keeping well.
I happened to go through a rather dangerous experience the other day while I was travelling to my hometown on my 2012 model Hyundai i20(Diesel engine, sport edition). Having travelled around 70 kms and barely a few kms away from home, I suddenly lost pressure on the brakes of the car. Since the traffic was low and i was on an incline, i was able to slow down my car and park it to the curbside. Following this, the brake pressure was back. I was close to my home and was able to get back here. Could anyone let me know what the issue could be? My car has clocked around 1.43lakh kilometers now.

Hello sir,
Sad to know about this incident, Glad to know everyone's okay though.
Hyundai's are famous for the quality issues these days. I strongly urge you to read a very important and interesting thread on Team-BHP that highlights the issues faced by various Hyundai owners.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post4817720 (Hyundai India - The occasional serious quality lapse and apathetic manufacturer response!)

As for further steps of servicing, I may not be able to advise as I myself don't have experience with any Hyundai's.

Stay Safe,
-Namit.

[ssjr0498]

I own a similar model and if you are experiencing this, please get the fluid fully flushed out and new fluid filled and also get your brake slave and master cylinder checked for leak!

In an event of an emergency, please note

"You can use your handbrake with the button on the lever pressed and you can modulate the pressure accordingly! Do NOT leave the button while the car is in motion, chances are that you might just lock up the wheels and the car might spin"

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by gokulr97

Dear Friends,

Hope all of you are keeping well.
I happened to go through a rather dangerous experience the other day while I was travelling to my hometown on my 2012 model Hyundai i20(Diesel engine, sport edition). Having travelled around 70 kms and barely a few kms away from home, I suddenly lost pressure on the brakes of the car. Since the traffic was low and i was on an incline, i was able to slow down my car and park it to the curbside. Following this, the brake pressure was back. I was close to my home and was able to get back here. Could anyone let me know what the issue could be? My car has clocked around 1.43lakh kilometers now.

On contacting the Hyundai service center, they tell me that such cases are being reported on older versions of i20 these days. Somehow I am unable to maintain my cool on this very shameless answer because our lives depend on it. I have periodically serviced the vehicle as per the schedule and my last service was a month back.

Could the members kindly let me know how to proceed with this as the service center is asking me to get my vehicle to them to get this checked and I don't know if this is the right path to choose at the moment.

Thanking you all in advance.
Warm regards.

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by gokulr97

Having travelled around 70 kms and barely a few kms away from home, I suddenly lost pressure on the brakes of the car. Since the traffic was low and i was on an incline, i was able to slow down my car and park it to the curbside. Following this, the brake pressure was back. I was close to my home and was able to get back here. Could anyone let me know what the issue could be? My car has clocked around 1.43lakh kilometers now.

A worn out brake master cylinder is likely cause, perhaps there is a small leak somewhere that has gone unnoticed in previous services, brake fluid not being replaced in the intervals as necessary etc. Was there any period this vehicle was left unused for a while?

If the MC is worn out, please replace it along with the booster (that would be the next one to fail considering the age) and check all 4 wheel cylinders to see if anything is worn out.

Considering the vehicle`s age and number of Kms, its not unusual.

[gkveda]

Originally Posted by gokulr97

I have periodically serviced the vehicle as per the schedule and my last service was a month back.

Have you taken the car out after service? Was it going well? How many kms have you run the car after service? In my view, in the quoted statement, lies the culprit.

When you had given for service, they have played with brakes or brake oil. Now instead of admitting their mistakes, they are claiming all old i20s have this issue.

Suggest ask them to give it in writing and if they have guts to give in writing, based on that, raise a formal complaint to Hyundai.

We have never heard such trending issue in any old i20 cars. Suggest to check the car with another ASC or local mechanics. They will give unbiased report. In my view, nothing is major (in terms of repairs). A detailed brakes overhaul will solve the problem.

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by gokulr97

Having travelled around 70 kms and barely a few kms away from home, I suddenly lost pressure on the brakes of the car. Since the traffic was low and i was on an incline, i was able to slow down my car and park it to the curbside. Following this, the brake pressure was back.

I figure you have drum brakes on the rear. The pedal can go down when the rear brake shoes wear and the automatic adjustment components get dirty or rusty.

This used to happen quite a lot in the old days when rear brakes were adjusted manually. Low pressure came without warning and we pumped the brakes to build up pressure.

Even with automatic adjustment, it is possible to adjust the brakes manually. There is a plugged hole on the backing plate for this

Park the car overnight and check if the pedal goes down first time and up again when you pump the pedal.

You need to check the rear brakes shoes for wear. I think you should be fine if you just replace the rear brake shoes.

[ZenMaster]

Requesting Mods to change the DISPLAY PICTURE for this thread from the new i20 to a 2012 model one.

At first glance it appears to the reader as if the fault is with a brand new car.
Add to this the fact that the OP's car is a 2012 model, its easy to misread it as 2021.It took me some time to realise it was an older 2012 model year car.


Please delete my post since it's not directly related to the topic, once you make the adjustment.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by ZenMaster

Requesting Mods to change the DISPLAY PICTURE for this thread from the new i20 to a 2012 model one.

At first glance it appears to the reader as if the fault is with a brand new car.
Add to this the fact that the OP's car is a 2012 model, its easy to misread it as 2021.It took me some time to realise it was an older 2012 model year car.

Exactly what I wanted to type.

The pic gives an idea that a new i20 suffered brake failure. It can be misleading to many readers.

Dear Mods, kindly change the pic to 2012 i20.

[Anuruddhs]

I had same incidence on my father in law i20 which was a 2018 model and 2 year old almost at time of incidence and it had hardly 7-8k on odo.
Car was taken to service centre and nothing wrong they found. While returning back from the service centre same incidence occurred and we sold the car same day.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by gokulr97

Could the members kindly let me know how to proceed with this as the service center is asking me to get my vehicle to them to get this checked and I don't know if this is the right path to choose at the moment.

Glad that all is well.

This probably looks to be an issue with either the Master or the Slave Cylinder. The 1st gen i20’s are notorious for these failures. Infact, I am surprised that it took 9 years for this part to fail.

If possible, get it checked at you FNG; the Hyundai SC will rob you of everything.

[hmansari]

Do get the alternator and battery of your car checked as well, in addition to the things that members have mentioned above as a failing battery might also cause this.
hmansari

[COMMUTER]

Hyundai must come clean on what went wrong so that the current owners can keep an eye on that part or can choose to change it periodically for safety.

If it is the usual ASS's clowning around then they must be penalized and the victim substantially compensated for this life threatening pilferage.

[xjosephjacob]

Just sharing a a similar experience I had long time back with the Hyundai Accent. We were descending a flyover and suddenly the brake stopped working. There was a signal after the flyover, where I ended up rear ending a biker- thank god he came out without any serious injuries. Handbrakes were not very effective as I approached the signal since I was descending the slope.

The car had run 70,000+ km back then, and service centers weren't able to identify the issue. Asked them to replace whatever component can possibly be the point of failure for brakes, paid a bomb and sold the Korean 'headache' off.

I don't trust old Hyundai's. Their engineering was so shallow back then.

[TT-S]

Originally Posted by gokulr97

I suddenly lost pressure on the brakes of the car. Since the traffic was low and i was on an incline, i was able to slow down my car and park it to the curbside. Following this, the brake pressure was back.

This has happened to me thrice on my 2010 i20, but it was not the brakes, but the clutch pedal which was sticky - It would not return back to position once released. Because of this, the clutch would remain disengaged, and vehicle would not get power or traction. On all these cases, I stopped by the roadside, pumped the clutch a few times, shut off the engine and waited for 5 minutes which resolved the issue. This is mostly because air getting into the hydraulics, mostly due to the bad cylinders (master or slave). Resting the car for a few minutes will cause the air bubbles to go up, minimizing the problem. I have had the clutch master cylinder replaced three times and slave cylinders once, during the 1.4 Lac Km I had driven it. When the issues happened, it was after the car was left unused for a month or more. From this, I tend to think that the master cylinders can develop problems on old i20s with longer duration storage conditions.

Originally Posted by gkveda

Have you taken the car out after service? Was it going well? How many kms have you run the car after service? In my view, in the quoted statement, lies the culprit.

This I can relate to. The last clutch issue I had was soon after a service. The fluid was changed, and apparently there was air in the system - Issue surfaced after 25 Kms of highway driving only. I could see that the fluid reservoir was higher than full, but resting the car made this come down to normal levels (Meaning air had entered the system).

Originally Posted by Indian2003

I figure you have drum brakes on the rear.

I think 2010 onward the diesel variants of i20 came with rear disc brakes (Even then the braking was inferior compared to petrol variant shod with rear drums). I guess the Sportz variant came fitted with ABS back then.

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

This probably looks to be an issue with either the Master or the Slave Cylinder. The 1st gen i20’s are notorious for these failures.

As replied above, I have had multiple replacements of the master cylinder during the 10 yr/1.4 Lac KM timeline. This I think is a weak point of this model. Experts please confirm whether the brake and clutch hydraulics share the same fluid lines or, are they separate? Even though I had experienced clutch cylinder related issues with my car, the brakes have never failed me. They have been super sharp and is still very much the same after 10 years. I drive a petrol Asta variant.