Table 1 shows two common service brakes related problems of the 2016 Volkswagen GTI.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Brake Fluid Leak problems | |
| Brakes Failed problems |
Master brake cylinder failure causing my brakes to not work and endangered my safety on the road. No indications of failure until I was already on the road with no brake fluid in the cylinder. No leak brake fluid all drained to the boost pump and failed.
I set the handbrake to secure my vehicle in it's parking stall and left the vehicle while I went into a store. �at the time I left the vehicle, it was completely stationary and secure. �many minutes later, I became aware that my vehicle had moved from the place where I parked it. �the vehicle had rolled backwards out of it's parking stall and collided with two other unoccupied vehicles located in parking stalls behind my vehicle, about 40 feet away. �when I entered my vehicle to move it away from the accident scene, I found that the parking brake handle (hand brake) had come unlatched and the latching mechanism had failed. �there is a button at the end of the brake handle that when depressed, releases the parking brake. �that button and a spring located behind it had ejected from the end of the brake handle. �apparently, when the brake release button fails in this way, it causes the brake to release, which causes gravity to move the unoccupied vehicle down hill, where it would not stop until it reached a local elevation minima, or struck any person or object that might have stopped it's motion. A witness to the accident who occupied the vehicle parked in the stall next to mine verified that my vehicle was secure when I left it, and it had gone into motion on it's own without any external disturbance or input. It concerns me that the design of the brake handle and break release is allowed to fail in this way. �I would expect a failure of the brake release button to result in the inability to release the brake, a "safe" failure mode. �in this case, the design of the brake handle results in an unsafe failure mode, where the once securely parked stationary vehicle could spontaneously go into motion due to the failure of a simple plastic mechanical wear item: the brake release. There were no indications that an eminent failure was looming prior to this event.