Am I being fooled? (Brake issue)

[FreshPete]

Mk6 Fiesta 1.4 petrol

So I had an issue with my brakes the other day. Basically I was driving lets say around 30min when suddenly I heard a 2sec long whistling sound from the outside which I later found out were the brakes. After about another minute of driving, the brake pedal suddenly stopped functioning normally. It would try to "grab" at it's usual position but would then immediately release and the pedal would bottom out before the car started to brake. The whistling occurred 2 additional times while driving even if I wasn't braking and the pedal continued to bottom out until the end of the drive. I also noticed a strong burning smell when I returned home. I assume the brake didn't fully release when I depressed the pedal and was continuously making contact so it overheated hence the smell. The next day the brakes were functioning normally as if nothing had ever happened. Since the brakes didn't whistle while braking, I assumed the brake pads were fine and there's probably air in the fluid or the cylinder is going bad. Well I bleed out the fluid even though the brakes returned to it's normal function just to be safe and a friend who is a mechanic checked the brake pads & discs and said they were fine. Now just as a precaution, I took the car to a shop so they could lift it up and have it better inspected but then the guy at the shop said that everything needs to be changed. Brake pads, discs and even the handbrake. The car only has 90,000km on it. It's a 2006 model Fiesta with original parts. It was never driven aggressively.

I'm a bit skeptical about what the guy at the shop told me. To change all the brake pads and discs plus the handbrake. It's not cheap. The car is also operating normally now. But what really struck me as strange was when I asked the guy "shouldn't the brake pads squeal when they go bad?" and he said that these particular (car) models don't have a warning in place for when the pads go out. Very very strange that the manufacturer wouldn't implement something so important so I'm very skeptical about what he suggested. Is it true that these pads don't have a warning when they go bad or am I being fooled?

[zain611]

I believe the mk6 fiesta didn't have that function to monitor brake pad depth. 

Its a weird one what your experiencing. Did you resolve the problem after bleeding the brakes? 

With my fiesta on MOT day it failed as the brake pedal would creep all the way down when depressed. Found out the brake fluid pipe which goes to the rear right brake blow a hole in it causing brake fluid to leak out so air getting in the system. There's a particular place these pipes get corrosion due to dirt build up. 

[isetta]

I also believe that there is no audible brake pad warning on mk6. You just have to check them visually now and then. Could you tell where the noise came from back/ front. Has someone taken rear drums off and checked inside. I am wondering if brake lining has come off brake shoe. I have known this to happen on two cars

[FreshPete]

3 hours ago, isetta said:

I also believe that there is no audible brake pad warning on mk6. You just have to check them visually now and then. Could you tell where the noise came from back/ front. Has someone taken rear drums off and checked inside. I am wondering if brake lining has come off brake shoe. I have known this to happen on two cars

The noise came from the back but the burning smell from the front if that makes sense. Today at the inspection, they just put the car on the lift and did a quick visual inspection. There was no disassembly.

[FreshPete]

4 hours ago, zain611 said:

I believe the mk6 fiesta didn't have that function to monitor brake pad depth. 

Its a weird one what your experiencing. Did you resolve the problem after bleeding the brakes? 

With my fiesta on MOT day it failed as the brake pedal would creep all the way down when depressed. Found out the brake fluid pipe which goes to the rear right brake blow a hole in it causing brake fluid to leak out so air getting in the system. There's a particular place these pipes get corrosion due to dirt build up. 

I'm unable to verify if the problem was fixed since it only lasted for one day. The brakes were functioning normally before I even bleed the brakes. I just did it as a precaution. They continued to function normally after the bleeding and I haven't experienced any problems yet. I'll update if it happens again.

[Static]

You could have had a sticky caliper. Brake pad may have been making contact with the disc constantly. This can create huge amounts of heat which could have boiled the brake fluid and expanded the metal piston in the caliper. Once you parked it up, everything cooled and your problem goes away.

My advise would be to do pads, disks and a break fluid change and see how you get on. May possibly need to do a caliper but if you got a mate who's on the spanners, he should be able to point you in the right direction.