Why does the brakes not work when the engine is off????? its freakin retarded,...my engine overheats easy because i got some engine malfunctions and i was backing up, the engine cuts out, i press on the brakes and nothing happens...and the i look in the rearview mirror and WHACK***** taillights busted and i hit this guys truck. funny thing was that you could see the obvious damage on my car but he looked his over 4 times and had to ask me where i hit him....i shoulda just drove off but i thought i wa=ould be a nice person and tell him......i hope he forgets about it....you could barely notice the dent in his truck...hopefully he will forget ...anyways thanks for no brakes Honda...

 

engine on= electricity = power brakes, but idk y urs wouldnt work, how hard did u press on them? if somethin like that happens use ur emergency brake. U better get them checked out, maybe u need fluid.

 

When the engine doesn't run there is nothing to run the power brakes, therefore they don't act as normal, they still work just they are manual brakes.

 

well i pressed as hard as it would let me and knothing happened....

 

Drive your car up to 15mph, put it in neutral and turn the car off, then push in the brakes as hard as possible, they work just not as well as power brakes, its how all cars used to be

 

Yea, you should have tried the e-brake. It's made for emergency situations.


And no, your power brakes don't work while your engine is off. Just like power steering doesn't work. If your brakes work while the engine is on, they should work while it's off.

Did you press it all the way to the floor without any resistance?

 

and by the way most cars work this way not just hondas

 

Mine work, when my car is off. Good thing, or else I would off run over my mom and brother when putting my car inside the garage the other day.[&:]

 

they dont work because the brake booster is not doing its job. the brake booster allows for the almost effortless braking application during normal use because its connected thru the intake manifold and using vacuum to lessen brake pedal pressure. when the engine is not off, there is no vacuum and so the brake booster is inoperative which will result in maybe 3-4 "easy" braking applications and then it becomes almost impossible to stop the car while moving. its all cars, not just Hondas. use e-brake next time

 

I had my car parked about half way between the garage and my driveway (which is very steep, pretty much a small downhill). Anyways, my mom wanted me to close the garage door, so I just took the ebrake off to let it roll into the garage... damn car got too much speed as going in... luckly the brakes did managed to stop it... I even left skid marks[&:]

next time, I'll used the ebrake... don't want to risk crashing into the kitchen.