The most common cause of this behaviour is a build-up of air inside the braking system. When you push the brake pedal, the fluid is forced to push on the parts of the braking system that clamps the brake pads to the brake rotors. That creates friction, and that causes the car to slow.

But the whole system relies on that pressure and it works because the brake fluid (as a liquid) can not be compressed. But air can. So, if there’s any air that has managed to enter the braking system, it will compress when you push the pedal, and the clamping force at the rotor will not be as great.

The fix is to what’s called 'bleed' the brakes. This process removes the air and should restore braking performance. In the meantime, the absolute best advice is to not drive the car anywhere while the brakes are not in top shape. The consequences are not worth thinking about.

Have the car towed to a workshop and while it’s there, think about having the brake fluid replaced as well as having the brakes bled. Fluid should be changed every couple of years but this is a somewhat ignored procedure among many car owners.

THE advantage of LPG is that you need only one tank, so you get around problems such as having to relocate the spare wheel, but you are relying on having LPG wherever you go. That's not a huge problem because about almost half of the servos in most areas have LPG. But if you want to take a trip around Australia, I would prefer the option of both fuels.

TRANSMISSION specialist John De Sensi of Gear-Matics says he hasn't heard of your problem. He says the main issue with the Falcon auto is it's not well enough cooled and this leads to problems at 150,000-190,000km. The auto oil pan is too small and doesn't contain enough oil, which leads to the oil overheating. The best solution is to fit an oil cooler, which adds to the volume of oil available for cooling. The other problem is that the tiny brass oil cooler in the radiator breaks down and flakes of brass pass through the system and clog the filters in the transmission. This also causes overheated oil. One possible cause of your problem is a high idle speed. To check this you need to see a Ford specialist and have them run their diagnostic program over the engine.