The breakdown of the characteristics solution in the neighbourhood of the leading frozen characteristic is investigated for the flow induced by a piston advancing with finite acceleration into a relaxing gas and for the steady supersonic flow of a relaxing gas into a smooth compressive corner. It is found that the point of breakdown moves outwards along the leading characteristic as the relaxation time decreases and that there is no breakdown of the solution on the leading characteristic if the gas has a sufficiently small, but non-zero, relaxation time. A precise measure of this relaxation time is derived. The paper deals only with points of breakdown determined by initial derivatives of the piston path or wall shape. In the steady-flow case, the Mach number based on the frozen speed of sound must be greater than unity.