Set width of fixed positioned div relative to his parent having max-width

there is already a width on the column, just set the width of the fixed element to inherit. no reason to complicate things.

CSS:

.col-sm-3 { width: 25%; }
.fixed-in-col { width: inherit; ... }

HTML:

<div class="col-sm-3">
    <div class="fixed-in-div">
        ...
    </div>
</div>

A position:fixed element is not relative to its parent anymore. It respects only the viewport's boudaries.

MDN Definition:

fixed
Do not leave space for the element. Instead, position it at a specified position relative to the screen's viewport and don't move it when scrolled.

So any width, max-width, or whatever property will not be respected by the fixed element.

EDIT

In fact, it won't inherit the width because there's no width property defined on the wrapper.. So, try setting the child as width: 100% and inherit the max-width:

http://jsfiddle.net/mx6anLuu/2/

.wrapper {
    max-width: 500px;
    border: 1px solid red;
    height: 5500px;
    position: relative;
}


.fix {
    max-width: inherit;
    width: 100%;
    height: 20px;
    position:fixed;
    background: black;
}