No Brakes!

[Specter]

This problem has started since the last two days. If i cruise around everything is fine, but if i accelerate the car even a little bit, i instantly loose brakes. The brake paddle gets all tight and there is no travel, if i press it the car does not respond at all as if there are no brakes. If i leave it for 2-3 seconds ( the car is still running on the road ofcourse) the brake pedal gets back to normal and the brakes work fine. What could be the problem? Do i have too much air in brake lines? Or is the master brake cylinder dying? Oil level has dropped around 35% since i last checked like 2 weeks ago.

 

[Barnes]

Do the brakes still work if you press VERY hard on the pedal when it gets stiff?

It sounds like your brake booster is not getting enough vaccuum, or there is something wrong with your brake booster itself.

However, the lose of brake fluid is rather strange. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[prove_it]

I'd say your leaking brake fluid into your brake booster. Brake fluid will distroy the rubber seal in the booster and cause issues similiar to yours. That's why your pedal gets hard, the booster has no vacuum to apply boost to the master cylinder. It comes back after letting the engine see vacuum. Since you say your brake fluid is going down I would suspect the two issues are related and this is about the only way they can be related.

Pull the master cylinder off of the booster and check the rear seal on the master cylinder. If it's wet you'll need a new master cylinder and brake booster. If it's dry then I'd replace your brake booster vacuum hose with a new one that has the one way valve in it. If the seal is dry then most likely your one way valve is bad and bleeding off vacuum, which would cause the hard pedal.

Let us know what you find.

 

[belize1334]

Could also be a bad check-valve for the booster. That would cause the booster to get positive pressure when your turbo spools and wreak havoc.

 

[1941Galant]

^+1

 

[Specter]

No the brakes do not work even if i press hard on the stiff pedal.
Thank you all for the help, i will first replace the valve hoping that is the problem as it can be a easy fix. If it does not solve the issue then i will check the rubber seal to see if its wet or not. I will reply back as to what i found in few 2-3 days. Thanks again!

 

[steve]

Quoting Specter:
Oil level has dropped around 35% since i last checked like 2 weeks ago.



Did you lose brake fluid or motor oil?

 

[Specter]

^^ The Brake Fluid Ofcourse. I am not that much of a newbie that i will mention motor oil in a brake related topic I guess you guys refer it to as brake fluid. Down here we refer it to as brake oil, hence the word oil in my first post /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[steve]

My bad, I didn't notice your location. I certainly would have assumed you meant brake fluid, but you specifically said oil which I thought was odd. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

The vac line to the booster could be installed backwards, trapping boost in the brake booster, and resisting brake travel. Take it off and blow through it (each way) to make sure the valve is functioning, and reinstall it and see if anything is different.

 

[prove_it]

If it where installed backward though, the pedal would be hard all the time. It wouldn't act up on accel only, then come back to normal while idling.

 

[Barnes]

To me Prove_it's idea makes the most since. I mean, check the hose and check valve first because it is easy, but I think he is right.

 

are we absolutely certain there are no brakes at all when the pedal gets stiff? i mean if you had brakes before then you should still have brakes now even though it may be a huge b-word to push the pedal down.