Intermittant Diesel Brake Issue

[Guest blimp]

Hello People,

 

I have a brake problem with my 1990 309 1.8td - In the last couple of months, I have twice gone to brake and found the pedal has been rock solid and taken a lot of pushing to slow down - then literally a few seconds later problem goes away and everything is back to normal for weeks.

 

With my rather vague knowledge (and previous very scary near disasters) with brakes I'm a bit stuck - to my Haynes educated mind I would guess my issue is somwhere in the vacuum pump, or the pipe to the servo, or the servo itself area.

 

As usual for my cars the issue is intermittant which makes diagnosis a complete nightmare - so I'm hoping someone out there may have an idea or point me to the most likely culprit.

[shalmaneser 26]

I think you're right - its the servo or the pump.

 

you can normally check the servo by checking how long it stays pumped up after the engine is turned off - the book of lies has some information.

 

Other than that it's replacing one thing at a time - start with the cheapest and work your way up would be my advice! Hose is cheap and easy to do so start there?

[swordfish210 20]

Sounds like a leak in the system somewhere to me. First off check all the pipes for the vaccum system for holes and then refit and retighten to see if that helps.

[pug_ham 244 3 Cars]

Sounds like the vacuum pump, when mine died I just got a heavy pedal without any warning.

 

AFAIK you can buy a pump rebuild kit for not to much but with it being intermittent you could have fun trouble shooting the actual bit at fault.

 

Graham.

[Guest blimp]

Thanks for your help and ideas - I really hate intermittant problems and this is an absolute peach of one.

 

f it is any help, the last time this happened was right after a dead slow sharp downhill turn, so I thought it may be something like a leaky pipe that moved slightly when I turned and the car twisted slightly. In any case I shall have a look at the pipe work as an easy start point then go on from there.