Hi all, this might be a stupid question but I'll ask anyway. (I did search for an answer too).

Before I wrecked my Fabia TDi I was going to ask the garage to look at the brakes. If I pushed hard enough on the pedal it seemed to gradually keep going. In fact, by pumping it the pedal seemed to gradually have less and less travel and the brakes become more effective.

This used to happen when I drove really old wrecks, but in recent years and decent cars I don't recall ever being able to do this.

However, now I have my replacement Fabia and the same thing happens. That can't be a coincidence so why isn't there a point when the brakes are hard against the discs and the pedal will travel no more?

Many thanks

Steve

the only time i have this sensation is when the engines turned off, you pump the brake and it stiffens, but this is when the engines not turned on and the brakes become stiff as hell anyway?

Never heard of it while driving though, mine seems okay, i just brake until the car stops, i can push the break hard enough to lock the wheels up (no ABS). best thing to try is get an open straight road with noone on it and take the opportunity to slam on the anchors (at a safe slowish speed) and see how the car responds.

Hi all, this might be a stupid question but I'll ask anyway. (I did search for an answer too).

Before I wrecked my Fabia TDi I was going to ask the garage to look at the brakes. If I pushed hard enough on the pedal it seemed to gradually keep going. In fact, by pumping it the pedal seemed to gradually have less and less travel and the brakes become more effective.

This used to happen when I drove really old wrecks, but in recent years and decent cars I don't recall ever being able to do this.

However, now I have my replacement Fabia and the same thing happens. That can't be a coincidence so why isn't there a point when the brakes are hard against the discs and the pedal will travel no more?

Many thanks

Steve

Yup, I have encoutered this. No idea what it is.

Erm.. No mechanic here but I thought the brake servos used a vacuum system (with hydraulics obviously) to assist the brake mechanism so the vacuum bit would have some 'give' if you like. I also assume the hydraulic system bit; is less compressible than air but not totally incompressible. So the liquid will also have some 'slack' or 'give' which is probably giving you that squishy feeling and not a dead stop when you hit pad to disc...

I had a cracked vacuum pipe before (common fault) and on occasions the pedal will be completely non assisted. That gave a great direct and linear feel for the brakes however it was a bit of a shock when you tried pushing it, nothing happened.....

I don't like how the fabia system is set up, im not sure if its standard or whatever but some cars i've driven they have a very linear brake pressure to foot pedal travel. I would hope one day some clever wizz comes along and tell everyone 'oh you just need to change this setting on vagcom to make the brakes less assisted'

If pedal sinks to floor, brake fluid leak likely. Hint: this is bad.

Sent from my GT-P5110 using Tapatalk HD

Edited 8 January, 201313 yr by anewman

Just to add that this happens when the engine is running. Obviously I can't test it whilst driving along and there's no suggestion that the brakes aren't working well. It's just something that I can do at traffic lights.

There's no brake fluid leaking either.

Edited 8 January, 201313 yr by budfox

Might not be enough fluid in the system then.

I was told this is common to all vag cars!

Am I misled?

If you stand on the pedal hard enough when stationary and engine running pedal goes to floor!!