...now the brakes are playing up!

[RoadWarrior]

I think I've upset the little one - fix one thing, another thing goes wrong. I'm pretty sure it's become self aware and determined to ruin my bank balance

 

So, driving to work last night I was approaching a junction and stuck my foot on the brake pedal... and it felt stuck. It went down a little, but not a lot - the car slowed down but no where near as quickly as I wanted it to. Since then, I'm having to brake extra early in order to get it to stop in time, even at silly speeds like 15mph.

 

The rear discs, pads and calipers were replaced about 3k ago, so I'm sure I can rule that out. Could this be a seized caliper on the front?

 

 

Scared the crap out of me...

 

 

Many thanks.

[BrownBarge]

Maybe youve lost servo assistance? Split vac hose to the brake servo possibly

[russell wheeler]

If the servos playing up, the pedal will feel like pressing wooden block - and it will take a huge amount of pressure to stop. If its still pulling up straight, then I would also suspect the servo.

[snow_muncher]

If the servos playing up, the pedal will feel like pressing wooden block - and it will take a huge amount of pressure to stop. If its still pulling up straight, then I would also suspect the servo.

 

Once the servo has exhausted its vacumm, yes

 

but on the mk.4 cars, a split in the vac feeding the servo will leaves the brakes with a snodgey feeling, similar but more consistent in nature to air in the brake lines

 

In the OP's case, sounds more like a blown brake line maybe - just a bad bleed ?  - eg convential air-lock

Edited 29 April, 2014 by snow_muncher

[RoadWarrior]

Well I've done a quick check over all the vac lines and I can't find any splits... and none have popped off.

 

I jacked the car up and noticed the servo pump looks like a prehistoric relic - do the symptoms match up with a failed pump?

[michael1]

Did it only do it once or is it doing it all the time since?

[RoadWarrior]

Did it only do it once or is it doing it all the time since?

 

All the time - there's no change, it's constant.