Who's had a brake servo replaced (on Mk1 Fabia)? What symptoms did you have? DIY or pro job?

 

Got the missus's car booked in at a trusted indy tomorrow for a diagnostic, but bracing myself for them to say it's a servo job.

As discussed in this thread, the symptoms seem to me to be servo-ish, yet it seems to pass all those "press the pedal and then switch engine on/off etc." type tests.

On light application of the brakes, it feels like everything is doing what it should, but if you go at it harder (nearly hit a wall at the weekend during a last-minute U-turn) you get much less assistance than expected/previously.

Vac hose has been swapped out for a new one, nothing changed, port into manifold checked/clear.

 

Not sure what the garage are gonna find, but chances are high that they've seen the fault/symptoms before, I should imagine, being a VAG specialist. I'd be chuffed, but surprised if it was something like a subtle master cylinder failure; fairly sure it's not peripheral/at the wheels.

 

From reading about it, labour looks like it might form a biggish part of the bill, anyone had a go themselves to sidestep this?

 

Cheers for any info or experiences.

 

 

On a 1.2 it's not too bad. On the bigger engines it's engine out (or at least dropped).

Trickiest part is releasing the pedal from the retaining clip.

Well that's encouraging, thanks.

erWin suggests that you have to pee about draining fluid, disconnecting the MC from the brake pipes etc.; is it not possible separate MC from servo, and to leave the hydraulics alone and just wriggle round, gently bending the odd brake pipe as reqd? Or is that daft?

 

S'pose I should wait for the diagnosis before anything else.

The servo on mine looks a bugger to get to.

not a ballooning flex pipe?

Lovin' that idea.  If I'd had one or two drinks fewer, I'd be out there now investigating that.  I'll be so chuffed if you're right.

The master cylinder is pretty long and drops into the servo a long way so there isn't enough room to pull it out (I tried lol).

^ Ta.

Handed the key over to the proprietor just now, whilst describing the pedal symptoms; "gotta be the servo" he says and asks if I've done the pedal pumping check. I tell him that it seems to be OK by that, and he comes out to the car and checks it himself "it's not the servo", he says. :sun:

Left it with them anyway to have a general check around, it'll be interesting to see what, if anything, they find.

Nothing. They couldn't find a thing wrong with it.  :no:

How odd.

 

Mine very occasionally does this frightening thing where I will be be braking from a fast speed, like coming off a motorway, and the brakes will suddenly go hard and require loads more pressure. It frightens the life out of me but I haven't been able to find out what's causing it.

Edited 24 August, 20169 yr by TMB

 

How odd.

 

Mine very occasionally does this frightening thing where I will be be braking from a fast speed, like coming off a motorway, and the brakes will suddenly go hard and require loads more pressure. It frightens the life out of me but I haven't been able to find out what's causing it.

Same thing happend to me twice, always at low speed or when the engine is idle for some time before. (maybe when the engine compartiment is warm, no idea).

And I frequently feel variations how hard the pedal is, but I can always break it to the point of triggering the ABS so it's fine...

Edited 24 August, 20169 yr by dm222

  Same thing happend to me twice, always at low speed or when the engine is idle for some time before. (maybe when the engine compartiment is warm, no idea).

And I frequently feel variations how hard the pedal is, but I can always break it to the point of triggering the ABS so it's fine...

 

I think Skoda are trying to kill us

Thinking now that this may have all been in my head, and caused by car-to-car comparison since owning my Polo.  The time-frame of perceiving a degradation in the Fabia's brakes fits with that as far as I can remember...now that I think about it.

 

When first purchased, the Polo brakes were extremely grabby, effective but a bit on/off and nothing in between; very good at stopping the car and very light underfoot.  New rear calipers seems to have toned that down to the point where they feel just right underfoot (progressive might be the term?) and are very good at stopping the car.

 

Wondering if it's just a case of expecting the Fabia brakes to feel and be the same, which is rather unfair of me as the Fabia has 239s and rear drums to the Polo's 256s and rear discs.  Servo may well be different size too, not looked into that?

 

D'oh.

Also different shoes do influence a LOT the way the pedal feels.

The ticker the sole the lighter it feels.

Wino, do you remember non-servo assisted brakes on cars? God they were crap. Better off with a brick on a piece of string

Edited 25 August, 20169 yr by TMB

I might just be too young? First car was a 650? 850? Original Mini. Can't remember anything about the brakes so they can't have been too bad.

I'm 51 but I had a 1985 MK2 Fiesta 950 that had no servo. Brakes were just awful so I went to the scrapyard and took all the bits off a servo assisted car and fitted them on mine. Took some doing as had to change just about every brake pipe, and the servo was mounted on the other side of the car and connected to the pedal by a rod across the bulkhead. It was vastly better afterwards, though.

 

Other cars I had with no servo:

Hillman Avenger 1300

Hillman Imp (drum brakes all round).

Vauxhall Viva

1984 VW Polo 1.0

Edited 25 August, 20169 yr by TMB

With a vague recollection that the registration plate of my Mini ended in K, that makes it a MKIII from 1971, and an 850 by the looks of it?

Only things I really remember were that the fuel gauge didn't work, but I had a long bit of wood that worked as a dipstick, and fitted neatly enough in the gutter on the edge of the roof that it just stayed there. And blowing up the engine (which suffered chronically from low oil pressure) racing a Maxi on the M27.

 

I am now remembering something about the brakes! When the nice man from the garage in the next village towed me up and down a steep hill to his garage to fit another engine, he told me that as soon as I saw his brake lights come on, I needed to brake for him and me as we went down the steep hill, so he wouldn't outbrake me and have me crash into the back of his van. That was hard going, but I guess that was definitely un-servo-assisted, as the engine wouldn't run...Ah, memory lane, 1985, what a year that was. :sun:   

Haha, fun times

 

Yes most Minis had no servo in those days.

Edited 25 August, 20169 yr by TMB

I seem to remember when my wife first got her Polo 9N new in late 2002 with 256mm front discs and rear discs, that swopping between it and an old Fiesta 1.6SI and my VW Passat 4Motion was a real pain in the neck, the Polo felt like it would stand on its nose, and I think that it had braking assist as an option.  That old Passat had 288mm front discs and weighed a lot, wife's new August 2015 Polo 1.2 TSI 110 also has 288mm front brakes but the braking is assured like my S4 and not grabby like the old Polo initially felt like.

Have you got abs? It sounds like a bad wheelbearing triggering the abs I have had experience with that on a facial before. Try removing the fuse for the abs and see how they are then. As above the servo is a right mare to replace

Have you got abs? It sounds like a bad wheelbearing triggering the abs I have had experience with that on a facial before. Try removing the fuse for the abs and see how they are then. As above the servo is a right mare to replace

Yes it has ABS, but it doesn't have that harsh underfoot, loud sensation that you get when that's active.  I'll do the experiment without the fuse just to be sure.  Fairly sure now that the answer is 'false memory syndrome' as suggested in post #14.

If it's just operating one valve/wheel you don't get that harsh push back. I've had one that that also lost engine power occasionally due to the TCS thinking a front wheel was spinning.

Interesting. Thanks for the help. I guess the appropriate fuse in the cabin fusebox will do, rather than the main pump fuse? Anything to make the abs module spit the dummy?