I have a 1.2L HTP Mk1 Classic. Recently MOT'd (less than a month ago), but whether that has implications of "surely a major issue would have been picked up then" or "did they do something when inspecting the car" I am not sure.

Tonight, I was making a 150 mile round trip journey to pick up a friend near London and drive them home. About an hour into the journey, approaching some queuing traffic, I pressed the brake pedal and the car didn't seem to slow down at all. The pedal was completely firm — it didn't go flat to the floor — but the car did make some very strange noises in the process, almost like crunching or scraping.

I can't be sure whether it was some kind of rogue ABS activation or what, but it was very close to a buy-new-pants scenario.

After this event, I pulled into a side road and tried the brakes a number of times and everything was fine. The remaining 3 hours of driving — quite cautiously — also went perfectly fine with no other weird braking oddities.

I've attached the dashcam footage of what happened, and you can hear the sounds I'm talking about over my podcast. It happened pretty quickly in the moment, so I can't say if the car eventually slowing was simply the uphill gradient, engine braking, or the brakes eventually working.

Any ideas?

As a side question, is the Mk1 smart enough to detect a broken brake light bulb and stop sending it current? I had a blown bulb and replaced it but it still didn't work when testing with the car off. It started working at some point, so I'm wondering if starting the engine reset something. I'm unsure because the car certainly didn't warn me about any issue with the brake light. I read that on some models you'd get a flashing glow plug light — but presumably not on a petrol!

Edited 4 January4 Jan by davwheat

Have you examined the brakes for wear? Grinding noises occur when a pad has worn down and the backing plate is directly contacting the disk.

That was just the ABS kicking in I think. Did it feel like the pedal was vibrating harshly underfoot?

As with any VW group car of this era; probably a good idea to check the brake servo vacuum hose for cracks at the junctions of the hard plastic sections.

Edit: and check your tyre pressures, MOT doesn't.

Edited 4 January4 Jan by Breezy_Pete
Tyres

7 hours ago, Breezy_Pete said:

That was just the ABS kicking in I think. Did it feel like the pedal was vibrating harshly underfoot?

I can't say either way really, but it does seem like that probably was what happened.

7 hours ago, Breezy_Pete said:

As with any VW group car of this era; probably a good idea to check the brake servo vacuum hose for cracks at the junctions of the hard plastic sections.

Thanks for this. It does seem split where it connects onto other parts. Pics attached.

I read a thread somewhere here that the part numbers should be clearly written on the hard plastic part of the hose, and they're unique to each engine model, but I can't see any clear part number on mine without taking it out and disconnecting it fully at least.

I'll try and do some research to find the right part number for my model. Probably won't get a genuine one these days though.

7 hours ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Edit: and check your tyre pressures, MOT doesn't.

Tyre pressures fine all round.

I can look up part number via the VIN, I'll start a private chat with you in a sec.

Unless there's worse cracking on the far side of any of those points, I would probably recommend a repair with self-amalgamating tape.

Especially if a new replacement does turn out to be unobtainable as suspected.

If it wasn't actually icy at the location of the incident, it may have been surface contamination by diesel fuel, or oil of some kind, leading to one or more wheels locking up unexpectedly and triggering the ABS.

I repaired my sons using tape and some jubilee clips. Been fine since. He noticed the brakes felt different and needed more pressure plus his idle was all over the place. Idle returned to norm once pipe was fixed.

It could be connected to rear drums. His just passed MOT with advise. When I took them apart the cylinder had been leaking on one side and the other was in poor condition and partly seized.

Alasdair

Whether coincidence or not, today I noticed a hissing sound whenever I press on the brake pedal. I had never noticed this before, and I expect that might be related to the cracking on the pipe.

The whole pedal has always been very light in the first maybe 2 inches of travel before becoming very firm, so I do wonder how long the pipe has been how it has. I'm surprised it's not been mentioned in any MOT, though. I would have expected this would be something checked, or at least noticed.

Edited 7 January7 Jan by davwheat

Reckon as long as the brakes work on the testing machine and are equal then it will pass. Sons was like this as well and passed MOT no bother.

Alasdair

2 hours ago, davwheat said:

noticed a hissing sound whenever I press on the brake

Normal. The servo has to let cabin air into its rear chamber when pedal is pressed, to provide the assistance.

I suspect your attention to it has just been heightened by anxiety about brake function.

On 04/01/2026 at 15:42, Breezy_Pete said:

I can look up part number via the VIN, I'll start a private chat with you in a sec.

Unless there's worse cracking on the far side of any of those points, I would probably recommend a repair with self-amalgamating tape.

Especially if a new replacement does turn out to be unobtainable as suspected.

If it wasn't actually icy at the location of the incident, it may have been surface contamination by diesel fuel, or oil of some kind, leading to one or more wheels locking up unexpectedly and triggering the ABS.

There did appear to be a lot of some sort of liquid on the surface - especially towards centre of road. Was there a strong smell of diesel in the area?

22 hours ago, Warrior193 said:

There did appear to be a lot of some sort of liquid on the surface - especially towards centre of road. Was there a strong smell of diesel in the area?

I don't recall anything, honestly. It has generally been poor weather the last week or two, so it could be water, or it could be some other contaminant, or a mix of both.

I did find that the rubber part of the pipe had split in another place, to the point that putting self-amalgamating tape around the bits I had seen caused it to fall straight off the hard plastic connector.

In one of the pictures, you can see the slightly split connector with a grey pen or paint marking on it, which has a plastic connector, and another rubber hose on the bottom half. This pipe leads into the engine. The rear of that had entirely split, which is why I didn't see it.

I have put tape around that as well, and ordered some jubilee clips to put around all 3 connection points for my own sanity. I do feel like the pipe leading into the engine may well need replacement as it seems to be quite inflexible compared to what I'd expect a hose to be like, but maybe I'm overreacting.

Edited 8 January8 Jan by davwheat

Yeah, that's properly broken.

Is there enough length to trim away that end and reconnect further back? (would need careful heating of plastic).

7 minutes ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Yeah, that's properly broken.

Is there enough length to trim away that end and reconnect further back? (would need careful heating of plastic).

Honestly, probably not, no. The split is far back enough that I wouldn't be confident that there's enough left of the pipe to reconnect it.

15 minutes ago, davwheat said:

Honestly, probably not, no. The split is far back enough that I wouldn't be confident that there's enough left of the pipe to reconnect it.

This lot may have stock of new genuine, at quite a price. Check availability with them:

Volkswagen / Skoda Vacuum Pipe With Non-Return Valve 6Q2612041AK - LLLParts

9 minutes ago, Breezy_Pete said:

This lot may have stock of new genuine, at quite a price. Check availability with them:

Volkswagen / Skoda Vacuum Pipe With Non-Return Valve 6Q2612041AK - LLLParts

I've also seen it on here. Not sure how reputable they are, but at least the price seems to include VAT so it's a bit more tolerable.

https://skodapartsdirect.co.uk/product/skoda-fabia-2004-2014-vacuum-pipe/

I've submitted an enquiry with the site you linked too.

25 minutes ago, davwheat said:

I've also seen it on here. Not sure how reputable they are, but at least the price seems to include VAT so it's a bit more tolerable.

https://skodapartsdirect.co.uk/product/skoda-fabia-2004-2014-vacuum-pipe/

Oh that's ideal (especially if it was me, as they're just down the road).

That's just a Skoda dealership with an online parts selling operation. Have used them once or twice, no problems.

After some shipping delays for the part, and a 2 week holiday of my own, I've finally fitted the replacement hose.

The original part attached to the car was a bit different, being made of a short clamped flexible hose portion, whereas the new part is one single part for the whole thing.

The trickiest part was breaking the single-use clips off the old part, plus also getting the new part to push in to the back wall of the engine compartment which needed a bit of grease first.

The brakes certainly seem to actually have an effect with much less effort on the pedal itself, so I assume that's a good sign. Didn't notice any difference in engine idle which I saw some others mention. I've not tried it on the road yet as my car's blocked in by my parents' at the moment, but I might need to get used to the brakes again now.

Thanks for everyone's help.