What are the symptoms of a master cylinder on its way out?

For a while now I believe (could be just me) that the brake pedal has too much travel. I'm had the brake fluid changed by my local skoda garage which didnt really seem to change anything. How much travel should their be?

Cars a fabia vrs.

Cheers

Unlikely, I have never known one fail on a 9N platform. Try getting the brakes bled again but this time ask them to do it in basic settings mode.

Third! Something is wrong there.

Is the handbrake correctly adjusted? No joke; every time I had issues with pedal travel on one car I owned it was down to a problem with the HB adjustment causing excess free play in the back brakes, and hence excess pedal travel cos every time you braked you had to take up the free play before the back brakes did anything.

I've never heard of anything other than freak occurances causing problems with the master cylinder in under 100_000 miles or so. If you do get master cylinder problems, they tend to manifest as much as a lack of brake power as anything else.

Master cylinder failure certainly is rare.

I take it there's plenty of meat on the pads? Not got a bulging hose or anything like that?

Plenty of meat left both front and back :eek:

Front discs are getting on a bit (40K almost).

Do still have a strange handbrake issue. Still. Handbrake does about 4 clicks. then if you press the brake pedal the handbrake goes loose and does another 3 clicks taking the total count to around 7.

Brake master cylinder failure is rare

Clutch master cylinder is pretty common (ask me how I found this out...)

Bleeding the brakes can be pretty fiddly - use an Ezibleed. You'll be surprised how a little air makes a huge difference..

When it comes to somewhat important things like brakes - choose your mechanic carefully...

HTH

Bas

If air gets into the master cylinder or ABS pump, the system must be bled in basic settings mode which is a real pain, especially on the Mk60 system. It takes us three people (one on each front wheel and one inside with the lap top) and an electric pressure brake bleeder to do the job and even then it sometimes fails to get the air out.

Plenty of meat left both front and back :eek:

Front discs are getting on a bit (40K almost).

Do still have a strange handbrake issue. Still. Handbrake does about 4 clicks. then if you press the brake pedal the handbrake goes loose and does another 3 clicks taking the total count to around 7.

From that, I think the issue is possibly with the HB adjusters or cables. All the symptoms seem to match.

From that, I think the issue is possibly with the HB adjusters or cables. All the symptoms seem to match.

Ok next question. How do you adjest the handbrake on the fabia?

Cheers

Ok next question. How do you adjest the handbrake on the fabia?

Cheers

This is with rear discs yes? If so, I didn't mean the cable tension adjustment at the lever (and don't know the answer anyway): I meant the automatic screw adjusters in the rear calipers aren't working properly! :eek: And this is probably beyond a lot of people; I strongly suggest buying a maintenance manual before proceeding.

Faboka , park the car on a flat surface and use a couple of bricks to block a wheel to stop it moving , then under the back of the car, check whether either of the handbrake levers on the calipers are sticking on , do this before any adjustment is done , if either or both levers are pulled on slightly pull them back to their stops , then start the car up and press the brake a few times , this should take up the free play ,if any, in the rear brakes and also reduce the amount of travel on the handbrake

the extra travel you mention in the handbrake if the brake pedal is pressed when pulling the handbrake up seems to be normal , after your thread about that i tried mine , and it had a similar extra travel

as for the brake master cylinder faulty, i agree with getting it re-bled first

but generally when a master cylinder goes you will get a dodgy pedal , going to floor or odd pedal feel , i found my pedal can drop down slightly , but this i know is quite normal and nothing to worry about

well I have similar problem. My brake pedal is very soft and when pressed it keeps sinking all the way to the floor. My skoda 1.4 16V was race car (don't laugh) so during the last two races the brake fluid was completely changed two or three times with DOT 5.1. The brake system was bleeded without help of ABS because it was turned off during races. All that didn't help. Disks are OK, pads a brand new... still the same. Car stops worse than my old Opel Kadet... Other strange thing is when i press some times in a roll the engine starts working like it "overtuned" . I explain that with the high consumption of vacuum...

I ordered brake master cylinder for my car, but is there something other to check?

You need to bleed the brakes in basic adjustment mode to make sure all air is removed from the system; this includes bleeding the master cylinder first. Even then, the air can be a sod to get out and often you have to replace the MC to get a decent pedal-I fight this problem constantly when working on the Golf 4/A3/Octavia etc.

You need to bleed the brakes in basic adjustment mode to make sure all air is removed from the system; this includes bleeding the master cylinder first. Even then, the air can be a sod to get out and often you have to replace the MC to get a decent pedal-I fight this problem constantly when working on the Golf 4/A3/Octavia etc.

Thanks for the reply. I hope my brake master cylinder to be shipped today, so I'll try everything once more. I wish everything will be OK, because it is very annoying to brake like that. Last two races the car was driven without vacuum in servo so the driver can fell the pedal - he liked it more in that way . Now when I'm going to drive it on public roads I want to have decent brakes... don't want to see somebody's brake lights from a very close

A quick easy way to check if your rear brakes need adjusted is-- on a level surface-- engine running and handbrake off--fully press the brake pedal--note the travel distance of the pedal.

Fully apply the handbrake--fully press the brake pedal--any difference in travel distance ??

If the travel distance is much shorter--rear brakes need adjusted.

Applying the handbrake and footbrake together at the same time for for 5 or 10 times will bring in the automatic pad or brake shoe adjusters and shorten the brake pedal travel distance.

I do this regularly on my Superb, about every 8 weeks and it makes a big difference to the foot and handbrake performance

Hope this is useful to you

Other strange thing is when i press some times in a roll the engine starts working like it "overtuned" . I explain that with the high consumption of vacuum...

I ordered brake master cylinder for my car, but is there something other to check?

you could have a faulty servo , when you press the brakes maybe it is allowing the vacuum to be lost due to a split inside the servo , i'm guessing "overtuned" means revving up when the brakes pressed , this can be caused by extra air being drawn into the engine , through the servo

Just to add. My problem was fixed with a good bleed of the system.

can anyone tell me how too bleed the master cylinder and brakes on a 07 plate octavia? ive replaced the master cylinder and rear hoses