ab dsm
Probationary Member
- 23
- 0
- Dec 1, 2011
-
Aurora,
ON, Canada
Hi there!
So two days ago I went out driving my 95 AWD tsi Talon and drove a pretty nasty road with sudden drops/bumps in the road that come out of nowhere and I had to get on my breaks pretty hard once or twice, something I always avoid doing. This is just background in case it helps.
Yesterday morning I drove to work and the car's brakes were acting weird, just mushy really, but I wasn't sure what it could be because it passed a safety less than a month ago and my pads were good, so I just thought maybe they wore fast or I needed something to be adjusted.
Last night on break I went home to grab something and on the way back had lost almost all braking power, only had some at low speeds, and regained a little by pumping the brakes but still not close to normal, increasingly mushy. By the time I drove home after work, I lost pretty much all braking power except at very low speeds or to hold the car in place once stopped.
Side note: ever since I brought my car back from the safety place, when I drive it, there is some fluid accumulation on the top of my engine - no change in performance of the car, only noticed when I lifted the hood. I wasn't sure what the fluid was or where it was coming from but from the research I've done it appears it could be brake fluid (only from the look of it). They also removed the top of my engine to clean it and they painted it, so I was going into the shop this week to have them look at it as I thought maybe something happened upon reinstallation, but the fluid never went away even when mopped up, it kept reappearing so on Monday I was going to go get the problem checked out anyways. (This fluid COULD be unrelated but I'm including it anyways).
I tried the brake booster test where you pump the brake when the car is off, and it's supposed to get rock solid then release the pressure when you turn the car on... results: pumping the pedal led to an increase in the pressure, but not to the point where it was a struggle to press it, and never got rock solid (including today... still the same). I also heard air coming from the brake pedal area.
My confusion stems from the threads I read that indicated that brake booster vacuum problems lead to a very hard brake pedal when driving etc, whereas mine is very very soft and does little towards stopping my car (thank you downshifting
)... so is there another brake booster issue that this could be? I read somewhere a little blurb about some sort of pressure relief system (actuator arm?) within the brake booster that could be stuck open... how do I check this, and how do I fix it if it's the problem.
Also, my ebrake light went on when the ebrake was off on the way back to work on break... I read up on this so I know the causes and fixes, but the two situations are obviously related so I'm including that part anyways too.
I plan on doing a brake bleed this afternoon too, because maybe I just need to run the lines if there is lots of air, but I just have a feeling it's in the booster because it failed the pressure build up check I mentionned above... but I read this in a post, maybe I was misled.
Perhaps it's a check valve issue too... how would I determine what my problem is? Or master cylinder issue? I haven't found any leaks but I wasn't very thorough last night because I got home late and spent a lot of time looking for similar threads.
Also if the fluid on my engine is brake fluid obviously there's a leak somewhere but my reservoir is still full. I got brake fluid last night and went to add a little but it was already full...
Thanks for any help, can't drive the car in this condition but it's my only way to and from work and the situation deteriorated so quickly I'm a little worried I won't be able to fix it on time to use.
Add: When they did the safety, they also changed all the fluids for me... tranny, oil, and brake.
So two days ago I went out driving my 95 AWD tsi Talon and drove a pretty nasty road with sudden drops/bumps in the road that come out of nowhere and I had to get on my breaks pretty hard once or twice, something I always avoid doing. This is just background in case it helps.
Yesterday morning I drove to work and the car's brakes were acting weird, just mushy really, but I wasn't sure what it could be because it passed a safety less than a month ago and my pads were good, so I just thought maybe they wore fast or I needed something to be adjusted.
Last night on break I went home to grab something and on the way back had lost almost all braking power, only had some at low speeds, and regained a little by pumping the brakes but still not close to normal, increasingly mushy. By the time I drove home after work, I lost pretty much all braking power except at very low speeds or to hold the car in place once stopped.
Side note: ever since I brought my car back from the safety place, when I drive it, there is some fluid accumulation on the top of my engine - no change in performance of the car, only noticed when I lifted the hood. I wasn't sure what the fluid was or where it was coming from but from the research I've done it appears it could be brake fluid (only from the look of it). They also removed the top of my engine to clean it and they painted it, so I was going into the shop this week to have them look at it as I thought maybe something happened upon reinstallation, but the fluid never went away even when mopped up, it kept reappearing so on Monday I was going to go get the problem checked out anyways. (This fluid COULD be unrelated but I'm including it anyways).
I tried the brake booster test where you pump the brake when the car is off, and it's supposed to get rock solid then release the pressure when you turn the car on... results: pumping the pedal led to an increase in the pressure, but not to the point where it was a struggle to press it, and never got rock solid (including today... still the same). I also heard air coming from the brake pedal area.
My confusion stems from the threads I read that indicated that brake booster vacuum problems lead to a very hard brake pedal when driving etc, whereas mine is very very soft and does little towards stopping my car (thank you downshifting
)... so is there another brake booster issue that this could be? I read somewhere a little blurb about some sort of pressure relief system (actuator arm?) within the brake booster that could be stuck open... how do I check this, and how do I fix it if it's the problem.Also, my ebrake light went on when the ebrake was off on the way back to work on break... I read up on this so I know the causes and fixes, but the two situations are obviously related so I'm including that part anyways too.
I plan on doing a brake bleed this afternoon too, because maybe I just need to run the lines if there is lots of air, but I just have a feeling it's in the booster because it failed the pressure build up check I mentionned above... but I read this in a post, maybe I was misled.
Perhaps it's a check valve issue too... how would I determine what my problem is? Or master cylinder issue? I haven't found any leaks but I wasn't very thorough last night because I got home late and spent a lot of time looking for similar threads.
Also if the fluid on my engine is brake fluid obviously there's a leak somewhere but my reservoir is still full. I got brake fluid last night and went to add a little but it was already full...
Thanks for any help, can't drive the car in this condition but it's my only way to and from work and the situation deteriorated so quickly I'm a little worried I won't be able to fix it on time to use.
Add: When they did the safety, they also changed all the fluids for me... tranny, oil, and brake.
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