Hard Brake Pedal & Brakes Feel Like They Are Always On
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Hard Brake Pedal & Brakes Feel Like They Are Always On - 4/25/2008 3:24:18 PM
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ldk
Posts: 3
Joined: 4/25/2008
Status: offline
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Hello,
I've got a 2000 Jetta / Turbo / 5-speed manual transmission. I'm having some annoying "brake issues" -- at least I think it's brake related. Here are the symptoms:
I turn the car on and start driving and for the first 10 minutes or so everything feels fine. The brake pedal is nice and easy to press and when I press it, it goes down a few inches as it should. After about 10 minutes of driving two things start happening:
1. The brake pedal becomes very hard to press. I can only press it like 1/2 inch but it's very responsive.
2. I get the feeling like the brakes are slightly engaged as I'm driving. The car feels more labored than usual and if I'm going 30 MPH on a flat stretch of road and I put the car in neutral, it slows down faster than it should.
I haven't noticed much of a burning smell. Just a tiny bit but then again in the state it's in, I haven't tried to drive too far too fast.
My mechanic (who is not a dealer but specializes in VWs) thought for sure it was the master cylinder so he put in a new one. When he had removed the master cylinder, he said he checked to see if there was any water in the power booster but there was none. After having the master cylinder replaced the problem is worse. It was intermittent before and now the above happens all the time.
I don't know if this is helpful or not but after driving it for about 20 minutes today I pulled over and felt each of hubcaps. The front driver one and the rear passenger one where significantly hotter than the other two.
I should also probably mention that a few months ago I was on the highway and slowed way down to a stop at a tollbooth and a super intense rush of air happened and my brake pedal went right down the floor and then came up and was really hard to press. The brakes worked fine though luckily. This happened one more time a few minutes later. I took it to my mechanic and he said he could find no reason for this whatsoever and everything looked fine. The brake pedal never did this again.
Phew! Sorry for writing a novel here! I figure more information is better than not enough. :) I'd be so appreciative if anyone could give some suggestions. Thanks!
< Message edited by ldk -- 4/25/2008 3:25:22 PM >
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RE: Hard Brake Pedal & Brakes Feel Like They Are Always On - 4/25/2008 3:36:09 PM
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bagel
Posts: 1348
Joined: 8/16/2005
Status: offline
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Ya know, if everyone who posted wrote it like you did...WOW would my job be easier!! SO, sounds like a vacuum loss maybe, and I'm not sure how VW's are, but if the rear brake is hot then you would have to adjust the brakes. How does your rotor look? If it feels like the brakes are on when you're not hitting the pedal, you would have to adjust them, that's on older cars so. As far as the pedal itself, it should connect directly to the booster through a linkage, just check that for anything out of the ordinary. If he changed the master cylinder and it's worse that's messed up..lol. Wonder how good of a brake bleed he did on the system?? WHat I would do is change the pump, might fix both problems....any dash lights ever come on during this??
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