Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:45:26 -0400
Reply-To: craig cowan <phishman068@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: craig cowan <phishman068@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: brake question
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTikpJR_kPs6PyiC1KP1S8njTo7nv+os4FXzXgs0T@mail.gmail.com>
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I had a failing master cylinder and it exhibited intermittent problems like
this.
The true give away for me (not that this will happen in your case though) is
that I was burning brake fluid (in the engine!).
It was somehow making it throught the vaccuum system and into the engine,
and clouds of smoke would come out as brake fluid would go down.
I'm not saying this will happen to you, but if you smell strange things, see
some strange smoke, or see your level rapidly falling.....
it can happen!
-Craig
'85GL turned WESTY
BOSTIG in the back
'87 SUNROOF Syncro
On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 5:05 PM, Ry <rylincoln@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've had this problem, was definitely master cylinder. It failed a little
> at first till it went all the way and had to pump the brakes repeatedly to
> stop. 100$ get's it fixed, do it yourself, it's very easy.
>
>
> -Ry
> http://www.google.com/profiles/rylincoln
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 3:38 PM, neil n <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 12:04 PM, Sheilah Rogers <sheilah@sheilah.org>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > So I was driving in ~80F weather, up and down a not so steep road but
> > some curves, about 30 minutes of said road was unpaved, ...... I drove
> about
> > 45minutes total here.
> > >
> > > Then I got on the highway for another 45 minutes-ish. When I went to
> slow
> > down a bit, it was like my brake peddle wasn't responding with its normal
> > sort of push-back and instead, the brake pedal just dropped with no brake
> > functionality about 80% to the floor before it engaged. Once engaged, I
> > could slow the van down but of course I then had the pedal to the medal
> just
> > to slow down a bit.
> > >
> > > Being on a quiet highway I kept going, figured I'd pull over in a
> bigger
> > town and at least I can stop the van. But after 30minutes, the brake
> resumed
> > normal so I just continued driving to my mechanic's.
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > Were you driving slower on the unpaved roads? If so, maybe you didn't
> > need to push as hard as if slowing down from highway speeds?
> >
> > Regardless, that sinking feeling usually means the MC is failing or
> failed.
> >
> > Any receipts showing if MC was replaced? A time line of how old part
> > is may help.
> >
> >
> >
> > Neil.
> > --
> > Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"
> >
> > http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
> >
> >
> >
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
> >
>
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