Brake Servo Split - PLEASE CHECK YOURS NOW

[edbutler]

Hi All,

Long time no see on here, but i had to come on to warn people - Sorry about where ive placed this post, i wanted to ensure maximum exposure due to the umbiquitous nature of the engines!

Long story short, i have a MY52 Ibiza Mk4 TDi Sport. The Brakes failed suddenly on thursday losing all servo assistance. Needless to say i almost crashed despite selecting 1st gear and a HEAVY tug on the handbrake. These cars barely brake at all without the servo - the Aux pump virtually useless at 25mph+.

I popped up the bonnet and found the brake servo hose has split and torn loose. Its a totally crap design - hard plastic pipe moulded onto a plastic 1-way check valve. This pipe for those less technically informed is found on the back of a 1.9PD engine when looking from the front - running paralell to the firewall from the engine to the brake servo (big circular 'ufo' shaped thing above your brake pedals). Just follow the pipe from there and feel around the connectors all the way back to the engine.

To make matters worse, i also have a Lupo 1.4 TDi and my friend has a Mk4 Ibiza 1.4TDi - BOTH OF THESE HAD A SPLIT SERVO HOSE TOO!! Literally both were ready to break off. The lupo had admittedly quite hard brakes and now i know why.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check yours and SPREAD THE WORD. Im in the process to writing to VOSA/Watchdog. These pipes are probably 80% overlooked at MOT's (MOT Testers arent allowed to even remove the engine cover to look).

A split hose will also cause extra turbo lag and stop the anti-shudder valve/egr from working properly. Therefore if you get any underboost or EGR error codes, it could be this!!

Be safe everyone

Ed