No Brakes
 

2002 V40 1.9 Deisel
As usual, I am away at work, away from home and my daughter emails to tell me she has NO BRAKES. Apparently the pedal goes all the way to the floor.
She said it had been getting increasingly difficult to stop over the last few days
I have asked her to check the fluid and she has reported that the level is fine.
I know that with out looking at it its difficult to be conclusive, but that would suggest to me that all the pipes etc are fine with no leaks and the problem lies with the master Cyl.
Any one got a spare for sale ? I don't mind if I find I don't need it as I will keep it as the car has plenty of life left (hopefully)

If there are no visible leaks anywhere, then most probably the master cylinder seals indeed. You will need to double check though to make sure that none of the rubber hoses or metal pipes have a small leak.

I have a spare one from a GDI, and I am 99% sure it is the same on all manual cars, but I will need to check first

Have you asked her to try pumping the pedal to see if it gets harder, and then when she starts the engine, whether it sinks to the floor?

If she can build up the pressure that then goes, that's perhaps going to suggest a leaky servo.

I've driven a few vehicles that started doing that to me, scary, but at least I could get home before it was u/s.

It still won't be driveable for her, but it might be ok to be moved if you're going to do some work on it yourself.

Just a thought.

Thanks for the replies, the servo was my second thought but she will have to wait till I get home (late tomorrow night hopefully) and I can get it round and have a look. She is using my car for now.
I will check it out and see what's happening. Will PM you GATOS if I need the master cylinder. have you by any chance got a servo?

For what I know a defect servo has nothing to do with the brake pedal going to the floor.The servo is a power help so you don't have to push very hard to activate the brakes.The only way for flooring the pedal is air in the circuit or master cylinder leaking inside.

It might be misinterpreting things, but I understood that if I was able to pump on a car brake pedal until it was 'stiff' and would hold at that height, if I then started the engine and the pedal sank, but if I quickly then pumped the pedal I could get back that pressure ... which would then sink until I ... (repeat and repeat), then that would be indicative of a leak in the servo.

I thought that air in the actual brake pipes couldn't be 'pumped' away in the above fashion so it'd have to be a servo issue, not leaking pipes, but if I'm wrong then that's ok with me, just what I understood.

I have tried pumping the brake pedal repeatedly. I can not build up any pressure, the pedal just goes to the floor.
I am confident it is the master cylinder seals as there is NO fluid loss or leaks anywhere.

Just to keep you all up to speed, I fitted another Master Cylinder as supplied by Gatos and bled the whole system. Everything is back to normal now. SOLID PEDAL :regular_smile: