83sweet928

Well took a long trip and all was good, 2 days later I went to move the car and the brake pedal was really hard to push, I had good brakes just hard to push. After moving to car the brakes went back to normal. Yesterday I drove the car and brakes back to hard to push, I looked at the vacuum hose going into the booster and the clamps were loose. After tightening the clamp I drove the car and still same problem, pedal hard to push. I also noticed that the car is idoling higher, normally it will idol at around 750 rpms warm, now 1200 rpms. I pulled vacuum off of the distributer just to check, as normal the idol even higher with the hose pulled again as normal. Have I lost vacuum some where? Amazing how this thing has a mind of it's own. But the good news is now the "brake lamp" light is not comming on....

83 928s

Silver79

Sounds like a vacuum line is split or the brake booster has bought it. Check the vacuum lines. Try plugging the vacuum line to the brake booster and see if the idle comes back down. If it does I would imagine that it would be time to replace the brake booster.

83sweet928

The vacuum line is really loose sitting in the booster; it has a lot of wiggle. I say I have took to task everything that has come up and replaced or fixed things the right way but it is starting to get a little over whelming, it seems that when one thing gets fixed right on queue something else that is absolutely not related to the last thing goes to crap. Any happy suggestions would be appreciated.
ONe last question, why now does the Brake Lamp light not come on?
Thanks....

ZEUS+

The vacuum hose should connect to a check valve part #928.355.660.03 that goes in booster.

SharkSkin

There is a rubber grommet on the brake booster that provides a seal with the check valve. That may be old and hard, even cracked. Push the fitting hard against it with the car running to see if you can get it to seal. If the idle comes down, then your booster is probably OK.

WallyP

Turn the ignition switch on without starting the engine and see if the Brake Lamp warning is on. If not, the bulb may have failed. If not the bulb, there could be a problem with the central warning system.

83sweet928

update, I started the car today to check vacuum and the brakes work perfect//// Maybe the clamp I tightened the other day fixed the problem, also the brake lamp came on for about 2 mins then went out and has not returned. I replaced all the bulbs a couple of weeks ago so I know the bulbs are all good. The idol is back down to where it should be as well. I tell you this car is the female version of Herbie, it has a mind of its own.....

SharkSkin

Glad it's working for now, but IMHO that's temporary and you should replace all of the rubber between the manifold and brake booster, including the grommet that I mentioned above. You're only looking at a few bucks in parts, and IMHO no car should be driven if there is any question at all about any part of the brake system.

iJeremy

I would agree - Sounds like the Brake Booster itself is on its way out.
And don't get overwhelmed, the constant maintinance isn't going anywhere. It's the price we pay to keep ourself out of Camrys and Accords. The alternative has much less character!

On the flip side to that, if the continual maintinance is honestly starting to get to you then owning a 25+ year old car that gets driven regularly might not be the ticket to low blood pressure. For some reason I'm one of the sickos that actually enjoys taking them apart and getting dirty.