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Bad Brake Servo Weirdness 200 1989

posted by  KeplerNiko on  Thu Sep 23 07:33 CST 2004
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last visit: Sun Jan 20 09:26 CST 2008
[RELATED]

While soliciting theories about the "Brake Failure" light that will intermittently plague my car, I discovered that I probably have a bad or dying brake servo--when I pump the brake pedal while in park, I can get the car's idle to drop precipitously.

Last night, after the car had been sitting for between 48 and 72 hours, I prepared to drive to get something to eat. When I turned on the car, the "Brake Failure" light was illuminated much brighter than it had been before. Previously, the "Parking Brake" light had been about twice as bright as the "Brake Failure" warning, but this time they were a bit closer to being equally illuminated.

I turned the car back off, since I was on the phone and I didn't want to go anywhere until I could give my full attention to driving, should I have problems. I finished up about five minutes later, and when I turned on the car this time, no idiot lights lit up!

I turned on the headlights but didn't head out quite yet. I knew that the brake servo was still probably not better, so I pumped the pedal a few times and got the car to stall, which hadn't happened before. Also, it seemed to lurch forward a few inches from its parking spot, but it *could* have been my imagination combined with the engine sputtering and dying.

I turned the car back on, which didn't start up quite as easily since I left the headlights on, but it cranked and I prepared to head out. The "Brake Failure" light remained off for the short trip to eat.

When I got back in the car about twenty minutes later, the "Brake Failure" light again came on and remained illuminated for the trip back home. However, at no point did I notice any lessened braking ability.

Does anyone have any idea what's wrong with my car? Could a bad brake servo cause the "Brake Failure" light to activate? Why did the idiot light go away after starting the car, then turning it off for a short while? Why did it come back on later?

I'm going to take the car to a mechanic soon, since it's almost certain I've got that bad brake servo, and I'm not going to be able to replace it myself. But, if that's not causing the problem, then replacing the part probably won't eliminate the warning light. What do I need to do?
--
'89 244 GL -- 105,XXX miles (see profile for info on car)








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    Bad Brake Servo Weirdness 200 1989

    posted by  darmstrong on  Sat Sep 25 06:32 CST 2004
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    last visit: Sat Sep 13 12:21 CST 2014
    [RELATED]

    On your idiot lights question: When you say no idiot lights came on, did they illuminate normally with the ignition in the ON position before cranking? If not, it sounds like you might have a totally unrelated electrical issue.

    bThe idiot light test relies on:
    - 12V being fed to the instrument cluster from the ignition switch, when on (if this was flaky, you'd see intermittent problems during driving)
    - connection at the altenator pulling the check diodes on the opposite end of the idiot lights to ground, since the alternator voltage is zero before the engine starts.








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    Bad Brake Servo Weirdness 200 1989

    posted by  someone claiming to be 240snowmobile on  Thu Sep 23 09:43 CST 2004 [RELATED]

    It is normal that rapid repeated pumps of the brake pedal will cause an engine to idle rough because it is 'stealing' air from (actually giving extra air to) the engine to recharge its depleted reserve vacuum. The amount of idle loss varies, but should not be enough to cause the engine to stall.

    If you have a few strokes of brake boost left after the engine has been shut off for a few minutes, then most likely your booster is fine.






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