Brake booster vacuum pumpTD4 Def 130

[swivelrat]

G'day again, winter here, fogged up windscreens, wet dark roads, traffic gone silly on a Friday evening, some bugger decides to turn right and the brake pedal goes rock hard. Hmmm, we aint stoppin so fast and I recon I gonna push those three cars up here into one. Me now pushing my arse through the seatback standing on the pedal while bangin the ol girl into second at 80km/hr, thinking sideways isnt an option right now.
Anyway, eventually pulled up and so swung into the next carpark so happens to be a pub and all is good. A bit of self diagnosis and seems Ive lost brake boost at low revs. So after wading through too many wksp manuals on the web to no avail, can anyone tell me what sort of vacuum pressure the vacuum pump should deliver before I target it for retirement???? I guess it could also be the servo rubber beginning to perish as well. I guess its a 17 year old truck getting a hell of lot of use in traffic so a fridght here and there is good for a laugh. Gotta love Landys eh, all ways on your toes under the bonnet or on your back taking a look. Cheers

[rick130]

More than likely a cracked booster.

It's a pretty common failure on Tdi's of that vintage.

[DeanoH]

What's a very problem on the Tdi is that the vacuum pump seal leaks.

It is a fairly straight forward, if fiddly, exercise to remove the vacuum pump, drill out the rivets holding the bottom plate on and apply a coat of silastic to the leaky mating surfaces. You then replace the old rivets with small nuts and bolts and 'viola' all becomes good.


Don't know if this is relevant to you or not ?

Deano :)

[Gumnut]

The fix by replacing the rivets with nuts and bolts, or for a pro job, tapping to M5 is well recommended, and will solve the housing seal problem, and associated oil leaks....

However, it will not fix valves falling out of cages, piston seal failure, piston shaft breakage or piston securing nut failure.

It will make it very quick and easy to identify these problems, and if you get lucky may permit some mix and match from the "broken but may be of some use, some day" parts bucket.

I have gone through a few vacuum pumps, and used various replacement brands. None stand out as better or worse than others.

I now keep a few new (and repaired) pumps on hand, and can change one out rather quickly....

Andy

[swivelrat]

Thanks for providing a better picture of what may be the cause. Still intermittent so will investigate further when have time, mean while I leave plenty of time for braking!

[malsgoing130]

My 130 tdi did the same thing neary collected a few bonnet ornamets along the way. The brake booster gets hair line cracks where the master bolts on. I pushed some putty in there (on both sides) and was an ok temp fix. New booster was installed I think cost on the part is around $250 from memory, which I think is cheap when trying to stop nearly 3 tonne.

It is a fiddly job to replace but not that hard.

Cheers
Mal