Brake Booster replaced, now drag?

[ARMc]

Hello, I'm new to eurovans and need some expert advice. I recently picked up an 02 MV and the first order of business was to replace the hissing brake booster. I did the job with relative ease. I didn't disconnect any brake lines but just moved the master cylinder enough out of the way to squeak the booster by. The new booster is a reman ATE from Cardone.

The problem is that there seems to be a slight actuation of the brakes while the pedal is at rest. I can feel the resistance of the brakes in acceleration and while coasting to a stop. So I figured there must be an adjuster somewhere right? There is seemingly no adjuster on the actuator rod. And no adjuster on the other end that attaches to the brake pedal. I took the master cylinder back off and measured everything and it appears that the rod inside the booster is about 1/8" longer than it needs to be to just meet the cup inside the master cylinder, so that when the two components are mated together the booster is actuating the master cylinder by 1/8". I don't know if this is normal or not.

The big black vacuum line cracked at the elbow that feeds into the booster in the process of replacement, which I remedied with black electrical tape and zip ties for the time being. Anyone have a PN or source for this hose? Could this be the culprit?

[jjvincent]

Something is not right. I'd get another booster then.

[BUGSTUFF]

The brake booster hose can be purchased at your dealer or europarts-sd.com
_________________
Kirk

Northeast IL VW Association - www.nivaclub.org
www.facebook.com/nivaclub
Volkswagen Club of America - www.vwclub.org

[jjvincent]

Another option is to bleed the whole brake system. I remembered back in the 8's when Audi was having a catastrophe with the hydro boost system and they came out with endless updates, we would re bleed the system because not every booster was the same. The problem we had was the opposite. The pedal too low. So a re bleed, took care of the problem.

This is sort of the same thing we run into in racing with a dual master setup and a balance bar.

[ARMc]

Well I'm not exactly sure what was going on, maybe just a slight difference between boosters, but the problem has gone away. I did take it apart a third time, and there was some experimenting with washers on the firewall to move the booster away from the pedal slightly, that just set off a bunch of lights on the dash! Haha, learning is fun. It then seemed to turn into an intermittent problem for a short period yesterday, but did not show up today at all... Maybe the brake booster was just taking its time getting comfortable.

[BC Skier]

I know it has been five years, but did the brake drag go away for good?

Just had the brake booster replaced on my new to me 2001 EVC and now I have brake drag. It starts after about two miles, which suggests the booster is applying some force to the master cylinder and then the drag increases as the brakes heat up and brake fluid expands.

The replacement is from Cardone. I had a shop do the work so I didn't get to compare the part to the original or look at ways to adjust the push rod. They will take another look tomorrow but I think I need to provide them some suggestions on what to check.

[TheOneTrueQuux]