I was driving to Syracuse last week on my way to a completely off the grid vacation and my brakes failed. I pushed the pedal and it was stiff and pulsating but soft on the brakes. It took quite a bit of force to get the brakes to engage and then it continued to pulse like a shitty version of ABS was activated. It was not the fast paced ABS pulse so I ruled that system out.
I left it at a shop for diagnosis and left them a note that I didn’t want pads or rotors or any of hat BS but for them to check all sensors, vacuum system, and locate the source. Well, they changed the rear rotors and pads for no good reason and magically that didn’t help. Then they told my wife a whole bunch of other things they wanted to do and she wisely told them to fuck off. These dummies tried to get her at $230 for the air filter… UGHHH. So, in the end I paid $500 for rear brakes (fuckers) and still have the same issue.
I am pretty certain that it is either the vacuum pump or the brake booster but I am not sure which. Has anyone had this issue and can provide some insight? I want to get the part here ASAP so I want to order now but won’t have time to even open the hood and start pulling lines to locate where the vacuum is dropping from. Is this my only good method? Am I correct in my assumptions here?
I think usually they sell brake booster/master cylinder together, at least that’s what I had to do for my 85 Buick ttype. I believe my master cylinder leaked into the brake booster. My master cylinder was empty, it happened,over winter storage.
The booster, pump, and master are all seperate. Just now driving it a bit and when i accelerate the pressure rebuilds and brakes function good for the first press and get bad on press 2 and three.
I just ordered the brake booster so we shall see if that corrects it. I also snapped the fucking hood release cable trying to open the hood just now, of course.
I had a few minutes to cut the hood latch cable and get in there. I am 99.9% sure it is the pump. The thing was making a horrible clicking noise that softened with the tap of the gas. I cancelled the booster order and have the pump coming 2 day air. I will install it Thursday and update then.
Is it an ICE engine or electric? the only vehicle I know of with a vacuum pump for the brake booster is the early Model S. I’m sure there are others, but with a conventional engine there is no need for a vacuum pump because that’s what the engine is for.
It is combustion but it has a vacuum pump that ties directly to the brake booster. It is lucky super accessible under the air intake plenum and only 3 bolts. Should take 20 minutes to fix.
Ford needed this electric assist vacuum pump for their Fusion hybrid since with a hybrid that is constantly shutting down the ICE you can’t rely on it to provide good vacuum. Is yours a hybrid? If not I’m surprised Ford left this overly complicated system on all version of the Fusion. Then again, it wouldn’t be that big a of a surprise that Ford cut an engineering/manufacturing corner at the cost of reliability.
It is not a hybrid and even worse there are two version of the booster, one for Start/Stop and one for non. The pump there is one consistent part no matter the engine.
So it took me just over 10 minutes to replace the part and good as new. It sounds like the bearing in the pump failed. I am not thinking that this would be considered powertrain so I am out of warranty on it. In the process of fixing everything I just crossed 60k so I am now out of warranty overall.
