Golf 3 spongy brakes - ideas?

[Rip]

Hi I have a 94 TDI. Which I had from my father some time back.
He had it from 6 months old and said the brakes were nice and firm on the pedal. sometime along the way they developed a fault making them not firm on the pedal, using alot of travel but else working ok and not using fluid.
they stayed likr this for a long while until I decided to do an upgrade last year.
So now she runs the standard VR6 setup. This invlolved new (secondhand) calipers all round and new discs not to mention the other non brake stuff.
and while the brakes got much better, they were still spongy on the pedal.
the car stayed like this for about a year which brings us to the present.
I had decided that the servo must be at fault , bought a new one sometime since the VR6 stuff went on and waited for an opertune moment to change it. that came today we I discovered the front rubber brake hoses we in a bad way, So these have been changed and the servo has been changed also.

Guess what!! No change.
So the fault is still the same. Noe dont get me wrong the brakes work well, you can easily lock the wheels and there is plenty more to go when that has happened BUT there is still alot of travel in the pedal I mean like over half way and spongy feeling with it and when running and stationary you can bottom the pedal no probs. Its not using fluid and there is no ABS
I have bled the system well and am still in the same boat.
The only things that have not been changed are. A couple of the brake lines (near the rear) and the brake balancer valve on the rear beam
I am running out of options.

An Ideas before I go bald??


TIA
Kindest regards

Martin

[Garrob]

Hi,
I have no idea if this is any use , i have just bought a Golf TDI estate and was on the site looking for general info. Anyway the brake problem i had the same on a Scirocco many years ago spongy brakes and i tried everything. The solution was Righthand drive car with the brake cylinder/servo on the leftside the actuating rod between the pedal and the cylinder was out of adjustment allowing the brake pedal to travel too far giving the impression of spongy brakes. I remeber it took me ages to work it out. I have no idea of the modern configuration but i hope this helps

Gareth

[Rip]

Thanks Gereth for that.
The servo is however directly behind the pedal. There does seem to be a pedal height difference from the old servo which sugests that they may be some adjustment on the servo plunger, this I have to check.

again thanks again and I hope you enjoy your new TDI. If it of the MK3 ilk then there are a whole host of things that you can do very cheaply to increase engine power, if you are into that!!

Cheers

Martin

[diseasel]

Hi,
I have a 95 1.9d Mk3 too, it has spongy brakes :zx11: , i bled it which helped a bit but its still pretty bad, they work ok, just miles of travel like yours. did you find a solution?
maybe new hoses all round? (only £6.50 each on gsf)
cheers

[NicholasP]

hey sorry but totally to go off topic but rip what else can i do to my mk3 tdi other than chip it?

Sounds like you've been modifying bits...:D

[diseasel]

Hi again all,
didnt get any help for this yet:( , replaced rear hose, replaced the master cyl and bled the brakes on my 1.9 diesel but still getting lots of pedal travel and spongy feel. Don't know what else to try and neither does the garage!.
anyone had the same or got any advice?:confused: -please. I heard about something called diesel creep for diesels due to the vacuum pump effect - anyone else heard of this?. Otherewise its going in the bin/ ebay - worst car i have ever owned to date!, the tales of vw build quality are untrue from my experience!. Possibly even gonna go back to my trusty old fiat - never let me down in 100k! (touch wood) >

[Alun]

Hi all

Just thought I'd add that the brakes on my Golf 3 TD are a bit spongy. They've been like that ever since I got the car back in 2005. I originally thought oo-er hang on a minute, thats not right. But to tell you the truth I've got used to it. It stops well too, although I've never locked the front wheels. The biggest difference is when I get into a newer car, then back into my Golf. If anyone can solve this problem I'd be very gratefull!

[mangojassal]

Hi again all,
didnt get any help for this yet:( , replaced rear hose, replaced the master cyl and bled the brakes on my 1.9 diesel but still getting lots of pedal travel and spongy feel. Don't know what else to try and neither does the garage!.
anyone had the same or got any advice?:confused: -please. I heard about something called diesel creep for diesels due to the vacuum pump effect - anyone else heard of this?. Otherewise its going in the bin/ ebay - worst car i have ever owned to date!, the tales of vw build quality are untrue from my experience!. Possibly even gonna go back to my trusty old fiat - never let me down in 100k! (touch wood) >

mate i got a 1.8 cl mk3, spongy brakes since i had the car a year ago.
i replaced front ,rear brakes and cylinders,master brake cylinder and still spongy.
traced the fault by crimping the rubber brake tubes one by one and got to the front drivers side caliper and hey presto the got my brakes back,paddle only goes down less then half way.BUT checked and replaced the caliper with a another one ,bled and still spongy.!!!im taking it in and having it checked out by a friend who works for kwik fit and hopefully he will pressure bleed them and check the caliper rubber seals one the way.
keep you posted.

[tsam19]

I have the same issue with the MK 3 Golf Td 1.9 - 'M' reg

Changed brakes all round & bleed nipples.
New fluid & pressure flushed with a pressure bleeder.
Replacement master cylinder.
New Vacuum cover with new valve.
New servo to vacuum pump pipe.

Haven't changed servo or rear brake balancer block on the rear axle beam (the one with 4 brake pipes going into it)

I've been around all brake pipe unions & tightened them up.
There are no leaks anywhere.
The brake fluid reservoir is always at the correct level.

The brake pedal is firm before start up
But slackens when pressed down to brake, way to much travel.

Initially after pressure bleeding the brake pedal was firm before & after starting the engine & I thought the issue was sorted.

Having not driven the car for a few days its gone slack again !

Its like its got a leak or letting in air somewhere ?

From reading other peoples VW MK 3 golf issues about this topic has anyone got to the ROOT of this problem ?

If so I would like to know please as this is getting to be a bit of a joke & I'm not spending any more money on the car, like changing the servo or balancer.

:beerchug:

[edaresek]

'95 GL TDi 5 door. SAME SPONGY BRAKES!!!

Thank goodness I just read that everyone else has changed their brakes, and it's done nothing for them, because I was planning on doing exactly that...

I will agree with previous posters that the brakes do actually work properly for their part... but that it's extremely odd that the pedal travels so far, and that the brakes come in/on so slowly...

I'll keep an eye on this until some miracle-mechanic comes and tells us what 99p solution takes care of all this....


regards

[tsam19]

I don't like to any stone unturned & took the back wheels/hub assembly back off yet again last night to inspect the brake shoe assemblies.

As explained in one of my other posts I've had this car for nearly 3 years & apparently the brakes had been replaced by the previous owner & in the time I've had her & covered almost 50K the back shoes are still brand new & now which I've become suspicious about there actual operation when braking & if they've been set up correctly.

Thats if there is a correct procedure to adjust them correctly etc before putting the hub back, looking at the Haynes manual its a straight forward remove & replace description.

Anyway with the hub off, the engine running I pressed the brake pedal & viewed the rear brake cylinder movement & to my surprise it turns out that 3 out 4 of the moving plungers between each rear cylinder are seized solid & probably have been since I've owned the car, !

The misleading thing about this & why I've never bothered to check before is that I always hear a squeaking sound from the inside of the hub when operating the pedal when driving & visually both cylinder plungers look shiny & unworn & no signs of leaks etc although the bodies of both are rusty etc ?

Which would explain why the rear brake shoes have never worn down over the last 50k miles.

Initially when the brakes were bled the pedal was solid before & after the engine running, left the car undriven for a few days & the pedal is only slack after the engine has been started.

I can only assume that the spongy pedal will have something to do with the defected rear brake cylinders.

I believe air has been gradually creeping into the rear brake cylinders via the seals entering through the hub housing, as when I wiggled the drivers side brake shoe assembly one of the plunger seals started to leak & the other side shot off under the fluid pressure.

I will post an update when the work has been done.

:beerchug: