Brake pedal hard and Van not braking

[frogmella85]

Hello everyone,

Hopefully a clever person on god forum will be able to help me.

I keep my van in a dry storage unit, I took it out last month to get the MoT done. Everything fine as far as brakes go.

I have gone to take the old girl out for a spin today and after giving her a jump start, I reversed her out of the container.

I drove a short distance BUT when I came to use the brakes it felt as if the break pedal was extremely hard and consequently the van didn't really brake at all. (Scary moment right there)... Hopefully there will be a techy type on here that can help me...

Thanks in advance.

[nevill3]

This sounds like a brake servo issue, you need to check that the vacuum hoses are not perished.

Alternatively your vacuum pump could be faulty (If you have one, you don't say what engine you have) or the brake servo itself could have a leaking diaphragm.

Have you checked the level of your brake fluid? If it is very low that could indicate that the fluid is entering the brake servo chamber, also you may see brake fluid on the floor under the steering column near the pedals if the servo is filling with brake fluid.

Nev

[frogmella85]

Thanks for that Nev,

I've got a 1985 1.6 diesel window van.

I will have a look at your suggestions, thanks