Hard braking and fluid in brake booster?

Hey guys the other day I went to make a stop and my brakes were extremely hard. I ended up having to downshift to first and then pull the E-brake. I checked brake fluid level and it was ok. Then I noticed the hose coming out of the brake booster was leaking brake fluid? The previous owner had done and EGR delete and I am wondering if he rerouted some vacuum lines to the wrong spot I.e. the brake booster. Any ideas?

Sorry I have an ALH 1.9L in a 2000 VW Jetta.

Sounds like a bad booster. Messed up hoses would have been bad from the first try.

I can't believe the hand brake worked better than the unbootsted pedal though.

This happened to a co-workers car. Either because the vacuum pump had failed or because he had a vacuum leak brake fluid was pulled into the brake booster. He needed a new booster and vacuum pump. Plus the leak fixed.

if you have fluid in the booster, your master is fubar. the booster is just a rubber diaphragm and a spring that helps push on the master, no fluid has anything to do with it in any way shape or form.

Replace your master, flush the piss out of your brake lines. and for gods sake, have it changes out the fluids every 2 years to keep it in healthy shape.

also replace the booster and the line to it.

Agreed, at the very least the master is bad. Fluid should not be leaking from it.

Bad booster brakes would work if you push hard. If they don't, very possible you'll need a master cylinder and a new booster.

The booster might be O.K. Providing the diaphragm and the vacuum valves internal to the booster are comparable with brake fluid. Before you tear out the booster, install the M/C and see if the booster seems to function normally.