Power Brake Booster Removal

Good morning all...

I am attempting to replace the power brake booster in my 02 Jetta TDI. It appears that the only way this can be removed is to completely disconnect the master cylinder brake lines from the ABS unit. This said, it opens up enough room for removal of the power brake booster unit from under the hood. But... under the dash is a different story. The replacement unit has an actuator rod with a ball on the end of it where a normal booster unit would have a clevis of some type. My question is... How does one remove the original rod from the brake pedal? Does it just "pop" out of a socket? or is there another procedure? Any help would be most appreciated...

Thanks in advance...

Don't know you answer but I might have to also.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showflat.php?C...o=7&fpart=1

Same reason?

Trust me when I say there is NO SILENT RECALL...

I had the exact problems you describe in your link. I called the dealer and took the car back to them so they could diagnosis and fix the problem under warranty... Well... after five days they told me that it was the power brake booster and that it was going to cost me $736.00 to get it fixed. I told them that I thought this repair should be covered under either a recall or power train warranty... No such luck... I argued for over an hour with the service manager, and the director of service only to have them both tell me that they contacted VWoA and VWoA told them that it would NOT be covered under anything and that I would have to pay for the repairs... All they did was tell me to call VWoA and see if maybe I could get them to bend... What a bunch of bums... I told them I would take the car home and fix it myself... Then, get this... They wouldn't let me drive the car off of their lot until I signed a waiver clearing them of any responsibility because they had informed me that the car was not safe to drive and could present a life threating situation for me... I called AAA and had it towed to my house...

So... That said, the car now sits in my garage for over a month as it took me 2 weeks to find a power brake booster for it. Only problem now is, I can not get the actuator rod separated from the brake pedal...

Funny thing is, all this started right after I had the car in for the brake light switch recall... Of course VW said that it had nothing to do with the power brake booster. When I was calling around trying to find a booster, most of the parts stores had said that VW is aware of the problem... Yeah, Right!!! They may be aware of the problem but they are in no big hurry to fix the problem under their dime... I guess there haven't been any fatalities yet for them to worry about it...

There is a special tool that you must use to push the plastic fingers in so that ball will come out.

If you break the plastic piece, you have to buy a $35.00 pedal assembly which includes a new plastic piece.

If you don't want to spend $45.00 on the special tool, then you can simply take a dremmel, and cut the old rod, which is actually hollow inside.

Then you can remove the pedal and fuss with it on a work bench. It's very, very difficult to work on the floor of your car looking upside down.

Good luck,

L

It figures that VW would have a "special tool" to remove the rod... I figured it would be something like that. I'll take a closer look at it tonight when I get home and see what it'll take to make up a removal tool without spending $45.00.

Thanks for the info though as it at least confirmed my suspicions... I sure miss my old 85 Turbo Diesel Jetta at times like this... So simple to work on... Technology is great... and, expensive too...

Lito should have told you to contact me. You have a PM.

i was at a gtg and was doing my booster. i needed that special tool and figured out a way to get it out. hold pedal and pull on booster really hard it will come out and not break the white thing that holds it in. it is all greased where they meet.

Damn, I got the same answer on the phone. So, stage 2 of solving it is, look up every lawsuit possible that involved this, or any online complaints. Walk into the dealer with printouts of each, and say you have the choice of fixing it now and warrantying it. If you don't fix it under warranty, i drive it till my brakes lock and I skid off the road and then VW will have to pay much more for my car and possible medical damages.

I haven't got a chance to search lawsuits yet, do you think that approach will work?

eidie2...

Well... All I can say is I wish you a lot of luck in getting VW to buy into your plan... My past experiences with them have not been stellar... I told the dealer that this was the last car I would ever buy from them...(Bought my wife's Volvo Cross Country from them... They charged her $193.00 for her first oil change... that's a whole other story.) Not that they care much... They sell everything there from all of the GM products to Porche, Volvo and Hummers... So, I doubt me making a big stink is going to cause any waves...

About a week after I had the car back home, I received a call from their PR department following up on how I liked the service they performed on my VW. I said... "What service?..." and then proceeded to tell her how I felt about the dealership and its so called "customer service excellence" etc... She assured me that she would take this up with the highest level of management and get back to me with an answer... That was three weeks ago... She "round filed" that call report... My name is like a plague at that dealership and I'm sure when they saw the follow up report they couldn't get to the shredder fast enough... So, that said, once again I say "Good Luck" in your quest in getting them to do anything... Only other thought I had was to go to one of the local TV stations and have them try and look into it. You might try that route... Collect all the data you can about power brake booster problems and present it to the investigator and see what they say... Might work, who knows...

The tool has part number T10006A.


How to use:


Manual transmission cars need to have the connecting plate between the brake pedal and clutch removed. All cars need the brake light switch removed. Hook the tool behind the pedal as shown. Hold the pedal in the up position. Pull the tool towards the driver seat.

Thanks Mo...

Great picture!!! I'll keep you posted... Look like we can build one here at work from the picture...

Film at eleven...

Could you post what is involved in replacing the booster? Degree of difficulty, do's, dont's, advice, etc. Any advice would be appreciated.

DLV...

Once I get this thing completed, I'll follow up with what it takes... Up to this point, it's been a real hassle. Under dash requires removing the under dash sound deadening panel. Plus the special tool to disconnect the power brake booster rod from the brake pedal assembly. Someone in an earlier post said that all they did to remove the rod from the brake pedal assembly was pry on it with some force and it came apart. Looking at the assembly closely, it is clear why they want you to use the special tool. I elected not to pry on things with brute force... I'm glad it worked for him though...

Under hood so far has required removal of the air cleaner cover and box. Removal of the master cylinder from the power brake booster as well as the two brake lines that connect to the ABS controller . I haven't got there yet but I believe that in order to remove the power brake booster may also require unbolting the ABS controller from the side of the unibody as well. More to follow once I get there.

As I said in the beginning, a real hassle... I let you know how the rest of things go later this weekend as I plan to complete the change before Monday...

You will have found out by now that you do have to take the ABS unit out too. It takes quite a bit of bleeding to get all the air out when you're done. BTW, Bentley has a good writeup on changing the booster. I had a "phantom braking" problem last winter, and changing the booster fixed it.

It's really quite a coincidence (not) that all these brake booster problems start right after people get their brake light switch replaced by the dealership under the recall. My brake problems on a 02 NB started right after the switch replacement. Dealer diagnosed it as a bad brake booster. I'm convinced after seeing all the same type of posts on here that is not the brake booster but improper install of the brake light switch. There have been a lot of posts about this problem with the consensus being improper installation of the brake light switch. If I recall right, if you pull up on the brake pedal and things seem to be normal for a brake or two, then goes back to feeling like the petal is real high, or also in my case like the brake is on all the time (tested by putting it in neutral on a slight incline and it didn't roll)it is most likely the brake light switch. Please everyone, save yourself time and money and check out the brake light switch first. I think on the site posts somewhere are the directions on fixing the switch or replacing it.

Follow up post...

Well, I finally got the old booster out this past Saturday. The only way I could get the booster rod disconnected from the brake pedal was to cut the rod in half, then remove the pedal from the vehicle and then remove the plastic piece from the pedal assembly. Keep an eye out for the little metal ball seat that is behind the plastic seat. Remember to reinstall it before you reinstall the plastic seat assembly. Once removed it was an easy task of just sliding the cut rod portion through the back side of the plastic piece. Of course, if you have the removal tool, it is not necessary to cut the the rod in half. I called the dealer and they said they could get me one in a week. Oh, another precaution is to disconnect the wiring harness for the brake light switch. If you don't do this, once you remove the brake pedal assembly, the brake lights will remain on.

That said, the next task was to remove the booster assembly from under the hood. This took a little "forcefull" massaging but I was able to remove it. I will say that in order to remove the booster assembly required removing the three ABS controller retaining nuts as well as disconnecting the electrical connector from the ABS unit. I did not disconnect any of the brake lines from the ABS unit as suggested. I really didn't want to go through the hassle of bleeding the entire ABS unit if I didn't have too. Extreme care must be taken though when you are attempting to remove the old booster unit. Pay close attention to "everything" as there are alot of things that get in the way.

Same warning goes for when you are attempting to install the replacement unit as well. Once you get the replacement unit somewhat in place, stop here and go under the dash and reinstall the plastic seat that connects the booster rod to the brake pedal. Don't forget the little metal ball seat that goes behind the plastic rod seat. I used a little grease to keep it in position while I reinstalled everything. Then reinstall the plastic seat and booster rod back into the brake pedal assembly. If you don't do this while the booster assembly is still loose from the fire wall, you do not have any room to reinstall everything under the dash...

Once all of the above is done, secure the booster assembly with the four nuts removed from under the dash. Reinstall the brake pedal assembly, all of the underdash panels and proceed back under the hood.

Under the hood, you will need to reinstall the master cylinder, the air cleaner box and cover and the electrical connetions from both the master cylinder and MAF sensor. When I was reconnceting the brake lines from the master cylinder, before I tightened everything up, I let the lines bleed some fluid through them before I locked them down. I then took my power bleeder and started at the right rear caliper and back bled everything by forcing brake fluid back though all the lines.

I still have a few things to check yet. Mainly the adjustment of the brake light switch. There have been several posts about the adjustment of this switch. Although I don't understand at this point how it could affect the operation of the booster assembly as there is no electrical connection between the two components, I want to make sure that everything is where it should be... Hopefully tonight I'll test drive it and be back on the road...

My booster is acting up and I have NOT had my brake light switch replaced under the recall. I have been intentionally holding off after reading the issues related to the replacement until I understand the issue.

I missed your final post! I just noticed it today. Nice write up, thanks. In hind site and if time allowed, would you have purchased the T10006 tool? It sounds like it would have made the under dash work a little easier. Also, what parts did you require other than the booster itself and fluid?
Thanks again.

If you need to replace your booster, buy the tool. I also used the cut and remove pedal method, but the tool would make it soooo much easier.

I removed the ABS unit and re-bled the entire system.

Lito

I just called the VW dealer here in Houston,TX. They told me that they do not sell tools at all. That I would have to contact Snap-On to get the tool.

Does anyone if this is true?

Yes, it's true that VW dealers don't sell tools...

I doubt that Snap-On makes an equivalent tool to the T10006A removal tool... but one never knows...

Only place I've seen referenced as a place to obtain it is:
http://www.samstagsales.com/vwaudi.htm

You could ask on VWVortex.com if anyone local to you may have one...

Yuri.

I just replaced the booster on my 2000 jetta, I was having the problem with the brake pedal being pulled away from my foot. I purchased it and the tool from world impex.
I was able to replace the booster without disconnecting any brake lines, it took removing the bracket that connects to the abs unit and a few of the items on the firewall but it is possible. Also when I finished it seems my clutch pedal works a little bit easier, do these need lubricating to work smoothly?

My jetta '02 had phantom since probably may or june. So long as I always pulled up on the brake pedal with my foot after every stop, the braking would remain consistent and I would not get the phantom braking. I lived with the issue for about 4 months but finally decided (got aroung to) fixing it in the last couple weeks. I actually made two attempts at getting the booster out. The first one failed miserably as getting the ball out of the brake pedal's socket is VERY difficult and I didn't want break the socket. So I finally gave in and purchased the glorified $50 clothes hangerish tool from Impex and gave it another go.

The second time around was much easier in terms of getting the pedal off of the brake booster, but getting the booster up and out was a pain in the glutamus. I to took the mounting screws off of the abs unit and really should have taken off the lines that connected it to the master cylinder, but they were on so tight that I was sure that I was going to strip them.....so they got a little bent during the extraction. Putting the new brake booster in was not much easier. I actually sent the tip of the booster rod through one of the holes in the side of the brake pedal assemby.

After the installation was complete and the brake bleeding done, I took the jetta for a little spin around the block and noticed that though the first brake was good, any subsequent brake was more difficult (that pedal took much more force to push down and the braking performance was significantly worse). The culprit to that was the vacuum hose adapter on the new brake booster was too small compared to the OEM and I had attempted to make it work by placing an o-ring clamp around the hose - a definite no go - it was leaking like crazy. So I ripped the connecter off of the old booster and swapped it out. Luckily it was a nice fit on the new booster. Anyways, thank god that's over. Now the ultimate goal is to get stuck in some stop and go traffic to make sure that the phantom brake is definitely gone. There is certainly no travel left to the brake pedal after releasing it - which I take to be a good sign.

Now if my front pads didn't squeel so much after heating up. All I know for sure is that PBR metal master pads with Brembo rotors is not a good combination. The brake performance is good, but the noise is awful.

Also - if some one is in need of the brake booster removal tool, let me know. I hopefully won't need it for a long time.

Looks like I am going to have to do the brake booster and I will buy the one from Impex with the master cylinder and either install it at the same time and hope I do not get any new problems. My question, I do not know if my 02 had the brake light switch done for the recall...is there any way to find out? I bought it used, but seems like if it is only a $35 part (or one a VW dealer would give me under recall - ha ha ha ha ha) I would like to do it all at once. wouldnt that make sense??

After replacing a faulty brake lite switch, I had the brakes gradually lock on as well. After some testing I was able to release pressure off brakes by holding up brake pedal briefly with foot. I now have a throttle return spring holding the brake pedal up & so far so good. Only complaint is, pedal requires a little extra effort to apply brakes. Working for 5 days now. I repeat, I had NO brake issues before switch was replaced so , maybe it's the procedure of pulling up on the brake pedal that weakens the booster/rod return spring? Any thoughts?

Update:
Still going strong 03/16/07.

You can get brake light switches for $5 + shipping tdiparts.com. So that is not really a big $ issue. Also, on my first attempt to change the brake booster I didn't have a new brake light switch to put in after uninstalling the old one...so I just put the old one back in. I didn't notice any difference and the brake lights continued to function just fine.

I also don't understand why there seems to be an apparently high correlation between changing brake light switches and the brake booster's ability to function? I really don't see how one would impact the other.

Special tool

I have a passat `02 and I had to replace the booster among many other things. On my car the booster has a threaded rod so you can adjust the brake pedal. When I changed the booster I loosened the lock nut and unscrewed the piece that needs to be removed with the special tool. That way it stayed in the pedal. I was then able to take out the booster. I took the piece off of the new booster that attaches to the pedal and threaded the new booster rod into the one that remained in the pedal. It wasnt as difficult as this may sound. Now I can have the car detailed and trade it in before anything else goes wrong!! This forum was very helpful because I wasnt sure how exactly the proper way to get the pedal disconnected from the booster was. Once i found out how to do it I was able to figure a way around it.

I just replaced the power brake booster/servo on my 2003 Jetta - 65K. I had the car into the dealer 1 year ago for the brake light switch recall. Interestingly, I have had 4-5 episodes of "dragging brakes" and poor acceleration in the last year as well. The episodes usually seem to happen after driving the car for at least one hour. All 4 wheels are involved equally as I raised individual wheels in the garage during one of the episodes and found they were all moderately "frozen" the episodes resolve after letting the car sit overnight OR after pulling the vaccuum hose from the booster and letting the pressure equalize with a quick "whoosh."
Here are my thoughts/tips on replacement.

1. I'm not the only one with the strange coincidence of having this problem around the same time as the brake light switch replacement but these systems are independent - extremely small chance that this is anything more than a coincidence.

2. Start in the car - remove the steering shaft cover - 2 plastic nut caps.
remove 3 star screws at the junction of the underdash - pull down the plastic cover. Finally remove the 4 nuts holding the booster studs. Also remove the brake light switch to protect it during the booster rod disconnect described later.

3. Under the hood - remove the airfilter box/disconnect including the vacuum hose, the electronic harness and the intake hose/pipe. Remove the 3 nuts holding the ABS unit. Aspirate about 1/2 the brake fluid from the MS resevoir. Disconnect the venthose from the MS resevoir. Remove the 2 nuts holding the MS to the booster. Remove the 2 screws holding the vacuum junction block on the firewall above the booster. Remove the vacuum hose from the booster.

4. Now to disconnect the booster from the brake pedal - I pulled the booster free from the firewall then slid a bar in between the booster and the firewall to hold it in position. This puts the brake pedal almost to the floor. Next I grabbed the brake pedal inside the car with 2 hands - apply slow, steady pressure and the booster rod will "pop" free. Warning - there is still a chance of breaking the plastic insert seat in the brake pedal but with care it can be done.

5. Now the most difficult part - Jimmy out the booster from under the hood - get a good light and a lot of patience - keep an eye on the 20 lines and components that will be in the way. Eventually the booster will squeeze out - putting the new one in seems to go smoother. Assemble in reverse - don't forget to top off the brake fluid in the MS resevoir.

In summary - it is not neccessary to disconnect any brake or abs lines - just remove and replace 8 oz or so directly from the MS resevoir so it doesnt make a mess when you disconnect the vent hose. Doing it this way makes it unnecesary to bleed the system when you're done. The booster rod disconnect tool is not necessary but can help guarantee you don't break anything. Good luck!

Add me to the break booster list

I just had mine replaced, my mechanic said as they were removing the booster it fell apart in his hand. They told me that this was the third TDI in the last 6 monthes that needed a new booster. I guess this is why I went through three sets rotors and pads in a year... -Matt

sorry to bring this thread back to life, but the tool T10006A can be purchased through snap on at this website:

http://buy.equipmentsolutions.com/login/login.aspx

it's a bit wonky at first, you might have to select VW twice. then just do public shoppers and search for the tool number. At the time of this writing it was $28.