Hard Brake Pedal

[Pauly]

I have an 03 1.6 Focus with a hard brake pedal mainly when on a long road where the brakes havent been used for a while.I have replaced the servo hose with the one way valve which did feel so much better for a bit now its gone back and is quite bad at those times stated.Does anyone have an issue like this and has anyone replaced the servo as its a 3.2 hour fairly big job and £200 from dealer.Thanks in advance Paul

[Bigdaddycain]

Has the brake fluid been changed during the car's lifetime do you happen to know?

[Pauly]

Hi

thanks for your reply

Yes I have owned the car since 6 months and 6000 miles and I am a Tec so have done all the servcing myself and the brake fluid isnt new but has been in the last 2 or 3 years .

What are you thinking re the fluid ?

thanks Paul

[Pauly]

Also to note I spent an hour double checking for air leaks at the manifold just in case it is suffering from low manifold pressure,then with the engine running and the servo pipe disconnected at servo and blocked off.The vacumn is strong even when the revs are raised.So its time to change the servo even though Fords price is now £280 which has gone up from £200 6 months ago ! I spent another hour ringing all the local factors and it is not listed anywhere even with a Bosch number !

The car has done 84 k now so these things will start to need replacing will change the exhaust manifold which is the downpipe as the flexi has a tiny leak which will only get worse this gives you a bit more room to get at the servo but it doest look a nice job .Will let you know how i got on after Easter .

[Bigdaddycain]

Why so steep for a servo? Worth taking your chances with a used part do you reckon? You may get five years from it... then again, maybe not.

[Pauly]

Yes tend to agree £15 -£25 on eBay take a chance I can connect the hose when running the engine before I strip it out and make sure it does leak after that I am sure another unit will give a nicer pedal just got used to it now .Also got a exhaust manifold complte with gaskets being delivered from cats2u ,2 year warranty££61.48 so they seem worth using .Let you know how it goes

[Pauly]

well well what a .... Job that was

Servo on a focus never again thanks

The exhaust manifold definately helped with room getting it out of the way as I was changing it anyway but the biggest mission was the AC pipes run in front of the servo and disconnecting them at the heater bulkhead was a joke with those sprung loaded unions .Got them off by sliding plastic cut down from a bung that fitted over the pipe but is thin enough to push the spring open inside the pipe.

Had to battle servo out with the fuel and brake pipes in the way having taken the master cyl off out the way.After removing the inner wing shield to free the AC pipes as much as poss it was obvious that putting the new servo in was going to easier if we had the piston pushed in as if you were pressing the brake .So a small bracket was made to go across the servo to catch under the piston that goes in the master and by pressing the servo fully down the piston was locked by the bracket and therefore giving us 30mm more leway in the refit .Oh yeah forgot removed the engine mount to pull the engine fully forward to get a bit more room

refitted easier and then bleed brakes and refitted .All good as the exhaust downpipe flexi was leaking and the brakes I couldnt trust.

.Soall being well just need to regas the AC at work next week having degassed it last week and it does feel better hope it stays that way cheers Paul