Hi all,

So i was driving to work one morning and got off the motorway when my oil light started to flash intermittently,
I finished driving to work at a slow speed, but on the last corner before pulling in my brakes failed. Luckily i had plenty of run off area and put on the handbrake!
 

So after researching I found the common oil pump problem and decided to do the work myself.

Today i fired the car up and all was good, engine light and oil light both disappeared and engine is running normally, however...

My brake pedal is still hard, i can get the brakes on if i apply a good amount of pressure, but i wouldn't call it safe to drive.

From the research i've done it points to vacuum pressure not being sufficient, however there isn't much information on rectifying the issue there.

It is also worth mentioning, that i changed the brake pads around 2000 miles ago, so definitely not a wear problem etc

So i am wondering:
what will i need to do to fix the problem?
Where is the servo located?
Does this issue have anything to do with the oil pressure (Which should be fine now but i haven't checked)
Is this job difficult to do with standard tools?

I have experience with cars and engineering in general but haven't had to mess with brakes before, so any guidance is welcome!!


The car is a Ford Focus 17 plate, 1.0l ecoboost 3 cylinder.


Thanks



 

I don’t know this car precisely but on virtually all cars the servo is between the bulkhead and the brake master cylinder. It needs vacuum to make it work. On petrol cars the vacuum is usually via a pipe/hose from the inlet manifold on the engine. Servos are pretty reliable, if not working then I would look for air leak on pipe/connectors. But if there was an air leak it would normally be apparent from engine being adversely affected by air leak into inlet manifold. (Diesels are different in that they usually have a mechanical pump on cylinder head to create the vacuum. It might be that there is something odd/modern/hi tech about the ecoboost engine that differs from what I have said above)

I don’t know this car precisely but on virtually all cars the servo is between the bulkhead and the brake master cylinder. It needs vacuum to make it work. On petrol cars the vacuum is usually via a pipe/hose from the inlet manifold on the engine. Servos are pretty reliable, if not working then I would look for air leak on pipe/connectors. But if there was an air leak it would normally be apparent from engine being adversely affected by air leak into inlet manifold. (Diesels are different in that they usually have a mechanical pump on cylinder heat to create the vacuum. It might be that there is something odd/modern/hi tech about the ecoboost engine that differs from what I have said above)

Ps, I do agree it sounds like servo is not working. If the brake pedal is same hardness and travel (not going down very far) with the engine running and not running then servo is not operating

Apparently with the 1.0 ecoboost engine the vacuum for the brake servo is provided by a pump, rather than borrowing inlet manifold depression.

First check is the pipework - anything fallen off? cracked/perished/leaking hoses.

Then confirm that the pump is creating a vacuum.

(Side note from back in the day: 1990 1.3 Escort - instant immobiliser - pull the vacuum hose off the intake manifold, and watch the thing struggle to start)

 

6 hours ago, mdog69 said:

Apparently with the 1.0 ecoboost engine the vacuum for the brake servo is provided by a pump, rather than borrowing inlet manifold depression.

First check is the pipework - anything fallen off? cracked/perished/leaking hoses.

Then confirm that the pump is creating a vacuum.

(Side note from back in the day: 1990 1.3 Escort - instant immobiliser - pull the vacuum hose off the intake manifold, and watch the thing struggle to start)

 

Yeah i have read this also, the trouble is i don't know where this stuff is located. Can you share any pictures or shed any light on this pump?

The pipework all looks in order, i am guessing it could be the pump

Actually thinking about it, I suppose having a turbo means it would have to have a vacuum pump as the inlet manifold does not have vacuum in it. The turbo is pushing air in under pressure as opposed to non-turbo engines where the air gets sucked in by the pistons going down

I have seen a pic of the pump on eBay. I don’t know where it is on the engine. My best guess is the end of the cylinder  head towards the left side of engine bay (left from the position of sitting in car facing forward)

Just checked in Haynes and isetta is right. It's driven from the camshaft and is at the end nearest the air filter box which Haynes recommends taking off to improve access.

have been looking through the haynes manual myself,

it is saying it could be either the servo, the pipes and connectors or the vacuum pump. 

My turbo seems to be in working order but also hard to tell as haven't driven it since replacing oil pump

23 hours ago, JM182 said:

I found the common oil pump problem and decided to do the work myself.

What was the problem with the oil Pump ?

17 hours ago, unofix said:

What was the problem with the oil Pump ?

The oil pump was contaminated, the strainer was blocked completely by thick layers of non metallic sludge. From research it can be from the wet belt and poor servicing, the belt looked in good condition however so I can only assume poor servicing. 

The pump is fixed now, the brakes are the issue, and I am struggling to see how the two are linked. 

So last night I checked the non return valve and pipework, the servo, and the vacuum pump, all of which seem to be in working order.

So I am now stumped as to what this could be, any help would be greatly appreciated 

On 10/28/2021 at 1:24 PM, JM182 said:

and the vacuum pump

When you checked the vacuum pump, did you have the engine running or just the ignition on ?

Either the vaccum pump is not running when the engine is started, or you have a fault with the brake servo, theres nothing else. 

I have had this same problem with the brakes whilst driving. Recently I had the oil light flash and bleep 3 times on start up for a few days then a message on the screen saying oil pressure low stop engine. Had it recovered to the garage and had the oil filter, oil and oil pressure switch changed and all messages and bleeps have stopped.  One day later the oil light flashes on for a second after starting and goes out and brakes still not fully working.  Could both these problems be down to the oil pump? 

2 hours ago, Gizzmo00 said:

I have had this same problem with the brakes whilst driving. Recently I had the oil light flash and bleep 3 times on start up for a few days then a message on the screen saying oil pressure low stop engine. Had it recovered to the garage and had the oil filter, oil and oil pressure switch changed and all messages and bleeps have stopped.  One day later the oil light flashes on for a second after starting and goes out and brakes still not fully working.  Could both these problems be down to the oil pump?

Is your engine the 1.0 Ecoboost ?

Yes it’s a 1.0 eco boost

I can’t think how there can be any link between the brake servo and oil light.   If the car has low oil pressure and you don’t sort it right now you will destroy the engine.  It does sound likely that you have the problem of blocked oil strainer inside the sump. Although I have seen other posts on this forum or fiesta forum where the oil galleries had other blockages in them as well as the strainer. If you use the car without sorting this out it is highly likely to end in the engine being beyond repair very quickly

Watch this video , fast forward to just before 9 minutes in to see the blocked oil strainer

 

58 minutes ago, isetta said:

If you use the car without sorting this out it is highly likely to end in the engine being beyond repair

I expect that the engine will have already suffered damage and it will only be a matter of time before serious problems will occur.

The brake problem would only be related to the oil pressure problem if the vacuum pump has in some way failed due to lack of lubrication at the point where it connects to the camshaft. It is a possibility but I would think it unlikely.

NEWS FLASH !!!!

Oil pressure problem can cause a failure of the one-way valve inside the vacuum pump causing the brake servo not to work and therefore a very hard brake pedal. Watch the video: