Having a problem we’re I go 40 mph or any speed and brakes sometimes work or I have to proper stamp hard on brake for it to stop. There’s also a loud whining noise while this is happening
can anyone help, been to 2 garages both said nothing wrong with brakes, there really is and it’s our family car so don’t want to take our daughter in it while brakes are iffy. 
please if anyone could give me what it could be because we are stuck! 
 

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Hello Natasha, welcome to the Ford Owners Club. 👍

It sounds like a fault with the brake servo assistance. The fault maybe simply the brake servo is failing or it make be a air leak on the vacuum side. I guess at low speed and when standing still the brakes seem almost normal ?

My brother had 1.8tdci focus mk2.5,   Had same kind of problem.  I believe it was the mechanical servo vacuum pump.  The pump is on the front of engine on the head at gearbox end of head.  His was leaking oil a lot on the flange which is held on by rivets.  I believe this was also causing a vacuum leak. It was never proven as the car was scrapped without fixing this as it had so many things wrong. The loose rivers can be drilled out and then secured with small nuts and bolts. The pump is held on by two bolts but the lower one looks very hard to get to. Of course it might not be that on yours but I do agree it sounds like a servo vacuum problem.  Check pipe from pump to servo carefully.  I suppose the servo itself can fail but that is not common. 

To help locate it https://www.kenttransit.co.uk/ford-transit-connect--focus-18-tdci-engine-complete-very-good-02-06-222-p.asp. This link shows a pic of engine.  Just to right (as you look at pic) of the yellow dipstick is the vacuum pipe.  The nut is holding it on the vaccum pump.   The other end is at the servo near the brake fluid reservoir.  On the pump the wide flat bit that points downward is where the rivets are.  The other day someone had a servo problem on the fiesta forum he checked his pipe and found a hole had worn through it where it was rubbing on back of engine

I had this very issue a couple of years ago with my MK2 1.8 TDCi, in my case it turned out to be the brake booster that had developed a pin hole leak on the welded joint.  (It's the things on the bulkhead that looks a bit like a thick flying saucer).

 

The 1st time the problem occurred I had to brake fairly sharply on dual carriageway to avoid some '***** womble' that decided to pull out into lane 2 without looking, indicating or paying any attention to the fact that I was about to overtake him.  Suddenly having a rock hard brake pedal and not a lot of actual braking was NOT fun, especially at motorway speeds! 💩