02 Focus 1.8 Diesel Brake Issue

[Jaiimez]

Hey for the past few days my brakes have been acting strange on occasion, the pedel feels sometimes like it's pushing back at me, kind of almost bumpy when I try to press it, then once I pump them a few times they're fine for usually the rest of the drive, someone has suggested it could be an ABS issue just wondering if someone can recommend the right place to be looking for an issue.

Also on top of that does anyone know the best place to look for a hose to connect my air conditioning compressor to the condenser, I contacted my local friendly ford dealership and they've quoted me a nice friendly £260 for a hose, which they can bite me if they think i'm gonna pay that, i'm looking ideally at under 50, surely a piece of rubber hosing can't be more than that, would just be nice to have air con again. The other option is some kind of patch repair kit, it's a small hole slightly bigger than a needle prick that lets the gas escape, I don't know if a patch of some kind can fit it or if the air con system is too highly pressurised for a patch to work.

[Micro]

Have you tried asking any local garages their prices? If you have no gas in the system it will need to be competely vacuumed out and that vacuum checked before refilling - so may cost a bit more than just a hose.

[Jaiimez]

Just now, Micro said:

Have you tried asking any local garages their prices? If you have no gas in the system it will need to be competely vacuumed out and that vacuum checked before refilling - so may cost a bit more than just a hose.

I hadn't yet my original plan was just to pick up a replacement hose, fit it myself then take it to the garage to have it health checked and regassed, but right now the prices of the hose itself are totally too high to even be worth my time doing the car only cost £120 when I purchased it, admittedly it took a bit of work to get it servicable but I can live without air con.

[Tdci-Peter]

6 hours ago, Jaiimez said:

the pedel feels sometimes like it's pushing back at me, kind of almost bumpy when I try to press it,

If it was the ABS, I think you would hear it, mine makes a very apparent buzzy / hissy noise when it cuts in. Usually happens when I pull onto a soft verge to let a car pass, and one or two wheels lose traction while still braking.

I had a bumpy brake pedal once on a Sierra, it was a front brake disk. The webs between the two halves of the ventilated disk had weakened and distorted the disk so it was uneven thickness. New disks fixed it.

On the aircon front, if it has been de-pressurised for a long time, damp air will have got in, and the de-humidifier in the accumulator may also need replacing. Moisture in A/C systems can kill the compressor. I think unless you can get some known good 2nd hand parts (recently removed from a pressurised & working system), then it is an expensive option. Nice in this weather, but this hot weather rarely lasts long! It is forecast to be down to 17C again by the end of the week.

R134 has a vapour pressure of about 13Bar (190psi) at 50C, which is a possible temperature for the compressor to condenser pipe when operating. So it needs a quite robustly sealed pipe.

[Jaiimez]

On 19/06/2017 at 11:14 PM, Tdci-Peter said:

If it was the ABS, I think you would hear it, mine makes a very apparent buzzy / hissy noise when it cuts in. Usually happens when I pull onto a soft verge to let a car pass, and one or two wheels lose traction while still braking.

I had a bumpy brake pedal once on a Sierra, it was a front brake disk. The webs between the two halves of the ventilated disk had weakened and distorted the disk so it was uneven thickness. New disks fixed it.

On the aircon front, if it has been de-pressurised for a long time, damp air will have got in, and the de-humidifier in the accumulator may also need replacing. Moisture in A/C systems can kill the compressor. I think unless you can get some known good 2nd hand parts (recently removed from a pressurised & working system), then it is an expensive option. Nice in this weather, but this hot weather rarely lasts long! It is forecast to be down to 17C again by the end of the week.

R134 has a vapour pressure of about 13Bar (190psi) at 50C, which is a possible temperature for the compressor to condenser pipe when operating. So it needs a quite robustly sealed pipe.

I had it regassed only about 2 months ago, after about a year and a half of owning it with no AC, and although the gas was escaping fast, I did have functioning AC for about 20 minutes until all the gas had escaped the system which to me would lead me to think the system is still functioning, I found some sealing tape that supposedly can deal with up to 500psi and 200degrees so I might throw some of that on the break and regas it, if it doesn't work no big deal, but yeah I am not gonna start massively rebuilding the AC i'll give it a shot tho.

The brake discs are only a year old, replaced both those and the pads about a year ago, I took them off about 2 weeks ago and couldn't see any warping to the disc, I will have another look for any distortion and if neccessery replace it, but would this cause the handbrake light to come on, anyway I plan to pick up a new fault reader this weekend and see what the car is saying to me.