UZZ30-SC4

Something that I had to find out the hard way.......when my brakes failed.


I'm not sure how its setup on the 2jay, but its simple to find, look at your brake booster, and trace a large rubber hose that will lead to the intake manifold. On the 1Uz its easy to find just look at the firewall area on the driverside.



Here is the story, i was coming out of the movie theater parking lot....accelerating hard as i always do....someone jumped out in front of me from a driveway further down and i mashed the brakes......NOTHING. The pedal wouldnt even SWING, it was stiff as if it was welded in place, so i grabbed the e-brake and worked it a few times till the car came to a stop completely turned around. Just about gave my fiancee' a heart attack. Luckily the car that cut me off saw me start to slide and hammered it..... at least i managed to stay in my lane. I let off the ebrake and rolled back into the parking lot and shot the engine off and pop the hood.


I was expecting to find a ghost problem, but as soon as i looked into the engine bay, it was obvious..... THE BRAKE BOOSTER VACUUM LINE POPPED OFF OF THE BOOSTER!!!

You ask how??? The line stiffened JUST hard enough that when the motor torqued to the side under heavy acceleration it PULLED the line off! And to think i had checked the hose for softness not a month before and it seemed just fine. I pushed it back on and limped to the local part store, got a section of vacuum tubing and hose clamped the **** out of that thing back on.

I proceeded to walk around the back of the advance autoparts building and force water into the old vacuum line using a hose, while plugging the other end and water came out of that hose every 1cm all 360 degrees.........the failures were just INVISIBLE......

Needless to say my brakes now have the bite of a pissed of alligator, that failing line had been that way for a while..........


YET AGAIN guys, i am going to suggest to ya'll to change a simple, relatively inexpensive part, that might just save your life.



**It is important to note the way i fixed it with vacuum tubing is NOT recommended as a permanent fix, i have the OEM section of tubing being overnighted as we speak**

Enigma8246

will def check this out today. my brakes were acting funny on the interstate yesterday but i'm pretty sure it was flash rusting because it was raining and i really don't use my brakes that much on the interstate

UZZ30-SC4

Let me add to that, the ONLY way to check that vacuum hose is to pull it off and BEND it over itself, if it rips, or is in ANY way stiffer than any rubber hose should be REPLACE IT.

SH_JZZ30

iTrader: (1)

I had the actually booster go bad on me with my 240sx. I was going about 50mph and I lost my power brakes. It was extremely stiff and scary. I used the handbrake to stop. Luckily I was able to dodge all the traffic.

AD_SC3

iTrader: (1)

Man glad you avoided disaster. Could Sea Foam cause this hose to wear faster?

UZZ30-SC4

....scary does not describe, without vacuum it would take an f'n mule to make the brakes work with the pedal, the only quick way for me to stop was to hurt the tires a little

UZZ30-SC4

Thanks buddy, and i could imagine seafoam would speed up the process because it is petroleum based, but it would probably only hurt an old line like mine. which just turned 17 years old a month or two ago.

1JZPWRD

iTrader: (59)

Great write up.. Thanks for sharing this information for all the SC owners. Glad nothing happened and you were able to stop. Will check out tomorrow, since I use SeaFoam every 5K..

GoCarSc300

iTrader: (1)

If I'm feeling the pedal stiffness being much softer these days than it has been previously do you think that this may be a brake booster line issue or something else? I have to push the pedal farther down toward the floor to get the car to stop and the pads/rotors are in great shape. By the way it's a 97 5speed (so 2JZ) if that makes any diffference. Any input will be greatly appreciated...

MongooseGA

iTrader: (6)

Good info. This happened to me 2 summers ago. I was leaving my ex's house really pissed off. Nailed the gas on the way out and by the time I made it to the first stop light outside the neighborhood, I had the exact problem you did.

I limped it home (about 10-15 minutes) because it was dark out and I wouldn't have seen the hose. I had to downshift manually and use the e-brake a good bit.

After finding out it was such an easy fix, I was WAY relieved.