Monday, July 29, 2013

2004 VW Jetta TDI vacuum hose for the power brake

Recently I noticed that the braking distance of my TDI was much longer than ever before. I thought it might be because of the worn tires (the depth of the tire teeth was under 2/32" which is not acceptable any more) and replaced them with 4 Michelin Primacy MXV4 tires.  -- No obvious improvement. But the tires are not a waste of money.

Opening the hood cover, i noticed that two parts of the vacuum hose for the power brake were loosely connected.   The vacuum hose connects the engine manifold and the vacuum booster. It is the pathway to suck air from the vacuum booster. The vacuum hose has a part of soft rubber hose in one end which connects the remaining plastic part.  See the following picture.



I winded some electrical tape around the connection. It drove better but I did not think it was good enough. So I  decided to take it off from the car and to have a close examination. During the operation, I broke the check valve nipple -- did you see the tiny black tube between the screw driver and the vacuum hose? It was originally rooted at the middle of the vacuum hose. Never mind but I have to buy a new one anyway.

The good thing is that I located the problem: the plastic tube at the bent corner was broken -- definitely no way to keep vacuum.

I went to the dealership and grabbed one for $70. See the above picture which is a brand new one. Did you see the nipple valve? It is very easy to break. 

That is it.


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