If you forget about this and must brake suddenly, you could have problems. This forces you to lift your foot higher just to reach the brake pedal, which is a dangerous situation to be in while driving. 2) High Brake PedalĪlong with the stiff brake pedal, you will notice that the pedal may sit higher than it should be. This will be the most obvious symptom of a bad brake booster, so you should get it replaced right away. You will notice the brake pedal feeling very stiff and hard as you try to press down on it. Since a good brake booster will make it easier to push down on the brake pedal, a bad brake booster will do just the opposite. Take your vehicle to your local auto repair shop or else you may soon not be able to brake at all.

The symptoms may not seem extremely serious in the beginning, but you shouldn’t drive your vehicle anyway. Of course, there could be situations where the brake booster will go bad. A bad master cylinder could leave you with no brakes at all. The brake master cylinder has a small container of brake fluid sitting on top of it called the reservoir. This force is transferred via hydraulic fluid (also known as brake fluid). You can often find the brake booster next to the firewall on the driver’s side of the vehicle.Ī brake master cylinder is the part of the hydraulic system that transfers the force from the brake pedal into each of the pistons in the four calipers. The brake booster looks like a big, round drum in your engine bay. This assist makes it easier to operate the vehicle. They serve very different purposes in the braking system, however.Ī brake booster is similar to a power steering pump in the sense that it provides an assist to the driver. They are even located near each other in the engine bay. On paper, a “brake booster” and a “brake master cylinder” may sound similar. Can You Drive With a Bad Brake Booster?.Just replace the check valve and restore the functionality of your brakes. You’ll obviously be forced to do something about it then because you’ll likely crash your car into something to stop it.ĭon’t let the problem get to this point, though. The longer this goes on, the more likely that your brakes will stop working altogether. Aside from the firmness of the brake pedal, it’ll still take longer for the vehicle to slow down once you do press the pedal down. If brake fluid cannot reach the brake master cylinder consistently because of a bad check valve, then your braking performance is going to suffer for it. It will still take longer to slow down under this condition. It may be easy to step on the brake pedal when it’s like this, but don’t expect the vehicle to slow down quickly. This happens when the air bubbles actually go into the brakes and reduce the pressure in them.Īnytime you have less braking pressure, you’ll have a soft and spongy brake pedal. Your brake pedal may even go all the way to the floor. If you have air bubbles in your brake lines because of the bad check valve, you may notice your brake pedal feeling a bit spongy. Without a check valve to regulate the pressure, it causes this to happen. This happens because the brake master cylinder has more pressure building up inside of it. The pedal will suddenly feel firm and it’ll take a lot more foot pressure than normal to push it down. This is what happens when the check valve is working just fine.īut if the check valve is worn out and no longer working, then it might cause your brake pedal to become more difficult to push down. In fact, it should only take a little bit of foot pressure to push it down smoothly. When you step on the brake pedal, it should not be difficult to push the pedal down with your foot. Here’s what to look for: 1) Firm Brake Pedal All you can do is recognize the symptoms for when it does go bad. Of course, the check valve is not often checked when your brakes are inspected, so you won’t have time to prepare for a failing check valve. You’ll know when this happens because it won’t work anymore. However, there will come a point when the check valve does wear out entirely. The brake booster check valve should last for a long time. It is what keeps these braking components functioning properly so that your brakes function properly when you step on the brake pedal. Then your braking performance would be greatly diminished.Ī check valve is the link between the brake booster and the vacuum hose. If air were to get into the cylinder, you could have air bubbles in the brake lines. This prevents the air from accessing the brake master cylinder. When the brake booster has air trapped inside of itself, the check valve works to extract the air by sucking it out of there. One component of the brake booster is the check valve. What Does a Brake Booster Check Valve Do? What Does a Brake Booster Check Valve Do?.

Brake power booster troubleshooting