Hi

I've had a problem for a while now with the brakes locking on, the car is a 1998 1.8 gti escort and I've replaced the following parts to try solving this

New: brake calipers, servo pipe & vehicle speed sensor (speed sensor was definitely faulty as you could just pull the chip out of the top of it)

Used: servo & master brake cylinder


One thing I noticed when I picked up the servo and cylinder from a local breakers is, they took it off the car whilst I was there, and when the servo pipe was removed there was quite a lot of pressure, took a minute or two for it all to release/escape. You could hear it escaping from a few yards away

When you pull the pipe off on my car, both with the original servoand servo, and the ones from the breakers it takes 2 or 3 seconds for it all to release, and quietly

I'm not sure which of these behaviours when you pull off the pipe is the one to expect, but as mine is the one with the problem I kinda suspect it isn't building up the pressure it should

Am I correct on that?

If so, what likely causes are there for this that wouldn't be fixed by the parts I've already replaced?


The car never had this problem until the engine in it was changed, so I think it's at least possible that something hasn't been refitted properly when that was done, anyone have any ideas of possibilities there?

Also, after the engine was changed it was a case of the brakes were fine when you first started driving it, but the further you drove (and so the more the brakes got used), the more they'd stick on

Then after the clutch was subsequently changed they just locked on solid so the car struggles to move at all now


One for knowledgeable folks to chew on I daresay, I've been thinking of getting a local garage to run diagnostics on it but I'm not even sure whether diagnostics would be any use for this kind of problem

I'm getting to the point where I'm on the verge of just giving up on the car but I don't wanna do that if I can help it, it's apparently quite rare being the estate version of the gti with skirts, aircon etc, besides which I really like the car when it's running ok