Anyone ever have any problems with their brake booster; or have to replace it?

My 89SE just turned 272,000 miles and the brake master cylinder was leaking at the booster, so I replaced it (they don't offer a rebuild kit). But after I bled the brakes twice, my pedal still goes halfway to the floor before I get the "full pressure" on the brakes to stop (and even then I still have to put a lot of pressure on the pedal to stop the car). Kinda scary driving like this.

I have the FSM and I have performed every test except for the vacumn test on the booster and everything comes out OK. My guess is that the brake fluid that was leaking out of the back of the master cylinder got into the booster and "ate" some of the material in there causing me to lose vacumn in the booster itself. Or the brake fluid could be in the booster causing it not to "seal" to provide enough pressure and I could be losing vacumn that way.

Come to think of it I did not check the "one-way valve" on the vacumn line from the manifold to the booster - that might be a "less expensive" fix (if indeed that is the problem). Oh yeah, all the clamps are tight and the vacumn line is not cracked - still somewhat flexible for being 12+ years old.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

 

Do the vacuum test on the one way and the brake booster to confirm it's good. If bad see if you can do the same test on an used one.