wrd1972

iTrader: (12)

Troubleshooting a hard braking problem.

Pedal has a soft couple inches of travel and then gets hard like it should. During that couple inches of travel, very little braking is done.

Dont think its the master cause the pedal does not sink or move wildly. However I hear a whoosh from the firewall when the pedal is pressed. It is loud enough to hear over lou exhaust. The booster seems to pass all of the booster diagnostic tests. I dont get it.

Is the booster supposed to whoosh when the pedal is pressed?

Wesmanw02

iTrader: (4)

Many boosters whoosh when the pedal is pressed. Its just a characteristic of vacuum boosters.

What you describe does not sound like a booster issue. When brake boosters go bad, you will have higher effort to stop the car, like it doesn't have power brakes. It will not, however, cause the pedal to sink like you describe. If anything, the pedal will be high and hard.

The problem you describe sound like a master cylinder issue, or possibly a bad ABS unit. Not much else can cause a pedal to drop other than a leak or misadjusted brakes, and I assume you're talking about 4 wheel disc brakes which are self adjusting.

SmokedOutZ28

iTrader: (35)

When my booster went out my pedal was really soft and the pedal seem to engage low. As it got worse and to the point where it started to get hard and really stiff it would make a whooshing noise like air rushing out of something.

Try with the engine running and the car parked push down the pedal and hold it and see if it continues. My guess with the "woosh" noise your booster might be going bad.

edit: Never heard any noises from the thing until it started going bad.