I got notice from my local dealership last time they saw my car that my brake vacuum pump is leaking.

I took a look and sure enough, there is oil pooling on the transmission and residue on the pump itself.

I purchased the service kit (which includes five new bolts, two O-rings and a plastic connector) and installed all items over the weekend.

Now my brakes don't perform as well and the pedal is more difficult to push down. Arggghhh... Given that the symptoms of this leak describe exactly that, I'm inclined to think that I did not re-install the replacement parts properly. I'm guessing that I may have over-torqued the two bolts that hold the pump to the cam and squeezed the o-ring over to one side as a result. I did not bother to look at the torque specs in vida and just gave it a good tug with a 3/8 ratchet however VIDA calls for only 17Nm...oooops. I'm guessing I put about 40Nm worth of elbow grease on there!

Going back in there this weekend to hopefully address.

Anyone else have this issue?

 

Update: it turns out that the symptoms I experienced after having replaced the brake vacuum o-ring, etc had nothing to do with the job I completed...well not THAT job anyway.


On the same weekend I also replaced my front and rear shocks. In the process I got my greasy hands all over the front discs and forgot to clean them off afterwards. THAT is what was causing the brakes to...suck. I realized this 2 days later and cleaned up the discs promptly. Now all back to normal.


Incidentally, having now completed the brake vacuum o-ring kit replacement I'm convinced that there is no need to buy the $50 kit to address the oil leak. All you really need is the larger o-ring that sits between the pump and the engine. It is a $10 o-ring from Volvo.

 

The other o-ring also leaks and is only available in the kit.