water in brake servo

[mk1joe]

hi guys,
a quick question for someone. my brake servo has been kicking around for a bit now and ive gone to put it back on the car and noticed that there is water inside the vacuum section of it. im not worried about where it came from as it might have just been from being kept in a damp garage. but it has left the inside looking a bit rusty on the surface, is this something I should be concerned about? is there anything inside the servo that rust can damage?
Thanks
Joe

[Anton]

Even if there's a chance it's ok, since it's part of your brakes - I would just assume it's not ok. Essentially until you can prove without a shadow of a doubt that it's ok, then I would work under the assumption that it's going to try to kill you one day. I think you can get pitting on the inside of a brake servo, you might get unpredictable pressure losses and then when you press the brake, you get no assistance when you need it. Or suddenly you do, and you end up locking your brakes.

If it was a brake piston, caliper, master cylinder etc then I wouldn't even discuss it, I'd just tell you to bin it.

Just wondering how you could test it and be sure that it's never going to fail?

[donkeychomp]

Yikes! Don't mess with your brakes...if you have any doubts repalce the servo.

[mk1joe]

good point. I wouldn't want anyone here saying "i told you so" after my samurai is upside down in a hedge, that would suck.

Thanks for the advice guys.

[Anton]

Maybe you could get a new one cheap from the malta parts run?

[andyrew]

good point. I wouldn't want anyone here saying "i told you so" after my samurai is upside down in a hedge, that would suck.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Be sure to double check your servo. As there are a couple
Of similar looking ones on the spanish zooks. Studs and bolts
Tend to be the differences. Post a pic up of yours and I sure someone on here will have one.

Ive a few kicking about im sure.

[mk1joe]

cool, thanks guys.
I don't have a picture to hand as the servo is at work and I wont be back in until Monday. I did have a quick look on google images and all of the pictures of servos that came up seemed to be different to mine. the majority had the seem/join right at the back and mine is in the middle. there where also a few other odd looking ones that weren't the same. I will have to take a picture of it.

[andyrew]

If yours is spanish it shoud have a lucas
Servo usually in a flakey gloss black by now.
Some are mounted on a kind of spacer
Away from the bulkhead. Later ones
mouted directly onto the bulkead.
They look like a similar unit but do have differnt
Numbers and studs iirc. Early ones had 4 studs and later
Ones had two oposite studs and two bolts or something like that.

Master cylinders also changed slightly
With the brake pipes going from underneath to a 10 o'clock
Position.




Im a sad git i know.

[mk1joe]

A helpful git though:)

Mine has the spacer, I've actually shortened it an inch to clear my gti manifold. I can't remember the number of studs though, I think 2. I'm going to shorten the input rod an inch to make it fit.

[mk1joe]

Here is my servo. hope its one of the common ones? if anyone has a spare they want to sell me that would be great!