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Brakes hard when I start my 2012 JKUR . . .

946 views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  colesnoles 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

After my Jeep sits overnight, or sometimes on the trail, the brakes become really hard and make it really difficult to stop. The brake pedal is really hard and sounds/feels like the brakes are grinding before it finally stops me. After a minute or so they act normally for the rest of the time I am driving.

I am pretty sure it is my brake booster vacuum pump located on the inside drivers side of my bumper (next to my winch). I just checked the brake booster out and I found that the rubber hose was disconnected. Does anyone know what this hose does? I was going to buy a new brake booster ($173), but if the problem was simply caused by the disconnected vacuum hose that would be great. I reconnected it and have to wait until tomorrow or the next day to see if it works I guess. Has anyone experienced that before? Did reconnecting the hose fix it?

The obvious answer is to wait to see if it works, but I have a trip to CO early next week and have to buy the part online today if I need it.

Thank you.
 
#4 ·
The rubber hose to the brake booster is the vacuum line. Without that connected the power brakes shouldn't have worked at all. When I was reading your first paragraph my thought was that you had a crack or leak in that hose, but then you said it wasn't hooked up at all, so I would have expected that you had no power brakes at all, not just on startup.

If I were you, I would take a good look at that hose and the port it plugs into on the brake booster and make sure that neither are chipped or cracked. A crack in the hose could explain leak down when parked and eventually just slipping off completely. If that is the problem, it will probably come back in short order so you would want to be prepared.
 
#5 ·
You guys are awesome. Thanks for your help!
 
#6 ·
I'm having the same exact problem, but have inspected all of my hoses and they seem to be just fine. I installed a new bumper and winch this weekend (without needing to relocate the brake booster), and have checked and re-checked and I don't think there's any way that I damaged the booster or the hose... any ideas? Brakes are fine when I drive, but rock hard at start and it makes me nervous that they could go out. I'm in the foothills of the Rockies, so no brakes going downhill would be very bad.
 
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