My Car: 2006 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S (manual)
My 997 has been daily driven and I've never had a problem with the brakes until, today I got up to go runs some errands, fire up the car, everything is normal. I let the car warm up for a good 5 minutes, hop in and go down my driveway until I got on my brakes. The pedal is hard. Feels almost as if the car is off and pressing on the brakes. I then found myself not able to go and run my errands as the car doesn't have any braking power. I was reading other forums and tried pumping the brakes and holding the brakes as I turn on the car, did nothing. I really need some help understanding what may be wrong before I talk to my Indy so they can charge an arm and a leg. Please help lead me to other forums that may answer my problem, and please share if you had any similar problems.

 

Sounds like either your master cylinder has failed, though that usually results in the pedal going to the floor not being too hard, or the brake booster or a line going to the brake booster has failed and you're not getting any power assist from that system. No messages in the dash? How's the fluid level?

BTW, warming the car up in the driveway for 5 minutes before driving off is one of the worst things you can do in a 997.1 model car. The extra fuel from the enrichment mode that heats the cats can wash the oil from the walls and contribute to bore scoring.

 

This morning I opened the engine bay and noticed a line on the top left corner to be severally cracked. I took a picture of the part number and it was 997.110.055.03. I saw a DIY on the forums for a brake booster line, could this possibly be the issue.

 

Yep, it absolutely could and most likely is. As I mentioned in my prior post "or a line going to the brake booster has failed". Definitely start there.

 

Ok, I placed an order on that part, and it should arrive by Friday. Now, is there a diagram that's shows the rest of the lines/hoses from the brake components. Also I feel like the car is running rich, which makes me suspect I have a vacuum leak.

 

For the vacuum leak, I would smoke test the intake or at least monitor bank 1 and bank 2 fuel trims with a Durametric or OBD device to see what the numbers actually are. They should stay right at 0.0000. A number below 0 means the car is sensing a rich condition and pulling fuel. A number above 0 means it's sensing a lean condition and adding fuel.

Why do you think it's rich - spark plug fouling, spotting on the bumper, smell, etc?

 

I just replaced the AOS a little less than 1k miles ago, I would get puffs of bluish/whitish smoke coming from the tail pipes right now and the puffs only started once I got this brake issue. I do smell gas once I turn on the car which makes me a bit concerning, but once the car fires up its good. But what I did notice Is now when I step on the hard pedal when the car is off, I hear a creaking noise from the front of the car. Is there a way to test the booster? Also, how much does a smoke test cost?

 

I don't think noises when pressing on the brake pedal with the car off are too concerning. You're trying to mechanically force fluid through things that normally have power assist and you're more in tune to those noises and they're easier to hear because the engine is off.

A smoke test should probably only be a 30 minute cost from a shop's hourly rate. It pumps smoke into the intake with light pressure to see if any leaks out from somewhere. All they have to do is with the car off, disconnect the airbox to throttle body connection, hold the throttle plate open mechanically so it doesn't block the smoke flow, use the block off adapter that's part of their smoke machine, turn it on and watch for smoke emanating from somewhere.

I don't know how to specifically test the brake booster.

 

Ok I'm going to give my local indy a call and see what he thinks. Ill update you on what he says. Thanks for the help.

 

Left Side and Near Right Intake Manifold
Here is a photo what I believe may be the problem

 

Sending the car in tomorrow for the brake problem to be solved. But as I was mentioning the car running rich, I looked closer into my engine bay and noticed that I have a major crack in my oil filler tube. Just great this is my luck, can this be done myself, or should I send that to the mechanic also.

 

It attaches with a single bolt. Should be some DIYs on that you can find. I don't know if you'll have to pull the alternator to access the fill tube mounting bolt or not, but that cracked filler tube can create a large vacuum leak. Might as well have them fix that too. Do you see any oil on top of the motor from this cracked filler neck?

 

Ok, thank you for helping me with many questions of mine, but how much do you think the filler neck would cost

 

Heres an update, I sent the car in on Monday for the brake and oil filler neck problem. We replaced the oil filler neck and the hose I pictured above for the brake booster. Turns out that there's another problem, there's a hole in the hose that connects to the vacuum pump. I'm having a hard time finding the part number to that hose. The hose that connects to that hose is 997-110-055-03. Please help me find this hose (its under the car near the right exhaust).

 

You may mean item 37 in these pics.

Catalog courtesy of Porsche.

Catalog courtesy of Porsche.