Brake Booster Vacuum Pump went bad (NO BRAKES!) with no warning!

[Displayhawk]

I just wanted to share my story of when my Brake Booster Vacuum Pump went out. I took my 2019 Regal Sportback with the 2.0L turbo out to warm up the oil before doing an oil change. No problems when I did this. Then I put some oil cleaner in and let it idle for about 10 minutes.
When I tried to put the car up on ramps, I had my left foot on the brake, and the right foot on the gas pedal. This is literally how I have done it over a hundred times before. But this time the car did not stop, and fortunately it hit the back lip of the ramps, and then rolled back and stopped on the ramps. I went ahead and did the oil change with no problems. When I started it and was backing it down off the ramps, I had very little braking, and there was a grinding noise when I pushed the pedal all the way down. The dash showed a brake vacuum loss warning. My scanner showed the same thing. At this point, I did not want to drive the car, so I had it towed to the Buick dealer. I initially thought it might be a Master Cylinder or a Brake Booster. After diagnosis, the dealer said it was the Brake Vacuum Pump. He said usually it is an electric pump on the brake booster, but on my car it is on the end of the camshaft. He said sometimes the pump will lock up and it will snap the camshaft. They found the pump in Kansas City, and it only took 1 day to fix it. It cost about $600 to do it. The scary part was that it went out with no warning!

 

[HotZ28]

Totally insane way to design a brake booster system! What happened to the old reliable vacuum boosters mounted behind the master cylinder years ago that operated with engine vacuum & rarely failed? In the event of a brake booster failure like this one, that could cause an accident with bodily injuries, or death, GM would be under the microscope of the accident Attorney's! "One Call, That's All" & thousands more! 🙁

 

[garbageguy]

hmmm, makes me wonder if it's related to the warranty done to our TourXkes me wonder if its related to the recall work the dealer did

 

[Displayhawk]

Totally insane way to design a brake booster system! What happened to the old reliable vacuum boosters mounted behind the master cylinder years ago that operated with engine vacuum & rarely failed? In the event of a brake booster failure like this one, that could cause an accident with bodily injuries, or death, GM would be under the microscope of the accident Attorney's! "One Call, That's All" & thousands more! 🙁

It has the brake booster behind the master cylinder as you describe, but the 2.0L engine can only produce so much vacuum (apparently not enough), and needs the help of the additional Vacuum Pump. But usually they are electrically-driven instead of mechanically driven like ours. I agree that it ought to have better warning before it fails!