Hello, My 05 Panda diesel has a brake problem. It’s currently in my local garage and they are struggling to solve it. The brakes start to come on whilst I am driving, without me touching the brake pedal. When I do, it is noticeably hard and the system seems to be pressurising itself.
The garage initially thought that it was caused by the flexible front brake pipes not allowing the free-flow of fluid. They changed them but it made no difference so they then changed the Master Cylinder, thinking that must be the problem. That didn't work either so they changed the left-side front brake calliper (because that wheel was the worst affected). This still didn't work and the brakes continue to stop the wheels from spinning freely. We are now running out of ideas and I wondered if any of you guys might be able to suggest something please.

After all that I'd suspect the servo, test it by releasing all the vacuum currently stored first, do that by pumping the pedal until it goes solid.

Then apply pressure to it with the engine OFF, then start the engine with your foot still holding the brake pedal down, your foot should sink slightly.

Answered on your other thread.
But I'll put it here as well so that others may benefit.
As luck would have it, I can offer advice - don't let the garage do any more work on it, it is nothing whatsoever to do with the brakes (I know, sounds crazy) but I had this on a UNO many centuries ago. After replacing the complete system with second hand parts and then new parts I was nowhere near an answer until I spent the day on the web & joining every fiat group I could find.
someone eventually got back to me with a simple, 2 second fix (OK, I exaggerate slightly) but it worked for him on his panda - and worked on my UNO.



Get yourself into the driver's footwell, and check the brake switch.
Despite having a locknut holding it in place, it had somehow (over the years) adjusted itself. The effect was as though you were touching the brakes ever so gently. As the pads normally fly but a cock hair off the disks anyway, the switch was pushing the pedal a smidge, enough to let the pads rest on the disk. Of course, as you drive, the friction of this 'just touching' builds up heat in the pads and disks, as they heat up, they expand, as they expand, they touch even more and ... well, you get the picture. After a journey of 2 miles I found my fronts were locked solid & I could only get home if I released the pressure by undoing the bleed nipple.

A few seconds adjusting the height of the brake switch solved a problem which cost me hundreds. BTW, when it first happened I called out breakdown who had it into their garage & could find nothing wrong.

Good luck & let us know how you get on.