Brake Boost Vacuum System Fault - Safe to drive?

[chinnyhill10]

Hi,

The Mrs came home today saying her 1.6 was running badly. Did a scan and the following 2 things came up:


2 Faults Found:
17887 - Brake Boost Vacuum System
P1479 - 002 - Mechanical Failure - Intermittent
18669 - Oxygen (Lambda) Sensor B1 S1
P2237 - 008 - Pump Current Open Circuit - Intermittent
Readiness: 1000 0101

Took it for a drive and when I pressed the brakes at low speed, the battery light quickly flashed on the dash and the car felt like it was about to stall. Performance felt odd as well, like it was running rich or something.

Any ideas? Is it safe to drive? Is the Brake Boost and Lambda sensor faults related?

Car was fine yesterday. Oddly enough I did a scan to check it yesterday as it had just had some accident repair work done (some fool in a bus sideswiped it a few weeks back).

It may be a coincidence but it has rained here heavily today so has something got wet and shorted out?

Cheers.

 

[MrLapou]

Does the engine idle ok?
I'd still check for a vacuum leak.
Or could simply be water in a plug/connection somewhere

 

[chinnyhill10]

It felt erratic when idling. Slightly similar to when the coil packs went earlier in the year. On the test drive it didn't feel very willing and as I say, if you pressed the brakes at low speed it felt like it was going to stall.

Trouble is that my own car is also an A3 (TDI 170 Quattro) so the Mrs's car always feels a bit rough to me (no offence to 1.6 drivers).

 

[chinnyhill10]

Had a quick poke around under the bonnet. Dry as a bone under there as far as I could see with a head torch.