[Pepi]

My car has just started to exhibit the following symptoms, and I could really use some help diagnosing the problem. No CEL's.
Here's what I'm dealing with:

- Rock hard brake pedal at cranking when the engine is cold OR, if warm and the car has been turned off for more than a minute, the pedal is hard at restart

- Engine feels rougher and sounds louder, at idle and low rpms

- Engine is down on power overall and throttle response has noticeably decreased

- Fuel economy is slightly worse

- A puff of blue smoke at startup (cold), I’ve also started to notice that when cruising at very low rpms and coming up to a stop, the engine emits an excessive amount of blue smoke at idle, till you accelerate

- Tranny seems to shift to a high gear earlier than before in ECO/COMFORT modes

Any ideas how I would diagnose the issue or what's causing this?

[freakystyly]

Not familiar with the engine, but maybe check the brake vacuum pump?

Hoses go from the master cylinder (where your brake fluid reservoir is) to somewhere on the engine where the pump is. From some of the diagrams, it looks to be on the lower end of the engine near the firewall, but again, not familiar with the setup.

If there's an air leak it would explain a lot of symptoms I'd think.

[speedbirdblack]

Originally Posted by Pepi

My car has just started to exhibit the following symptoms, and I could really use some help diagnosing the problem. No CEL's.
Here's what I'm dealing with:

- Rock hard brake pedal at cranking when the engine is cold OR, if warm and the car has been turned off for more than a minute, the pedal is hard at restart

- Engine feels rougher and sounds louder, at idle and low rpms

- Engine is down on power overall and throttle response has noticeably decreased

- Fuel economy is slightly worse

- A puff of blue smoke at startup (cold), I’ve also started to notice that when cruising at very low rpms and coming up to a stop, the engine emits an excessive amount of blue smoke at idle, till you accelerate

- Tranny seems to shift to a high gear earlier than before in ECO/COMFORT modes

Any ideas how I would diagnose the issue or what's causing this?

If the engine and breaks are involved simultaneously, vacuum leak is justifiable.
They must be interrelated. I would just look for error codes on a scanner.