Just bought my first Volvo. A 91 940. Curently brakes stop the car, but on first press the pedal goes almost to the floor, 2nd pump all is normal. Pedal seems to hold and not fade to floor when pumped up. Bought car for daughter, but won't put her in it until I am confident in brakes.

Previous owners took car into independent shop that inspected all system and found 50% pads and no leaks. They replaced Master cylinder with new volvo OEM, bled lines, but only slight improvement, so figuring a bad MC, replaced it with another new OEM MC. No improvement. Owners gave up and sold me the car. I took to another reputable shop who power bled system and replaced all fluid with synthetic fluid. No apreciable improvement. They guessed the rod from booster might need adjusting but said it shouldn't usually need adjusting. Sounded like they were guessing to me. Reading the various brickboard posts could it be flex lines? although in two inspections it wasn't obvious? Where else should I look to diagnose these symptoms.

Thanks in advance for assistnace.
dfeew99@comcast.net

Low pads or worn rotors can mimic a worn master cylinder. Try checking rotor and pad thickness all around. These cars have softer pedals anyway: my 1995 940 has a much softer pedal than my 92 940 or 90 740.

Hello, These master cylinders are a bi--h to bleed. You really need two people. The first fluid compartment of the master cylinder holds trapped air. You will find two bleed screws on the master which need to be opened and the air bled while someone is pushing on the brakes. I have done this with a brake fluid machine and still have the slight pump-up when the brake is first applied. After you have bled the master cylinder, rebleed all the brakes starting with the left front to right front then to left rear and lastly right rear. Use the recomended dot 4 and you will need about 1 pint for the bleed and another pint to top off. Don't save the extra. In a few weeks it won't be any good. I am sure that will take care of the spongy feel. Good luck. Pauli

For what its worth, I chased the exact same problem for about 2 months on my 960. I also put 2 new mc's on the car and went thru about a gallon of brake fluid with the power bleeder. I looked everywhere for any sign of a leak. I ended up changing the rear rotors and everything was back to normal.

Neil