I replaced the MC on my 940 about 3 years ago and it never made any difference - pedal was just as soft as before but at least it wasn't worse. I also use a home made pressure bleeder to bleed the brakes so I don't have to do the 'pump the pedal' business. I haven't gotten around to trying clamps on the hoses yet. Uni starts again in a couple of days so God knows when I'll get the chance.

Brad
91 940GL

Dear sherm,

Good a.m. Did you simply replace the master cylinder, or did you replace the leaking seals? If the latter, what were the part numbers for the replacement items and could you set forth in detail, the seal replacement process?

Thanks for sharing your insights.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

I'm not so sure about a soft brake pedal being a problem with all 940's. Normally one would say this is a bleeding problem with air trapped somewhere in the brake system, but I'm not a total novice brake bleeder and I can tell you this doesn't appear to be the case. I think I've told this story before. My daily driver is a '95 940 turbo and it does indeed have a soft brake pedal, probably softer than any Volvo I've owned. Yet, my wife's '95 940, although not a turbo, has always had a nice firm brake pedal, firmer than any Volvo we've had. I've yet to figure out why this is so. First off I note that the brake boosters are a different size -the one for the 940T would appear to have a smaller diaphragm, so the brake boost power may well account for some of the difference. Turbo's of course use a vacuum pump to load the brake booster, but a vacuum gauge shows the B230FT vacuum every bit as good if not better than the B230F NA. Numerous power bleeds, a new master cylinder, a new brake booster and a front caliper re-build only achieved a marginal improvement on the 940T. I thought this might be a pad/rotor issue, but they've now got identical pads and rotors. Someone suggested there might be air trapped inside the ABS, but after numerous power bleeds and operation of the ABS system I can't imagine this being a constant factor. So, go figure.
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Dave -940's, prev 740/240/140/120 Never overestimate what little I know.

I have the identical problem with my brakes - soft peddle and almost no wear on my rear brakes for the past few years. In fact, when I am going backwards down a slope and step on the brakes, I get a sound as if the brake pads are just touching the discs even though I am pressly firmly on the pedal. I will have this checked out over the next week and post again.