Hello again, and another question, or two...

1994 Vovo 940 Wagon

First, when I first bought this car, it had really bad brakes, they grabbed, and seemed warped, so I had them turned, and I replaced the pads, but they still grab and make a "thump" noise accompinied with a heavy pulse in the pedal... any info will help!

Second, It has a really bad rear gasket, and leakes oil like a sieve, however, the other day I got to thinking, the oil that it leakes is dark black and dirty, but the oil I put in it is clean, on the (dipstick) I also cleaned the flame arrestor out (it was completly plugged) and I was wondering if the oil that leaked into the transmission "bell" housing before I fixed this, is now flowing out, which seems to happen if you slam on the brakes, or after you turn the engine off after it is warm is not the car leaking anymore, just a reserve from before...

Third, the brake lights do not work, and I am unsure why, I know that the bulbs are ok, and I took the connector off of the switch on the pedal under the dash, I tried using a multimeter to see if there is any juice going to the connector, and there is none, what am I missing???

Please Help me!!!

Thanks, TWilson

WRT the brakes "thumping" and pulsating through the pedal, the others have given you good advice; make sure the rotors and pads are good, and calipers are free to slide on their pins - THEN, check your radius arm cone bushings (pulsation) and upper strut mounts (clunk). My 740 (same front suspension) was giving me the "clunk" that you describe, and it turned out to be a bad upper strut mount. The radius arm bushing issue is well documented in the 700/900 FAQ, which should be required reading for you now! :-)
--
Mike W., '79 242GT (project car), '85 245DL (daily driver 1), '87 245 DL (daily driver 2), '90 244DL (son's project car), '91 744T (daily driver 3), '92 245DL (parts car), '94 944T (wifemobile), Largo, FL

1. Brakes: your caliper pins are sticking. See the FAQ for advice. Turning the rotors will ruin them shortly.
2. Rear seal leak. Again, see the FAQ. You will have to repair this: it is not self-healing. Do the front tranny seal at the same time
3. Brake lights: Bulb out relay has failed.

Dear TWilson,

Good p.m. Volvo 940 Rotors are not supposed to be turned. If they are warped or scored, they must be replaced. A turned rotor warps. I suspect a previous owner had the rotors turned, which is why they warmped.

Replace the rotors and pads, as suggested in the previous post, and things should be normal.

If you're leaking oil underneath the car there are a couple of possibilities.
(a) the oil pan bolts could be loose. To tighten them, you will need to remove the aluminum bracket at the front of the pan. It is held on by four bolts. Remove them and remove the bracket. Clean the bracket with brake cleaner.
(b) to tighten the pan bolts, turn them to snug, using a criss-cross pattern (as you would head bolts), making two or three passes. This compresses the gasket evenly. Once you have them snug, go 1/8" turn further and stop there.

Oil pressure resulting from the plugged "flame trapped" likely has displaced the rear main seal, allowing oil to leak. If the seal is only slightly displaced, it won't leak a huge amount of oil, perhaps a tablespoon or so, once the car has been parked.

Is your bulb failure light on? It could be that the ground wire has come loose. Since this is a wagon, the rear light clusters - accessible through the panels on either side of the hatch - are grounded to the studs, that hold the cluster to the car. Check to see that those connections are tight. Check also to see if there is power at the lights. Check the relevant fuse. The fuses are located behind the front center console's ashtray, which you remove by pressing down on the bar, which is just in front of the shift lever.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

spook

1. Use new ATE powerslot disks from IPD, use axxis metalmaster pads, also from IPD or deluxe if you want quiet (but tends to fade when hot) brakes. Once you install the new disks and pads, bed the pads to the disk (instructions are with the pads), but generally it's 6-10 iterations of up to 60 mph and moderate braking to 20 mph...do not stop and hold the car with the brakes until this is done (unless you have to for safety reasons, traffic, etc). Pad are bedded in when the top 1-2mm of pad material are light gray/changed color from the rest of the pad although most people never bother to look.

2. If your engine oil level is going down, the oil IS leaking somewhere and the rear seal is a good place. Even if the oil you put in is clean and the dipstick is clear oil, the oil dumping down picks up a lot of crap along th way and turns black. If the engine oil is not going down and you're still dumping black oil...it's not engine oil. Hose it with gunk underneath and wash it off.

3. Check the fuses for the brake lights. Check the power to the fuses...you might have to follow the power to the relay block and check the light out relay. There might be an issue with the ignition switch but I don't know how likely /that is if the only symptom you have is no brake lights. Regular lights working?