Volvo RWD 200 Forum

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Kudos to Volvo 200

First of all, this is my first Volvo, and as I go along fixing and maintaining things, I continue to be impressed, hence this post. For you old timers, please forgive my newbie enthusiasm.

The other day my brake failure light came on (81 245 K-Jet M46) but as far as I could tell, nothing was wrong. Brakes worked fine, no fluid loss, no leaking anywhere could be seen. So I decide something's up,so I figure it's time to replace the master cylinder. Yep, after bleeding the system, no more brake failure light. Cars I've had in the past let you know the master cylinder has failed by the pedal suddenly going to the floor. This time however, the car knew the part was beginning to fail and told me, way before I would have even begun to notice it.

Thank you Volvo!

Scott








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Kudos to Volvo 200

The usual symptom of a failing MC on the 240 is a slowly sinking pedal under light pressure. Eventually the light comes on but goes off on pedal release.

If the light remains on then the piston in the brake line junction is stuck out of position or perhaps the wire from the junction is grounding somewhere.

Anyhow keep the old MC, it may be okay. Actually you could open it (remove wire, piston will pop out) to see what a simple yet effective design it is. And check to see if a seal is damaged/worn. The seals will get damaged if you use minerals spirits to clean.
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb and M46 trans








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Kudos to Volvo 200

You might be right. I did keep the old MC. Odd it was, because the pedal never sank to the floor, it remained solid, and flicked just a bit (off then right back on) when I released the pedal from the bottom of the stroke. All I know is that there is no light on now. Brakes work great now just as they did before.

The resevoir was not perfectly clean, so there may be some stuff in the cylinder causing a problem.

Thanks

Scott







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