Hey everyone, can anyone help me with this problem? We're kind of at a loss at this point. We've spend the better part of the last couple weeks attempting to fix the brakes on my car and nothing really seems to be working. We replaced the rotors, calipers, pads, and parking brake shoes on both rear sides. When we got it put back together, it still wouldn't stop so well, so we checked out the master cylinder and it turns out that was bad, so we replaced that too. I'm trying to think if we did anything else....well, when all was said and done, the brakes still aren't working. The front driver side bleeder is broken, but I don't think it should be causing as big a problem as we have; the pedal goes the whole way to the floor and kind of slows the car down (if you pump the brakes up a lot you can get it to come to a stop), but in an emergency stopping situation I don't think it would do much good. We've literally had our hands on every part of this car's brake system we can think of, and nothing seems to be working. The brake lines seem fine, as do the front brakes; in fact, it seems like when we do get the car to stop, it's solely because of the front brakes; the rear ones aren't doing a thing. Might it be the proportioning valve, or something else? Are we missing something? Has anyone else had this problem? Any advice would be appreciated -- thanks a lot.

 

Your problem is with the rear if all was well before the project started. Even if you have a bad proportioning valve, you should still get pressure.
You aren't getting pressure because you probably still have air in the rear lines.
Bleed it well.
Ed

 

Was the master cylinder bench bled before it was installed?

 

@avguy: I think so, but I'm not sure because I didn't help out with that part. It's the only thing my friend did himself without me there, because I was out of town.
Neither of us really knew anything about Volvos when we started this project, and we just discovered the multiple bleeders in the front that all have to be fiddled with, so we're going to try to bleed them again and see if we missed some air.

 

Are you doing it in the correct sequence?
Brakes:

 

We actually figured out the whole sequencing thing the other day and tried it yesterday and it worked! Thanks for your help, guys.