Volvo Owners Club Forum - View Single Post - 240 soft brakes

Clifford Pope · Apr 16th, 2018, 08:01

I don't think a 1991 car has the sliding valve inside.
Earlier cars did, and the valve was triggered to warn of a pressure difference between the two braking circuits.
Later cars dispensed with this, and instead the warning light was simply triggered by a fluid level detector on the master cylinder reservoir.Check if there is actually an electrical connection to the octopus.

I'm not sure when the change-over happened, but none of my cars from 1990 onwards had the sliding valve.
You can bleed the octopus thing by slackening a pipe coupling on each circuit and gently expelling some fluid, like bleeding a house radiator.

I've had your symptoms once, and it was when I'd fitted the kind of front brake pads that have a massive chamfer. I was alarmed when they arrived that they had such a reduced surface area, and they took so long to bed in that I replaced them with the ordinary non-chamfered kind.

Apr 16th, 2018, 08:01	#7
Clifford Pope Not an expert but ... Last Online: Yesterday 12:45 Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Boncath	I don't think a 1991 car has the sliding valve inside. Earlier cars did, and the valve was triggered to warn of a pressure difference between the two braking circuits. Later cars dispensed with this, and instead the warning light was simply triggered by a fluid level detector on the master cylinder reservoir.Check if there is actually an electrical connection to the octopus. I'm not sure when the change-over happened, but none of my cars from 1990 onwards had the sliding valve. You can bleed the octopus thing by slackening a pipe coupling on each circuit and gently expelling some fluid, like bleeding a house radiator. I've had your symptoms once, and it was when I'd fitted the kind of front brake pads that have a massive chamfer. I was alarmed when they arrived that they had such a reduced surface area, and they took so long to bed in that I replaced them with the ordinary non-chamfered kind.