Brakes: I know, another V70 with brake woes!

[GeraintB]

Hi, not long bought my first Volvo a V70 se d5 Manual on a 2004 45 lovely car but not getting along with it🙈,
A little background....
Bought the vehicle start of the month paid a very good amount of money for it to have the engine fail on the way home 😭( due to a previous bodge with Hylomar obstructing the oil pickup) naturally resulting in an engine transplant
So new engine clutch and mounts etc basically everything you’d want to sort whilst it’s all out.
During the replacement they noticed the abs rings on the front driveshafts was split so these was replaced whilst it’s apart
So later come to bring it home post engine replacement now have a shockingly low poor brake pedal if you want to stop you have to pump the brake pedal (secondary pedal) and it stops straight and true.
You can exhaust the servo and have a spongy pedal after bleeding it will inprove marginally start the car and the pedal drops.
This would suggest that the servo is working👌🏻
I asked at my two local Volvo dealers if they could perform a ABS bleed using their diagnostic equipment but was told they didn’t have this function.
The abs works as does dstc and tc.
I have replaced the brake flex is and master cylinder both made a marginal improvement but still have a substandard pedal (excessive travel almost to the floor! )
the vehicle has been bled in various ways, pressure bled, vacuum bled, manual bleed all going from longest to shortest and vise Versa I’ve also tried going from Rr, Lr, Rf,Lf and other combinations it’s had over 6 litres of brake fluid pass through it and still no better for it.
I am aware these vehicles have brake pedal creep this isn’t the case in what I’m experiencing I used to drive many discovery’s and these also suffered with pedal creep what I’m experiencing is symptomatic with air trapped/gettingin
Alas the reason I’m posting a new FRESH outreach for help is all the threads on this subject run to a dead end without any obvious rectification.
The only part left to replace is the abs pump, servo and or the brake pipe hard lines help!!
The car otherwise is a beaut so over to you guys all suggestions welcome either in recommendations or any specialists local to the north wales coast thanks in advance 👍🏻

[Simmy]

check vac pump and all vac pipes for leaks /splits/disconects

[cheshired5]

Are the caliper retaining springs definitely installed correctly?

[Brendan W]

Caliper springs are first on my list as well. Seen many cases of it on here. We seem programmed to do it the wrong way around.

[petey]

If you’re not getting a pedal after multiple bleeds then generally, assuming it’s all been done correctly, it can only really be one of two things:- you’ve a soft flexible pipe somewhere and that is swelling under pressure or you’ve a small amount of rust on the bore of the master cylinder and when the brakes were bled, the seal of the master cylinder picked up on it.

[GeraintB]

Originally Posted by petey

If you’re not getting a pedal after multiple bleeds then generally, assuming it’s all been done correctly, it can only really be one of two things:- you’ve a soft flexible pipe somewhere and that is swelling under pressure or you’ve a small amount of rust on the bore of the master cylinder and when the brakes were bled, the seal of the master cylinder picked up on it.

Yeah that’s what was suspected hence the replacement of both the master and the four flexis but still can’t get the pedal 🤔

[GeraintB]

Originally Posted by Brendan W

Caliper springs are first on my list as well. Seen many cases of it on here. We seem programmed to do it the wrong way around.

Have checked these but will upload a picture of them incase im overlooking something, I forgot to mention I’ve greased the sliding pins with the clear Trw sliding pin grease.
As you can imagine it’s going to be something daft but it’s driving me mental 🤪

Thanks for the suggestions will act on these tomorrow cheers guys

[b1mcp]

As a diagnostic aid, clamp all of the flexi hoses. If you still have a soft pedal then the issue is not at the calipers.

If you get a hard pedal release the clamps one by one to narrow it down further.


Also, I'm sure this doesn't apply to you as you didn't mention removing the calipers. But I have seen before (not on a volvo) where L & R calipers were fitted to the wrong sides. This results in the bleed nipple being at the bottom rather than the top, with obvious consequences.

[Brendan W]

Originally Posted by GeraintB

Have checked these but will upload a picture of them incase im overlooking something, I forgot to mention I’ve greased the sliding pins with the clear Trw sliding pin grease.
As you can imagine it’s going to be something daft but it’s driving me mental 🤪

Thanks for the suggestions will act on these tomorrow cheers guys

Some pics in this thread might help. One of many with the same issue
https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showt...springs&page=3

[GeraintB]

Hi everyone, have checked the fitment of the springs and noticed one had the rubber spacers missing.
I’ve looked at the attachment ref correct and incorrect fitment of the Caliper holding spring and all four corners are correctly fitted 🙈
Ordered new springs from Volvo and have fitted these one thing that has brought my attention is the condition of the disks very glazed the pads were fitted by the previous owner so an unknown but still suffering the ****ty pedal
5DF6874A-A44A-4CA3-9072-7E7F34286F40.jpg this is the only thing I found when inspecting the springs 🧐