Brake Failure on my 240

Hi,

I am a new owner of a 23 yr old Volvo 240, the car is generally in lovely condition with only 85k on the clock and two previous owners. I use the car for short commute to work (about 20 miles round trip) or for weekends... (ASDA shopping )

Anyway I have owned to car for 2 months with no problem, until today. I was driving up to B&Q (local DIY store) when the brakes completly failed. When pressing the brake pedal nothing happend, I got resistance in the pedal but no slowing down of the car. I went into blind panic mode (as I was driving 40mph at that time). Changed down gears, and then slowed the car .... mounted a curb to avoid hitting another car and have left the car at B&Q....

I have consulted the Haynes Owners Workshop Manual about this to establish if this is a known problem and if it can be fixed, according to this manual the hydraulic system needs "bleeding". The manual goes on to describe and illustrate how to bleed the system.

Can anyone help,

1. Does the diagnoses seem correct?
2. How much should it cost for a garage to bleed the system for me?
3. If I attempt it myself, how long do you think it will take (bearing in mind I have never worked on a car before)

As mentioned my car is currently in B&Q car park in Bristol so I am in a bit of a pickle. Any help would be appreciated.

[migrator]

Join the RAC / AA or similar and call them out to help. Bend the truth about when it happened. This will be cheaper than a garage job.

As it is very unlikely that all the pistons in all of the calipers have seized at the same time it is more likely that one of the flexible brake hoses has burst. This will release all of the hydraulic fluid from the system (or nearly all). Check the brake fluid reservoir (attached to the big round servo unit) and see if it is empty.

I would get my car out of the B&Q carpark as quickly as possible. I have seen some remarkable style changes to cars left in such places for any obvious length of time.

The initial comment about joining the RAC etc was more of a joke than a genuine suggestion (before I get slagged for it) but then again ...

Thankyou for your help, I have just joined RAC (Joke or not it seemed to be a sensible suggestion)and will call them tommorow morning, to plead for help (it only cost £34 for Single Cover Roadside). As mentioned in my original post, I only drive the car 100 miles a week so I just need it to start and stop....

I will have to have a proper read of the Haynes manual to see what checks I should do on the car to make sure this does not happen again. Looking at the manual at the moment there is a list of maintenance and minor repair tool kit, does anyone know if I can purchase the entire kit specified, also what the cost would be?

Finally, as a different point, as mentioned I have owned the car for about 2 months, is there anything I need to do to ensure that it works through winter?

Thanks again

Sanj

[vjck_uk]

Welcome to the VOC club,you will find the guys and gals on here very helpful.
you will need to get the anti freeze strength checked before the winter,a lot of tyre places will do this for you,while you are there ask them to have a look at the tyres.
You really need to check your engine oil,brake fluid,radiator (water)level,tyres condition and pressure and lights on a weekly check until you get some sort of pattern such as a tyre with a slow leak or the engine using oil or water.
A good way to check the back lights is to back up to a shop window and look at the light in the mirror.
Have a good look at the Haynes manual and see if you can do the checks in there with the aid of the pictures.
The basic tools are really not much use to you as if you were able to do basic jobs you would know what tools you need.
If you insist on getting the basics then go to halfords or a spares shop and ask them,give them a ceiling of perhaps £30 and you should get enough stuff to keep you happy.
Did your brake pedal go to the floor or was it rock hard?
You could always ask the RAC man for advice as he could show you what and how to check things in minutes.
If you can't take it in or have'nt the confidence and you fancy a trip to the lickey hills Birmingham I will run you through it and take to a shop to get the stuff you need.
Good luck.
Vaughan

[morsing]

But surely a brake hose bursting wouldn't have done this unless one "circuit" was already dead? And then the brake failure light should have been on.

What happened to the pedal? Hard or did it hit the floor? Has the brake failure light been on?
Open the bonnet and check the fluid level in the small white thingy on the brake master cylinder. It's mounted on the firewall.

Cheers

Thankyou for your response, in answer to your questions

1. The pedal was hard (I did feel resistance) but I was able to push it to the floor...
2. The brake light was not on
3. I will check the brake fluid thing today, as I have left the car in B&Q and have managed to get the afternoon off work to resolve this.

Thanks

Sanj

Thankyou for the information, as soon as the current braking problem is sorted I will go through your list of things to check. It was really useful, thankyou very much.

Also thanks for the offer of showing me what to do... very kind of you. I will try to do it from the manual to start with, this forum may get a few more postings if I get stuck.

Anyway, I am going to report the car to RAC today, and hope they can fix this problem. I have to say that I have lost confidence in the car, just have to drive it a little slower in the future.

i had brake faliure on mu 240 not that long ago i woz driving along and no brakes!!!!, did ur engine strt to run lumpy???? if so then i wud almost steak my life on it being the white plastic elbow joint that comes out of the brake servo(it then connects to a hose and then into the cylinderhead) on mine the circular section as u look at the servo(its right in front of u if ur looking fron the front of the engine bay)had spnapped off and casued a loss in vacum rendering the brakes useless and lump running of the engine too. that part is 35quid from a volvo m/d but goto a scrappies and get one for a fiver it just pulls out of the servo. hope this helps i'll put up a pic of wot the part looks like too

[vjck_uk]

If it was a loss of vacumm the pedal would have been like a brick.

As an update the car was sadly towed away by RAC today and has been sent to a garage in Bristol. I will learn tommorow of the cost and the diagnosis. So now I am on my bike (literaly) getting to work which is about 10 miles away by bike..... I have to say the West Country is beutiful but the bike ride is killing me (all those scenic hills)..... I am far to fat to ride my bike and look like I can work a full day.

Thanks to all for the help so far.... hopefully I will be a position to give you an update tommorow.... saddle sore, and far too tied for any ones good.

Regards

Sanj