I was going about 40mph when I had to stop... the padle felt solid till it went wah! And no more brakes! Isn't this car supposed to have 2 circuits? How could they both go out at the same time...? Well, didn't look much yet... just got home and it's mid-night, all I know is that the whole right front tire is wet...so it probebly blew there. Lucky I didn't hit anyone...fev... but this sucks now. Last time this happened to me was 2 years ago on my subaru, the brake shoe came off.

What could be wrong with my car?

Thanks!

Guess what happened... you know that the hoses are attached at the rod by the sway bar... and when I went into the curve- the car went lower and the crossmember poked into both of the brake line (A kinda like sliced into it.)... that's pretty bad I think. But atleast now the brakes feel more solid after I flushed the system and changed all the lines.

Actually, I think the thing which measures the brake pressure is broken... because the wire is still attached to it. (or maybe the guy who rewired the car didn't know how to do it, because the car has been re-wired once before I got it.) But I'll check that soon.

Thansk to all you help! This board is great!

It may be that your isolation valve is stuck so that only one

circuit is active and that circuit broke a hose or something.

Calipers don't ususlly do things like that.

Once you look at it in the light of day it will probably be

clearer. Do you know how to reset the valve in your brake

system? Unscrew the little switch with the wire coming

out of it and you should see a rib. If you see a groove

you might try to push it one way or the other to re-center

it so the rib is in the center..

If you found that wire unhooked that is a good clue that a

clueless person has been working on your brakes and couldn't

get the red light to go out.

Hi George

It may be that your isolation valve is stuck so that only one

circuit is active and that circuit broke a hose or something.

Is that valve actually an isolation valve? I always assumed, but don't actually know, that both circuits will work with the pistons over to one side. The first 164 I ever bought had the warning light on the dash lit up, but whatever had gone wrong had been fixed by a garage. The light scared the owner so much myself and a friend could buy it real cheap whilst we were at university. Resetting the switch didn't seem to make any difference to the brakes. Later found out the car had been used by Michelin to track test tyres, which explained the pristine set of asymmetrical tread pattern XAS's and the interstellar mileage. 164's were wonderful on those XAS tyres.It was a nice old car, very early 164, 1969, no power steering.

Yours curiously

That valve IS an isolation valve. If one system has substantially

lower pressure than the other, the piston moves to that side

and closes it off to prevent fluid loss. The valve can get

stuck on one side, though (as mine was when I got the car)

so you are driving on only one system and may not even notice

if the switch is disconnected. If your light didn't go out

when you recentered the valve, it may be the switch was bad

or not screwed in all the way. If the end of the pin is sheared

it will be too short and will always stay on.

I have a 69 164, S/N 8731, that has power steering. I wonder if they

were left off in some Euro markets. As far as I knew they all had

power steering.

Apparenly on the very early cars it was a cost option, but there were so many complaints from people that bought without that Volvo retrofitted to those whose owners were sufficiently vocal. Once going the non power steering cars are great, much nicer in terms of feel. However in places like a tight multi story car park they're a bit of a handful.

Regards

Sounds like the caliper has done something nasty, the car does have dual circuit brakes, operating half of each caliper per circuit.

Did you hit something and damage the hoses.

Caliper split in half, very unlikely never heard of it.

The other thing is that on the early 140 the brake pipes run down through the front panel and can fester unseen.

Regards

Exact thing just happened to my wife in a 240 I brought home fopr her to test drive. It was the master Cyl. although it's obvious if you have a wet tire, a line or caliper gave way. Check it ALL.