Hi All,

I've got an 89 245 DL wagon that I love. I work on things I think I can tackle myself, but for the more complicated things I go to a mechanic. I was wondering if anyone knows of a good but inexpensive mechanic in the Seattle area? I'd ideally like someone who is an experienced Volvo DIY'er who wouldn't mind picking up some extra money in exchange for helping me out on fixing some of the more complicated problems.

My immediate issue is a Brake Failure light that has been on since I messed up replacing the rear brakes (pads & rotors). In the process of trying to move the pistons back to make room for the new pads and rotor, I snapped the metal brake line to the rear junction box and gave up and had Firestone fix the line and finish the brake replacement. Chose Firestone only because my sister has a card with them and could pay it off in installments. Anyway, since then the Brake Failure light has been on and the pedal fades under long, sustained braking. If I pump the brake it stiffens up nicely though, and it stops pretty well on a hard quick stop. Firestone looked at it and said it was the Master Cylinder and that you need to replace that and the Proportioning Valve at the same time - $900 please. I passed and have been driving it like this for about 4 months or so.

I've not seen any mention of replacing a proportioning valve when replacing the master cylinder on this site. Is that called something else in Volvo-ese?

Anyway, I'm about to replace the front pads and rotors, and figured I'd do the master cylinder as well. I'm pretty confident that I can do the pads and rotors without messing it up - did the pads a couple years ago without incident and have learned from the last fiasco what not to do when replacing the rotors. So, would like a hand with the master cylinder and the whole bleeding process without paying an arm and a leg for it. Any suggestions or leads would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for all the info and advice you all share so willingly.

Dale
89 245 GL, 212K miles and still going strong.