I drove 600km yesterday to visit friends and the 83 had no signs the whole way, including descending a couple of mountain passes with frequent use of the brakes. Got into the city and in downtown traffic (slow, thank heavens) the pedal started getting soft and travelling further, and after about 6 stops like this, it went all the way to the floor with no braking effect. The brake warning light only came on when the pedal went to the floor - but not in the earlier episodes of soft pedal and long travel.

I parked, checked fluid level (full), phoned an indy Volvo shop and went back to the car after about 1/2 hr. Drove carefully to the repair shop, fortunately just a few streets away, and the brakes felt normal(!) - and this morning they phoned and said they cannot duplicate the problem, brakes seem fine. They found no external leaks and they removed the master cyl to see if it was leaking into the servo - no joy. They say I could elect to replace the master cyl, but no guarantee that's the problem.

This is more than a little scary. Anyone had a similar situation or have ideas as to what's going on?
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Bob: son's XC70, dtr's '94-940, my 81GL, 83-DL, 89-745(V8) and 98-S90. Also 77-MGB and some old motorcycles.