During one of our first snowstorms before Christmas, I had a near "Fruit-of-the-Loom moment" and, ah, 'exercised' the ABS system on my '92 245 as I steered around a problem. Since then, the brake pedal always goes farther down on the first push than it had previously. The pedal comes right up with repeated pumps. There is no loss of fluid, and if I maintain pressure on the pedal it doesn't travel any farther, so I don't think there's a leak anywhere. As a precaution I put in a new master cylinder (bench bled first) and bled as best as I could with both my Mitey-Vac and my teenaged son working the pedal. No change in the pedal - first push always goes low. Nowhere near the floor, but lower than I'd like for the heel-and-toeing I do. I thought that maybe pad wear caused extra piston travel and hence greater fluid displacement, but the pads have only about 35K on them and are not even half worn.

Any ideas about why the ABS exercise may have caused the increased first-pump pedal travel? Or how to bring back my "way up firm and high" pedal (apologies to Bob Seger)?