Poor Brakes in Audi Avant

[paul.heneghan@bbc.co.uk (Paul Heneghan)]

I test drove a 1989 Avant 2.3 a couple of days ago and it seemed OK except 
for poor brakes.  The symtoms were: very firm pedal, needed a lot of 
pressure to achieve reasonable braking.

Any ideas why this could be?

I have a 1983 Avant 2.2 at the moment so I assumed the brakes would be 
similar.  I tried to test the bomb, but because the pedal was so firm to 
start off with I couldn't really tell when I lost assist (I tried around 40 
pumps and there was a gradual very slight increase in firmness of the 
pedal).

Have the brakes changed between 1983 and 1989?

What is the chamber (with lots of brake pipe connections) that sits on top 
of the master cylinder for?

Thanks for any answers.

Paul
paul.heneghan@bbc.co.uk
1984 Audi 80 quattro
1983 Audi 100 Avant