95 SL2 Brake problem

my dad has a 95 saturn sl2 the other day i drove it and noticed the pedal went nearly to the floor before the car would stop. new rotors and pads, new rear shoes later and the pedal still went nearly to the floor. ah ha it must be the master cylinder. we bought a remand master and followed the instuctions to a tee. primed it and bled it etc. we thought it was fixed but no difference. we then bled all 4 wheel like 5 times and bled the master a couple of more times and no change. we thought faulty master cylinder so we bought a brand new one. spent half an hour priming it and bleeding it. put the new one on and still no difference. re-bled all wheels over and over again. the car stops but the pedal is so close to the floor. ran out of ideas. took the car for an e-test and the garage said the car was not safe because of the brakes. any ideas?

If it hold pressure while off and while on then your master cylinder is fine. This also means that there are no leaks.

If your a new owner of saturn you'll find that ALL saturn s-series have pedals rather low to the floor relative to most cars.

Another thing to do is to check your rear brakes. You have drum brakes that more than likely need to be adjusted. You want them to drag on the inner drum while the brakes are NOT pressed. Adjusting the rear brakes is ESSENTIAL to any brake service.

I would bleed the brakes if I was you............ and check wheel cylider at the drums.....

In his post he stated he has bled the brakes several times. Sounds to me like the rear brakes need adjustment and the self adjusters aren't working properly.

when we did the back brakes, we adjusted them so the drum just fit over the shoes and as you turn the drum it has a bit of friction. but taking some of the above advice we took it to a garage and had a inspection done. they checked all the brakes front and rear. all were done correctly and adjusted right. they noticed the new master cylinder also. in the end they did not know what to do about the low pedal either. but they said they hear a clicking noise as you apply the brakes. coming from the pedal area. everything seemed secure and tight. can't see it being a broken rod as when we changed the master cylinder again to the new one we checked the rod and it came out fine when we pressed the pedal. not sure what to do. but thanks for the suggestions.