Lately, my brakes have felt weaker than before. The pedal also needs to go much farther down before it will stop my vehicle. Is this just worn pads/rotors, or could it be the master cylinder or something else? The pads do appear to be worn, but could something else be acting up?

 

look under the rear end and check the back off the drums if you see fluid on one side its a wheel cylinder, other then that pull the wheels and visually check the pads and shoes... also check all brake lines make sure none are wet indicating a cracked/broken line

 

My brakes were as you describe and I needed new pads up front.

Actually I did speedbleeders, new pads, calipers and rotors up front, new shoes, cylinders, hardware and turned the drums in back but 90% of the soft pedal was due to worn pads up front. The xj was new to me and I wanted the brakes as good as possible. Now they are freaking excellent.

 

Probably just pads up front (my 98 is like that, whereas my wife's 98 has brakes of steel), but also check out back and make sure your drums/shoe combo is adjusted right and the self-adjusters/self-adjuster system are still working.

 

x2 on rears adjust and check

 

Thanks guys, I'll check the rear today. I checked the front out last night and found that there was actually plenty of front brake pad left, and the rotors were well above minimum thickness, though the inside on the passenger side was a little scored. So all in all, the front looked alright.

 

check your master cylinder to see in the fluild is low,in case you didnt yet, if its low, then its leaking somewhere. check all the spots the other guys said.