240 DL Ugly Brake Noise

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240 DL Ugly Brake Noise[ALL/1998] posted by Scott H. Noakes on
Thursday, 10 April 1997, at 2:13 p.m.

I have had a 1989 244DL for about six months now. I have been having a problem with bad noises coming from my front brakes. The noise is best described as a 'grunching' or 'grinding' noise; it is not a squeal. Sadly, the noise is intermittent. It seems to be a little louder on the right side than on the left side.

The noise can come whether I am braking hard or soft, whether it's hot or cold outside, and whether it's raining or not. I notice no loss in braking power between a 'noisy' brake and a 'quiet' brake. I may have both noisy and quiet braking sessions within the same drive.

To fix the problem, I replaced the pads & rotors on all four wheels. The previous rotors were original (85 kmiles), the new rotors are something cheap. The new pads are semi-metallic, again something cheap.

After doing this, the noise went away for a good while, but it has since come back. The noise was so strange I replaced the inner & outer bearings and races (with Volvo parts) at the same time as the pads/rotors. This was maybe 4000 miles ago. I recently inspected the pads & rotors, and I don't see anything wrong. Goodyear charged me $20 to tell me they were "OK". There is very light wear on the rotors (can still see the original scoring marks), and the wear seems to be even on both sides of the rotor.

I am wondering if this is simply a pad material issue, or if there is something ugly wrong with, say, the calipers or something... Any Ideas?

Thanks, Scott

Re: 240 DL Ugly Brake Noise[ALL/1998] posted by Stoney on
Thursday, 10 April 1997, at 8:01 p.m.

Scott, Could be that the calipers are worn and are moving a bit when you brake. Also did you check the all bushings on front end? I got kind of a similar noise and it turned out to be a siezed caliper.

Re: 240 DL Ugly Brake Noise[ALL/1998] posted by Scott H. Noakes on
Friday, 11 April 1997, at 9:55 a.m.

Hi Stoney,

Thanks for your reply. In answer to your question, I have done a little looking... Please pardon my butchery of terminology.

I think the bushings for the (sway bar? the big c-shaped rod that goes across the width of the car) are ok - I see rubber that has some minor surface cracking, heaven knows what's going on 'inside' them. Same story for the links (short, dogbone shaped) between the 'sway bar' and the (reaction arm?: the big "A"-shaped arm between the frame and the strut tower). I am less certain about the front and rear 'reaction arm' bushings because I'm not too sure what I'm looking at there.

Are you chasing the thought that wheel misalignment could be causing excess lateral stress on the disc, and that the amount of misalignment changes when I drive, due to play in the bushings?

I thought about this and replaced the outer tie rod end and balljoint on the right side - the rubber seals were shot, but it turns out the joints weren't in too bad of shape. Of course, I got it aligned after replacing them. A creaking noise comes from the tie rod inside the steering boot when I load that corner of the car, but I'm afraid to mess with that right now.

Is there a way to troubleshoot a caliper?

Regards, Scott Noakes

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