Had occasion to change my rear disk's (rotors) this weekend, when i took the first one off the friction linings on BOTH Handbrake shoes were totally detached at one end, i touched one and it fell off - the other wasnt far behind....

I took the other Disk off...and one of the friction linings fell out of the back....

I hadnt noticed anything weird etc so i guess they were sitting where they should purely by habbit!

it cant be good for the MPG and i suspect it could be downright anoying if they jambed up (if not dangerous)

This was on a 95 car and i suspect they were original...it may be worth checkign yours (it IS a bit of a pain as you have to remove the rear wheel, unbolt the caliper and remove the disk to check!, tip wind the adjuster on the brake shoe fully in BEFOR removing the disk to make it easy - and adjust it back afterwards!)

If you ignore the initial warnings -- the LOUD noise -- the whole brake and wheel assembly can lock up.

I hear it's a real pain to get things apart say if it happens when your car is parked in the garage!

-BTC

'98 V70 T5 5-speed, 167k mi, front IPD stabilizer bar, rear factory HD bar, Bilstein HD, Volvo strut tower brace and skidplate, e-codes, V-1, Mobil-1 since new

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." -- Douglas Noel Adams (1952-2001)

hmmm ididnt have any noise on mine - but then again it didnt lock up so maybe i would have had noise at some point....before it locked up...

essentially i recon i wil now put it into my ammintenance schedule to strip once a year and check....that said i bet they were original fit and been on 10 years an 100k miles...

Happens pretty frequently when the car is driven through water. By th way, it's not intended as an emergency brake but a parking brake.

yeh actually i would call it a handbrake being from the UK, but i noticed the US citizens here tend to call it an e-brake so i was trying to be multi-cultural!
my car certainly doesnt see much water (unless you count just normally wet roads)


interestingly changing them has made about 2mpg difference in a positive direction so well worth the effort!