Time to replace my pads & Rotors on my S70. I have PBR pads, and they do nothing but squeek, even after 10K on them, even with a generous coating of brake grease on them. I don't want to use the volov stock parts because of all the brake dust. Anyone have any suggestions on what setup of rotors & pad work well, and stay quiet?

Thanks

Common complaint. Here's what I dug up on "PBR brakes" via Google search, NOT good btw........http://www.jimrothe.com/volvo/pbr_brake_pads.html

As for brake dust, I don't like it either BUT if the car is cleaned often enough, the dust isn't THAT bad IMHO.

From the previous link, he has a better choice in aftermarket pads listed at his site: http://www.jimrothe.com/volvo/ebc_green_stuff.html

Might be worth a shot?

The cars I've driven with PBRs didn't impress me either and the wet pad stories are just scary, totally un-exceptable if true.

It's good to see that SOMEONE is taking my warnings seriously.

BTW, I just updated the referenced page. With all of the rain that we've had in the north east over the past several weeks, I can report that wet braking performance is the same as previously reported.

I also wrote a bit more about the brake dust issue: EBC Green Stuff dust is brown, not white (like the PBR Deluxe) or black (like Volvo OEM). Most importantly, though, it doesn't accumulate nearly as quickly as stock.

Lastly, no squeaks! With everything that I've read on this forum and others lately about squealing from aftermarket pads, I thought some owners might appreciate knowing that there's a solution. Note that I used Permatex Disc Brake Quiet on the pads.

Hope that helps.


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Jim Rothe, '99 S70 T5M,
http://www.jimrothe.com/volvo/index.html

I installed the PBR brakes in my 99 s70 last year. Yes they do make a lot of noise, however I haven't encountered any problems when it rains. I hate the brakes on the 99 in general. When I had stock pads the dealer checked the brakes every time I went in, and they never found anything wrong, but the brakes just feel mushy and don't give me a safe feeling. When I go the pbr brake pads, they didn't do much other than they wear less.

Just my two cents.. however if someone knows how to get the brakes on the 99 to feel solid please let me know, short of replacing the wheels I will do anything to it.

Greg

Well, I'm hoping to tackle this problem myself ASAP. When I needed brakes last year, I took it to Midas. They said the rotors all needed replacing and the whole job would be over $600. I said forget it and took the car back. Bought some generic pads and threw them on. The car was fine for quite some time. Now I have also developed mushy brakes and real poor stopping, not to mention squeaking. So, anyway, I figure its time to tackle the rotor issue. While I'm at it, I'm getting all cross-drilled rotors and mintex pads. I have the rears at the moment, but haven't been able to spare the money for fronts. I also just ordered steel-braided replacement hoses. So, if all of this does not fix the mushy pedal, then I think its pretty hopeless. I was going to put the rear pads and rotors on tomorrow, but the car is going to the dealership in a week and a half for a final "pre-warranty-expiration" runthrough. I'm going to have them flush the brake system and put the new hoses on for me. So I'm thinking I'll wait till after that to do the rotors. All depends on how the mood strikes me.

i'll report any findings.

It's interesting that you mentioned this because, just last weekend, I replaced the rear pads on my car. For a change, the pedal is hard now. I had complained about the mushy GM-quality brake pedal feel since I bought the car, used, 35k miles ago. I'm at 57k now.

This was probably the first time they were replaced, even though they were only about half-way through the pad material. For some reason, they were scoring the rear rotors, and I could feel it at the pedal. Like I said, I was only half-way through those pads. Volvo brakes are weird.

Anyway, as I had just flushed the fluid a few weeks earlier when I replaced the PBR front pads, I did not flush or even bleed the fluid this time. What is especially curious is that the pedal feel did not improve at all when I flushed the fluid, but it's solid now, only after changing the rear pads.

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Hmmm... actually, now that I think about it, I DID, in a sense, bleed the brakes. When I did the rear pads, I also took off the aftermarket front rotors and painted the hats. When I expanded the front calipers to ease reinstallation, I forced fluid backwards through the brake lines to the point that the master cylinder overflowed.

I've flushed the fluid on this car several times over the past few years in an effort to cure that mushy brake pedal that you complained about. I've used pressure bleeders, vacuum bleeders, and the old two-man method. Nothing cured it, and it's not as though I haven't done this dozens of times on various street and race cars, always with the expected excellent results. Not on this car, though.

I'm wondering if the "reverse pressure bleed" that I did when I expanded the front calipers made the difference here. Maybe there's something about the Volvo fluid reservoir, master cylinder and ABS that traps some air in there until a reverse pressure bleed is done. Either that, or it was just replacing the rear pads.

In any case, one of those two tasks solved the problem for me. You said you were willing to do anything to fix this. You could do a tremendous service to this online community by trying each of these two tasks and identifying the one that fixes the problem. Let us know.

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Jim Rothe, '99 S70 T5M,
http://www.jimrothe.com/volvo/index.html

Actually I did do the same thing when I replaced my pads last time, didn't seem to help at all. Still mushy GM like feel. (I don't miss the teen years of driving a GM car at all.)