Genuine vs Motorfactors brake pads

[monkeh]

Has anyone gone and done the unthinkable and bought pads from the main dealers? Is the quality just the same as the APEC or Ferodo/Generic motorfactor standard brake pads? Obviously without the centre cutout they squeak like hell, Like my 760 did on the £10 hellfrauds pads...

[Steve940estate]

I bought a set for the rear of my car and they are made in India ! They seem to be ok though.
I nearly got some Apec ones although that was only because their website is very good. There wasn't a huge difference in price.
I really hope that they are made to a higher spec than the factors ones but you really don't know.
They are probably all made in the same factory !

[CTCNetwork]

Hi,

I have always bought the genuine Volvo one. Did try some "other" pads but gave them up after a week because of the noise.

I don't usually pay full whack for them though.. :)

Des. . . ;)

[monkeh]

I think Ill give Rufe a shout, the pads on my car were nearly new when I bought it, Im sure they were genuine. I did see a volvo stamp on them. They lasted nearly 3 nears and 40k so I think they did well.

[smithy]

ive used apec ,mintex,feredo ds2500 and these were all good

[Prufrock]

Brakes.

Would only use OEM quality.

Prufrock.

[azibux1]

Definatley OEM, better performance and no noise

[migrator]

Only ever bought Volvo pads when they were on eBay. Normally I go to the local motor factors and buy a 'set of pads for a ... '. I do not recall any lack of performance or any additional noise (at least the cars have always stopped straight and nobody asked 'What was that noise?' :) ).

[GMad]

Brembo pads for me, better than genuine and a tad cheaper too (if you know where to go).

[azibux1]

Only ever bought Volvo pads when they were on eBay. Normally I go to the local motor factors and buy a 'set of pads for a ... '. I do not recall any lack of performance or any additional noise (at least the cars have always stopped straight and nobody asked 'What was that noise?' :) ).

Some non-gen pads make squeaking noises (the ones that were on my volvo when I bought it made a terrible noise and the ones Des mentioned above were noisy), some dont make so much noise though (the ones you have) but when buying genuine volvo ones then there is less chance of suffering from noise problems. I'm not trying to argue, I'm just saying what I think :)

Brembo pads for me, better than genuine and a tad cheaper too (if you know where to go).

I guess I was wrong in saying better performance, because as you say brembos would perform better.

Also where is the place to go? Might be needing new pads soon and I've always only bought Volvo ones but might consider brembos if you say they perform better and are cheaper. Do you have to have brembo disks too or not?

[GMad]

Also where is the place to go? Might be needing new pads soon and I've always only bought Volvo ones but might consider brembos if you say they perform better and are cheaper. Do you have to have brembo disks too or not?

I actually got them from an independant motor factors in the West Midlands (I just happened to be passing!)
But I'm sure a little interweb searching would yield results..

[TonyS9]

I'm an Engineer and do alot of component selection, there are several problems with pattern parts

They are usually 'copies' of the original parts and measurements have been taken, rather than the original 'specification' used. When you add the manufacturing tolerance of the original part to the measurement tolerance and the manufacturing tolerance of the new part you can be way off. I've ruined a set of disk using cheap pads that sat in the wrong place.

There is also cheap materials and poor quality construction.

There is nothing exceptional about Volvo branded pads, there are just from a reputable manufacturer made to a good specification that matches the other components. If you can find the same manufacturer outside Volvo it will be alot cheaper, and many pattern parts such as Ferrodo do a better Engineering job of copying (eg measure more parts and take the average or figure out the original spec) and use decent material and manufacturing processes.

[wooble]

When working as a mechanic, I would always select carefully the brand of pads I would fit to a car. Most motor factors offer an in-house brand which is often as not rubbish (I'm looking at you, euro car parts and Eicher brakes) and also will offer a more expensive part made by a respectable manufacturer which is comparable to an OE pad.

At the last brake change on my 240, I fitted Mintex discs and EBC green pads. The discs were of a very high quality, no complaints at all there. The pads required the edges to be filed slightly as they were an overly tight fit in the caliper, but aside from that I have no complaints about them, they've stopped my car quickly and silently for over 5000 miles.

[rickwales]

My volvo s6o D5 did 265,000 miles and it had two front brake pad relines and one set of discs in that time ehich was quite awesome, genuine parts were used

it had 3 rear relines and two sets of rear discs which were not genuine in that time

[Paddy Wagon]

Most car manufacture's including Volvo dont use their own manufactured parts for the brake's, electrics, whatever, they they use components supplied by the likes of Lockheed, Bosch etc, so if you have a Lockheed braking system on your Volvo, buy the replacements direct from Lockheed, they are excatly the same as the pads fitted at the Volvo factory, except their about half the price Volvo will charge, same with an alternater, Bosch is pretty much the standard alternator on Volvo's, so again buy a replacement from Bosch and you get an excact factory spec item for a lot less money. Over the past 33 years I've fitted untold thousands of sets of brake pads and a good rule of thumb when buying replacements pads is to look at what you actually get in the box. If you get a clearly printed instruction leaflet, new anti-squeel shims, new retaining pins etc, and the actual pads have a "clean" look to them with a hard smooth braking surface, then your generally getting a good set of pads. If all you get in the box is just the pads and the pads themselves are "rough" looking, ie, lumpy paint on the backing plate and the braking surface feels rough and powdery, then you can pretty much be assured their crap quality pads.

[RealEstate]

I got my new front pads from RUFE on here, SWales Volvos, excellent service as usual. They are marked 'Volvo' but made by Roulunds, a Danish Co and marked 'Made in India' - apparently they have factories around the world. Very quiet and working fine after a few thousand miles.

[tessie]

Hi Guys
Anyone had experience of PFS "own brand" brake discs and pads (for 1996 940 LPT in this case)? See link, below. Looking for reasonable quality for reasonable price - don't want rubbish, but at the same time don't drive hard so don't really need or want to pay for huge performance. For what its worth want to avoid the squeally brake noises - had this before on another car years ago and drove me bonkers! Was looking at Europarts but kind of put off by some comments on this thread and the PFS items seem to represent a price performance compromise (says OE quaility, Swedish supplied)? Does this supplier have a good name on the Forum?
Cheers
Stuart

http://www.partsforvolvosonline.com/default.php?cPath=52_54_908

[Apoplectic]

I replaced mine with some cheapos from a local auto part store. No noise, no noticeable loss in performance, but it does leave my wheels caked with brake dust.

[yoda960]

Isn't squeaking just caused by no copper grease on the back of the pads? Pads shouldn't squeak just because they are cheap

[940_Turbo]

The genuine Volvo ones are rubbish nowadays. I tend to use ATE pads and disks bought from a factor, better and a fraction of the price.