Disc brakes and pads

[Heppy1970]

The front pads are close to being worn out. The discs (front and back) are advisory items to be replaced following a MOT.

There are numerous brands out on the market - which ones will suit my car best? Brembo, Mintex, Ferrero?

Opinions welcome.

Look forward to your replies:D

[kebab10]

You don't say what your car is!
Any of the major brands are good. But what sort of car?

[Missing Lincs]

Volvo ones are good, perfectly suited to Volvos :regular_smile:

[Loskie]

Yes but Volvo discs and pads will surely be made for them by the manufacturer that gives them the best deal. So i guess that one year they could be made by mintex the next year ferrodo or similar.

[scooby]

i got pagid on my d5 had no problems with them not bad money from euro car parts just stay away from the cheap ****e

[iainmd]

Yes but Volvo discs and pads will surely be made for them by the manufacturer that gives them the best deal. So i guess that one year they could be made by mintex the next year ferrodo or similar.

Volvo pads and discs (at least for the S40/V50/C30 etc.) seem to have been made by ATE since 2004. Every set of pads and discs I have got have been ATE. The discs don't rust and the pads don't rattle or squeak. I wouldn't buy anything else.

[SonyVaio]

You will find the Volvo ones to be well suited to the car and in general give the least to no problems with noise, squeal etc...

You will also find Volvo disc and pad sets to be pretty competitively priced. There is good stuff out there 3rd party wise and it really comes down to personal choice. I would recommend Volvo sets.

:star-wars-smiley-01

[Clan]

Yes but Volvo discs and pads will surely be made for them by the manufacturer that gives them the best deal. So i guess that one year they could be made by mintex the next year ferrodo or similar.

ha ! No , volvo are very careful in laying down the specifications they want for their discs ( and other car parts ) , they choose the manufacturer who can best meet their quality demands , in fact i wouldnt be surprised if they are made by volvo .The Discs are Made in Sweden .. mintex or ferodo or Pagid have never made volvo discs , ford may do what you describe but not volvo .

[Tony500]

Genuine Volvo ones or Brembo :)

Have fitted Mintex + Pagid a few times with no problems

If you can do the work yourself thats you saves half the money so can spend more on the brakes :)

[scooby]

ha ! No , volvo are very careful in laying down the specifications they want for their discs ( and other car parts ) , they choose the manufacturer who can best meet their quality demands , in fact i wouldnt be surprised if they are made by volvo .The Discs are Made in Sweden .. mintex or ferodo or Pagid have never made volvo discs , ford may do what you describe but not volvo .

i got pagid discs on my d5 euro car parts sell them

[Clan]

i got pagid discs on my d5 euro car parts sell them

I mean Pagid have never made discs for Volvo Sweden to sell as Genuine Volvo Parts .

[Loskie]

ha ! No , volvo are very careful in laying down the specifications they want for their discs ( and other car parts ) , they choose the manufacturer who can best meet their quality demands , in fact i wouldnt be surprised if they are made by volvo .The Discs are Made in Sweden .. mintex or ferodo or Pagid have never made volvo discs , ford may do what you describe but not volvo .



Do you really believe this?
Like most business' specifying parts they will be built up to a certain tolerance and down to a certain cost.
Nothing is over engineered nowadays.

[Clan]

Do you really believe this?
Like most business' specifying parts they will be built up to a certain tolerance and down to a certain cost.
Nothing is over engineered nowadays.

Yes i do ! How long have you been involved with a volvo?

[Loskie]

I have only had my Volvo 5 years but do know a fair bit about manufacturing.

In fact your post seems founded very much on assumptions but then so is mine.
If as one posted states they are made by ATE then is that not part of the Continental group with factories worldwide?

It would actually be interesting if we had the hard facts.

One example of Volvo buying parts to a cost is that you could have several cars of the same model supplied with a couple of different brands of tyre. Next you will be telling me that they make their own tyres.

[Clan]

I have only had my Volvo 5 years but do know a fair bit about manufacturing.

I have been following their practices and policies for over 40 years , volvo do it differently .. One example , each 240 was built by a team of 5 people who stuck together throughout the process , some women involved too , Pride in their workmanship and it showed .

Now if you had your volvo when Ford owned it ,, your assumptions could correct for then ..

[Loskie]

so really you are talking about cars built 25 years plus ago.

[Welton]

My 2005 S40 has a lot of FoMoCo tags and labels on it. For example the new Expansion Tank turned up with a VOLVO sticker over the FoMoCo that was embossed into the plastic.

I think the brake discs/calipers cross over into the Ford Mondeo range so I really don't know where the factory discs were made, who knows?

Most on here report that the Volvo-branded Pads perform well, they have chamfered edges on the lead-in to reduce noise. I fitted some cheap pads from a motor factors and they squealed for the first 10K miles and other than making a lot of dust they have been ok.

Discs are much of a muchness in my opinion and if fitting cheaper discs without the rust protection on the hubs/edges then you can always paint these yourself with HT paint.

[iainmd]

I have owned one Ford era Volvo for 11yrs (S40) and one for 2yrs (V50). All the evidence I have points to Volvo using a single manufacturer for all of that time. I have gone through a number of non-OEM brake parts during this time and 140,000 miles of motoring. Only one thing is constant, every Volvo brake pad whether for 278mm discs or 300mm (front) or rear discs has been ATE stamped and produces much less dust that gets baked onto the inside of the wheel rim than all others I have used (apart from EBC RedStuff but they are ceramic so you'd expect that) and ever disc has had the same painted coating on the hub and has never rusted.

My experience of aftermarket on these cars so far has been:

EBC
TurboGroove discs & RedStuff Pads: maybe great for the track but a bad choice for road use. Discs glazed in 2-3 months and warped in under 6. Became so dangerously ineffective I had to replace them shortly after that. Pads always rattled and constantly needed repacking with copperslip.

Ferrodo
Pads & discs. They are fine in terms of performance but hubs rusted in 1 week and pads produce a lot of dust that makes a mess of the inside of the alloys.

Pagid
Same as above (rear only) but pads rattled in the caliper.

I started out with Volvo OEM brake parts 11yrs ago and I'm back full circle to using them again and have been for the past 4yrs. All of the experience gained leads me to corroborate Clan's posts above that Volvo have used a single manufacturer for these cars for the last 11yrs without change.

In terms of comment about the tyres, they obviously change as manufacturer agreements change. It's pretty obvious since in 2004 they were Pirelli P7, 2010 Continental Sport Contact 2. The writing on the sidewall gives it away.

Believe what you will.

[Welton]

Where's best to but genuine discs and pads? through FRF on here maybe? I need a full set very soon and it sounds like the pricing isn't that far off the aftermarket stuff.

[iainmd]

FRF give good discount. There are a few Volvo parts dealers on ebay but I haven't bought from any:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281592677304?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190469581439?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

£105 to £130 for a set of pads and discs.

[Welton]

Thank you, so I'm looking at £210.00 for all four corners.

It's years since I changed discs/pads but I'm thinking of doing this myself when the weather warms up to save on labour charges. Looks like I need a caliper piston rewind tool and a 7mm Hex socket for the job (among other normal kit).