Handbrake Woes!
 

Afternoon all,

When driving back from a shopping trip today there was a sudden clunk from the rear of the car, i knew it was something to do with the rear brakes straight away. Got home and took the rear wheel off and there were bits of metal at the bottom of the disc guard. Started to lose light at that point, so though I'd go and re-attach the top of my Knuckle!!! Anyway, are the '05 plate V70's on shoes or could this be a pad that has decided to disintergrate?

Help would be much appreciated

Neil

Sounds serious! I would suspect the handbrake but as your going to have to disassemble to get to them you will be able to eliminate the pads. Needless to say the car should not be driven until checked as you could end up trashing the hub at a cost of several hundred pounds ! Good Luck.

As above really, you'll soon see if your parking brake shoes/components have given up the ghost once your rear discs are off.

How does the handbrake feel at the lever?

I wouldn't drive it either until you've had a good look in there.

You may want to take a look at this.

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showth...brake+disaster

Thanks for that Gents, will get the local garage out to it in the morning, at least it happened when I'd booked the week off. Nice one nick, although I do feel a little sick now, will be looking around the scrappies tomorrow I feel for that backing mould! Could always be worse I guess

I have had new shoes sat in the garage for 4 weeks now trying to get a decent day to do them. No noises or odd feeling on the handbrake BUT i know they are a real expensive weak point.


TOMORROW WITHOUT FAIL THEY ARE GETTING CHANGED!!!!!


Good Luck with yours Darryl:thumbs_up:

I would Mate, staring down the barrel of a £500 bill isn't the best feeling, C'est La Vie (I say whilst drinking a glass of cider!:thumbs_up:)

Thanks mate, could do with a little luck at the moment

Enjoy the cider :-)

Your motor is only a couple of years older than mine, out of interest what milage have you done?

Hope you get it sorted without too much bad news.

Separated lining
 

Doesn't only happen to Volvos. Had a rear brake shoe lining completely separated on my daughter's Yaris. But with conventional drum brakes, no further damage. Were checked this time last year and were fully bonded.

Just done 69k miles. There were a few warning signs that I stupidly ignored, the handbrake suddenly pulling up alot further and a funny noise when I reversed on the way out this morning, just thought it was the handbrake sticking.

Well, they are DONE!!!!!!!!!!


Sods law strikes though. My car is a 2006 S60 D5 with 61k on the clock.

Got the rear brakes stripped down and ALL of the shoes were perfect with loads of life left in them and more importantly no signs of delamination.

That made no difference though as i had no intention of spending that time and not fitting the news shoes so in they went.

Handbrake readjusted and all tickety boo.

What gets me is how Volvo can allow a consistently poorly constructed product to be fitted in spite of the number of catastrophic failures????????????

Feeling on a roll i replaced the front pads as i knew they were getting well down and i had a new set on the shelf in the garage.

Not a bad mornings work ,so ready for a well earned cup of tea.

Good luck with yours Neil and hope that it sounds more serious than it actually is but give us an update.


Cheers Darryl:thumbs_up:

You did have a productive morning my friend! It went in to my mates garage this morning, not heard anything back so hoping it's not as bad as I thought, he's going to take it out for a drive and test the brakes as they are shockingly bad normally. I put it down to it being a very heavy car so will wait and see what he says, will keep you updated mate

Darryl,
I did my handbrake shoes a few months ago on a 04, but I re-used the original springs (they seemed OK) but should I have replaced them as well?

thanks
rich

Hi Rich,
no i used the originals as they were absolutely fine and still had loads of tension.

You should be fine:thumbs_up:

Confirmed today that I need a new Hub Assembly at £360! Anyone have a spare one I can buy off them? ha ha. Got in contact with RUFE and Gavin, hopefully one of them can do it a little cheaper, will try a few breakers yards tomorrow, I've had some rotten luck with brakes recently, £750 worth of calipers on my Mazda 6 and now this, I guess they're quite essential though

S**T Neil, bad luck mate, sorry to hear that. Good luck with sourcing parts.

Any Good?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VOLVO-S60-V70-...item43a4b0bc99


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VOLVO-S60-V70-...item45f7d334b5




Darryl:thumbs_up:

Looks like it could be, it's contact with a volvo breaker at any rate, just sent him an email. Much appreciated Darryl

Mine went catastrophically wrong about 10 days ago. I didn't have any warning - just pulled out of a parking space and it went bang - although my wife told me later that there was a horrible grinding noise a few days before but it went away after a few minutes - I'm assuming that was the shoes disintegrating.

Needed everything. Local kwik-fit type place that it happened outside of quoted £1600 and that they wouldn't bother with the value of the car (2001 v70 2.4(170)SE with 80k).

Took it to the independent I usually use and he said it would be £998 including all new Volvo parts. Managed to get the hub casting and backplate for £72 all in so I'm down to about £500.

Not great but a whole lot better than £1600!

Yes, if you can get used parts cheap enough it is a relatively quick and easy task to do yourself stripping the old off and reassembling the new.

It still sounds as though you are being charged an awful lot for labour if your bill is £500.

Darryl

There's a V70 in White Horse Breakers, exeter with both rear hubs intact

01392 811350

Thanks gents, It's a nightmare, tried a whole load of local breakers and ebay this morning, no luck at all. In the end I went to Simon at FRF volvo, got all the parts including new shoes and all the springs for £475 which I'm really happy with, but not as happy as I would be if I'd got it for £72, nice one k-dog, glad you managed to get the parts for that much. I'll be handbrakeless for the next week until I get it sorted, parts should arrive on tuesday or wednesday. Thanks for all the input, wish I lived closer to exeter! Much appreciated gents

The rest of the charge is a couple of hours labour at something like £60 and new discs and some suspension part that was damaged when it was broken.

Ah, that's different then. Your getting a fair bit for your money .

Cheers Darryl:thumbs_up:

Use it or loose it?
 

Dont know if youve seen this thread on a very similar theme..

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=108059

I think its well worth applying the handbrake when rolling at a slow speed to allow some friction and perhaps remove any rust buildup on the inside of the drum, when you think about it the inner 'drum' brakes are unlike say a car that might only have a drum brake on the rear where the shoes are actually used for braking. On a S60/V70 this would never get any friction between the shoes and drum if you only used it when stationary (as im sure most people do).

I could imagine there could possibly be a fair build up of rust on the inner drum surface. Certainly the cold and damp conditions would all add to this - only my theory has anyone else found similar ?

Yes i agree and this practice is even mentioned in the Haynes manual under the section for adjusting the handbrake.

I think that if you were to LIGHTLY pull on the handbrake at VERY slow speed for a SHORT distance once or twice a month , the internals would probably benefit.

I intend to do this now that i have fitted new handbrake shoes and got everything adjusted properly.

Darryl:thumbs_up:

Handbrake turns
 

Hi Darryl,

Yes i meant lightly pulling up on the handbrake, not trying to lock the wheels ! (i actually doubt its capable of that anyway!) you can notice quite a difference in the noise if the car has been left standing for a few days, so I do think that rust must build up on the drum, a bit like if you wash the car and the discs get wet youll have some 'rust' happening on the discs which gets removed the first time you brake (i usually make sure the discs get dried off by taking the car for a short run & using the brakes after ive washed it).

The haynes manual says drive for 400m with the handbrake on slightly, will do it every couple of weeks when i have a handbrake again, currently left in gear outside the house, good job I live in the flatest area in the country! No need for handbrakes really in the fens!

Hi,
oh yes i knew that you meant doing this procedure lightly/gently :thumbs_up: and if i were you i would continue doing it. My drums had a small build up of rust on the inside of the rim of the drum where the shoes made no contact.

I cleaned all of this off before installing all the new parts and once assembled i did the above procedure to make sure that nothing was going to foul or come loose and then finally readjusted the handbrake.

What i cannot understand is that in all the years that i have been driving
( over 40 ) i have never personally had a vehicle where the friction material has parted from the backing plate and yet Volvo seem to manage to get such crap adhesive that this is a regular EXPENSIVE failure.
Why on earth did they not simply have the friction material riveted on the shoes ( like they used to be when drum brakes were common place ) when these problem first became apparent to them.

Even though i have all new parts in i cannot say that i am now relaxed because there is obviously an inherent fault in manufacture.

Cheers Darryl

My hand brake shoes suffered the same fate a year or so ago, but fortunately I changed them before any lock-up hub damage occurred.

Before fitting the new shoes I drilled and inserted 2 copper brake shoe rivets at each end of the shoes - (the copper rivets are still fairly easily obtainable and easy enough to fit).

I shall be very surprised if I get any further trouble:thumbs_up:

Now were talking . Good move!

Do any OEM brake co's do a different version
 

Good idea on riveting John, I wonder if any of the numerous brake friction parts manufacturers would do an improved version with additional riveting?

Sounds like it would be a very sensible thing to fit, is it possible to get the handbrake shoes from any other sources than volvo orig parts?

Found this link which gives some others experience of the S60/V70 handbrake

(http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/po...ex.htm?t=38755)

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/po...ex.htm?t=38755

Update!

All is done, needed a new fitting kit too in the end. So my friend only charged me 4 hours labour, saved me a few bob. £175 labour, £614 for parts, this includes the front brake pads being replaced and an MOT at £25. £789 in total!

Moral of the story, Go for VAG!

Only kidding, real moral, the brake shoe's disintergrating are a bugger, worth a check!!!

Glass of red wine I think, Thankyou for the input and help gents,

Always appreciated, one day I will post a positive thread, I'm determined!

Off to the desert for a few months so will be absent for a while depending on internet access out there, enjoy our beautiful british spring on my behalf!

Neil

Hi Neil, pleased you are sorted.

If you are going somewhere IFFY watch you back mate and safe return.

Kind Regards Darryl:thumbs_up:

Dont forget ..
 

Hi Hunty,

Dont forget to try some regular rolling handbrake usage, youll be surprised in the difference to the noise if its been standing a few days, and as darryl says keep safe on your travels & good luck.. probably best to pack some rear brake shoes incase you come across some dodgey V70s! :)

Just replaced the handbrake shoe's today after handbrake had been sticking on after sitting overnight and an unhealthy scrapping noise when handbrake was applied when rolling at walking pace.
Fairly easy job to do with no problem areas. I was expecting to see linings that would have been seperating from the metal shoe but when stripped down everything was ok with no sign of lining seperation. Replaced them anyway so should sleep easy tonight. :thumbs_up:

Yep, same with mine when i got them stripped down but as you say, it's a nice feeling knowing everything is back together with new bits and no worries.

Darryl:thumbs_up:

Bon Chance Hunty.

Thanks gents. More iffy for others out there. If the locals out there have v70's I would be most surprised and cautious! But will definately tell them of the brake shoes issues!

Having read this thread paranoia set in so took the car up to my local main dealer who offered to look at the shoes FOC (which was really good considering the time that needed to be spent to get the discs off. ) As soon as we did we found the shoes were delaminating so now new shoes, slight dent in wallet but much peace of mind!

Not sure if I agree with the witch hunt of non riveted shoes. Last time I checked some helicopter rotors are glued together.