Upgrading brakes
 

Hi

I have a 2014 V70 and wondering if there are anything to be done to upgrade the brakes? I raised concerns when I bought the car that it can take a lot of pedal work to stop the car at times, I was told to let the pads bed in, as they were replaced when I bought the car (Fronts only).

The car is actually in Volvo dealer this week as the Tmap sensor started to fail, and got them to check the brakes and report has comes back all fine, apart from maybe needing rear pads in 3-4000 miles time, they are working as they should.

So now I know they are fine, what can I do to get more feel, more bite etc from the brakes?

During my performance Jspec time, we would put in some fast road pads, better fluid and braided brake lines, but if that has been done before is it best to leave alone or worth doing? I am not a late braker, I just want more feel from them and a little more responsiveness.

In principle there are two aspects to the brakes; the caliper/pad/disc combination and the servo system. Some cars' servos remove a lot of the "feel" from the brakes, especially if they have hydraulic pumps powering the automated brake functions like stability systems. The brakes work perfectly but you lose a lot of the feedback through the pedal. You notice this if you move from a car without a power pumped brake provided stability system to one that has it. On a former car with four pot Brembo calipers, I upgraded to a later model which had the same brakes but also had a brake stability system hydraulics pump and spent the first couple of months complaining to the dealer that there was something wrong with the brakes as I'd come from the "same" car, I "knew" how the brakes should feel and the brakes on the new one had very little feel. The brakes worked perfectly, they just didn't have very much feel. Eventually I just got used to it and didn't think anything of it.

As far as the actual breaking components, it is always possible to substitute ones that provide extra braking power and in the absence of feedback through your right foot, you get g-force feedback when you brake hard but it really may not be necessary to have such fierce grabby brakes and they may have other less desirable characteristics such as only working well when they are hot, hard driving hot. Or you could get faster pad wear, or faster disc wear or both. Ultimately you need to decide whether the braking system is adequate for the way and the places you drive and bear in mind that Volvo probably spent considerable sums of money designing, developing and testing the brake system on your car and they made decisions to suit the use to which most owners would put the car. If you still think that you want a fiercer brake action and are not racing the car, perhaps softer pads which grab the disc at less than flat out speeds might suit your driving but although soft pads will prolong the life of the discs, they will themselves wear away quicker.

Of course I may just be giving grandma egg sucking lessons!

That pretty much sums up exactly what I am experiencing, although I have not had a V70 before (only 53 XC70 and a V50, the V50 brakes had that bite, loved the brakes on that car, about the only thing I did like about it mind you)

Hence my reaching out. As I get that, however as my previous post in the performance car world you do get companies that can improve on OEM, take Brembo or AP racing, they would not exist if they could not improve on OEM. So was reaching out if that is the case for Volvo cars too, as my example does not fit all cars.

My racing days are over unless I buy another sports car.

I'm sure there's been a similar thread on brake "feel" before.

I've always been very happy with the brakes on my 2011 D3, (except when the dealer put the wrong pads on) and nailing them in an emergency has meant ABS kicking in, so they must be doing the max according to available road grip.

I guess it's a question of how you like/expect your brake pedal to feel. My first car was a mini with drum brakes all round, so for me a well maintained servo assisted brake system is ALWAYS going to feel good!

Has the car got genuine Volvo discs and pads fitted? If not - that's the place to start.

A few years ago when I had a Passat company car I took it to Kwik Fit to get it's winter tyres fitted and as I left it with them they managed to talk the lease company into them replacing all the discs a pads. Obviously you get what the local motor factory has on the shelf and the difference was a bitter disappointment.

That, I do not know. I have only had the card months. For disks I got the car with 47k miles so I think they might be originals.

Rears are about done, and I will be getting them done at Volvo. Fronts where replaced on purchase and I bought the car from a Volvo Dealer (Stoneacre though). They should be, but they also replaced the rear tyres and stuck budgets on. So it is anyone’s guess.

She does stop, what I am feeling is what I quoted in my last post.

My MY10 xc70 runs mintex disks all round, mintex pads front and volvo Rear.
Never had a problem with brake feel or performance in any situation from fast rural to motorway towing.

Have in the past used competition linings on cars, stopped quicker from 60 than 30 and had to apply handbrake as I pulled off first thing in order to stop at end of the road. Driven servo and non servo cars, all differed in the feel they gave. The more advanced and idiot proof the car, the less feel you got. Test drove a 2017 xc90, fully loaded, adaptive cruse etc, brakes worked well but felt like sponge when used manually. No amount of tweaking would make them feel right for me.

Paul.

I replaced the discs on my first XC70 P2 with grooved discs from https://www.godspeedbrakes.co.uk/ together with matching kevlar "fast road" pads.

They build to order and specialise in fast road, race and rally applications. Know their stuff and not expensive.

They also supplied for my Range Rover Sport and now with over 60k miles of late braking and towing heavy loads, still got plenty of life.

Simple but effective upgrade for similar price to OE if not less.

I run 2 V70's : A P3 2014 D5 and a 2004 P2 AWD R. Both run with genuine dealer brake parts. Despite the R having 4 pot caliper brakes, its the D5 which has to my mind the "better" brakes. (based on how fast they stop the car) They are a little lighter to the touch, and can make the nose seriously dip under provocation.
The AWD R brakes are good too, but take a slightly heavier push to get the same retardation.
Either are light years ahead of my daughters Jazz, C4 Picasso, or V50.

I do note however, apparently I am a lighter than normal user of brakes, as (according to Clan) the P3 tends to use the rear brakes more if you are lighter than usual on your brakes. - some voodoo/witchcraft that keeps the rear brake discs shinny. - and its my rears that wear faster than the fronts.

Cheers
Bob

The standard brakes should be fine.... no excellent, but it should be possible to upgrade the front discs to 336mm, with just the caliper carriers replaced too.