V70 Brakes: Handbrake Woes!

[Paffel]

I took my rear discs off to have a look after getting popping noises at low speed, struggling to engage and the cable was only pulling on one side.

Glad I did, one side had completely de-laminated, and I was very pleased to change them quickly (I had a 400 mile journey the following day!)

[V70hubMan02]

Originally Posted by andre

Surprise!!! . I didn't know I have brake shoes as well as disc pads on the rear wheel thingies . I thought that the hand brake operated the rear pads. Wrong.. locked wheel - broken hub housing.. Volvo want £1485 to fix it. I located a second hand housing , paid my £100 , part was in wales , it was striped off the donor car posted & arrived the next day. What a service, give that man a pat on the back..With the aid of Mr Haynes fine book I will attempt to make things good, looks simples. However Mr Volvo dealer has spoken of magic that only he can perform, The act of realigning the wheels . Mr Haynes doe's not mention this in his book. So boys & girls what do you say ? Do I need Mr Volvo's magic or shall I tell him where to stick his wound.



Andre'

Andre,

Just done my first post having just suffered the same probs with my V70, Can you advise best steps to find a breaker/ 2nd user parts as you did?

I need a Back Plate, Hub Carrier and handbrake linkages, actuator etc.

Member name is V70hubMan02 better know an as Geoff.
Can you help me as I'm a bit in shock at the moment!

[Nick44]

Hi Geoff,
Best place I know for seconhand parts is the Salvo Group.
They do mail order and are sensibly priced.

http://www.salvogroup.co.uk/

As you are new you can't PM me, but you will find my phone number in the club magazine if you want a chat.

[DAitchison]

Hmmm, i've just bought a 54 plate S60 D5 with 96k on the clock and apart from a handbrake that seems high i've got no problems. However this is a scary thread!

Did Volvo ever recognise this as a potential case for recall??

I'm super paranoid now as the weekend is gone and i've got a full week of driving to and from work ahead.

Think my next visit is to euro car parts and start thinking about setting some time ahead to do this. I'm reasonably handy with mechanics but for some reason handbrakes and the shoe replacement has daunted me.

I've saved a previous write up but was wondering since the thread has evolved if there are any further pitfalls to be aware of?

[Nick44]

@DAitchison.
It is rare for them to go bang quite as badly as they can, chewing up the entire hub assembly and destroying everything.
However, it can happen.
Moral of the story is to simply check them, as you should with everything else on your car.
As you have just bought yours if you bought it from a dealer and are unlucky enough to have this happen then you should have recourse to them.
If you read through the full thread here you will find more stories of how bad they were, and fixed in time, than the full self-destruct, so don't worry uneccessarilly.
Don't buy parts until you have had a look, dropping the caliper and pulling off the disc to have a look is not much work to satisfy yourself and stop worrying.
The most common tell-tale I have heard of is pulling away from a handbrake on position in reverse, a "pong" or "clunk" as the drive takes up is usually the give away.
No, Volvo have never had a recall on it, I guess because the whole reason the hub destroys itself in the event of this type of failure is a safety one. The alloy stop for the shoes snaps off, the hub then can rotate and does not lock up, and therefore you still remain in control of the car until you can safely stop.
I have never got to the bottom of why the shoes de-laminate. There are several different schools of thought. One is that it is caused by water entering the drum space ( as this often seems to happen after a good wash) another is that on auto cars most people don't use the handbrake, using "park" instead so they never get used, the other is that it is caused by a sticky handbrake cable so that the shoes do not completely clear the drum and so overheat, thus degrading the glue that sticks the Ferodo material to the steel shoe carrier.
My money is on the sticky handbrake cable, especially on auto's as above, but that's just my opinion.

[DAitchison]

Thanks - i'll make some time this week to get the thing in the air and have a check. i've got an idea of parts prices too. Which by the way are brilliant, but i've just sold a 2006 MSport BMW 5 series where parts prices were eye watering.

[Nick44]

If you have a look further up towards the start of the thread, I have posted the Volvo part numbers and prices.
Personally, I never use patent parts unless financially Volvo give me a kick downstairs in the soft bits.

[AussiePete]

Hi Folks

Which are the best handbrake shoes to get ???

Cheers

P.

[Nick44]

At £28 + VAT, why bother with non volvo ones?
Brakes are rather important.

[hunty]

Geoff,

Sorry for the late reply, not been on here for a while.

I got all new parts from FRF Volvo swansea using their discount code over the phone. it was still a mighty sum! It came to over a grand in total to sort, I didn't do it myself, I paid to have it done at a local independant. It's the stop block on the hub carrier that is the critical part, if that has sheared, it's going to have to be a new one I'm afraid.

It's great that so many of you are catching this problem, wish I'd seen the brake disaster thread before mine went, top Idea to put it as a sticky.