As far as I’m concerned “use it or lose it” over-rides brand selection when it comes to this set up. If you don’t put it on regularly it doesn’t matter what brand you’ve gone with, they will degrade pr maturely. Having said all that I did go with ATE when I replaced mine.

Rear Brakes Overhaul
 

I finished off doing the rear brakes today on my 2006 XC70..... read a few stories on here about guys doing the whole job in 1 1/2 hours, I would love to have these guys as my mechanic :rolleyes:

As a very much amateur mechanic, it took me near 4 hours on one side and 2.5 hours on the other :omg_smile:

Anyway, I bought a set of OEM discs and pads from partsforvolvos.com who had the set on a special for £108. I bought a set of Shoes, springs and adjusters on ebay, these are Bremtech and found the link on here for these.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HANDBRAKE...72.m2749.l2649

I didn't have a 7mm allen head socket so I cut a piece off an old 7mm caliper key in my tool box which worked a treat on the sliders. Stripping down was relatively easy, getting the disc off the shoes needed some hammer coaxing as a ridge had formed in the bore.

The shoes on the NS had completely gone with only a few delaminated pieces still in the disc bore (drum). The OS had even wear but little left.

Fiddliest jobs for me were removing and fitting the centre springs and refitting the bottom shoe by dragging down on the larger side spring, this needs to fit on the inside on the cable linkage. I also had an issue re fitting the new discs over the new shoes. I loosened the handbrake cable off fully before starting of course but still very tight on the NS and impossible on the OS.

Because I was replacing the H Plate Spacers with adjusters, I measured the slot gap between to 2 slots on both the plate and the adjuster, exactly the same when fully closed (adjuster). I filed a nice chamfer over the leading edge of the new shoes, still no go..... I checked that the shoes were as fully closed at they can be at both ends.... they were indeed. Hit on an idea to remove the adjuster and grind material from both faces (screw slot and pin slot ends of the main body), trial and error got me to a reduction of 4mm between the slot faces was just enough to allow the shoes to close just a little more allowing the disc to tightly slide over.... result!!

I will let these new shoes bed in for a few weeks then I can adjust to take up any slack. You could do this mod with the H spacer plate as well by filing down the faces of the slots to reduce each side, but with the adjusters its obviously got the ability to take up future slack:teeth_smile:

I found the OS more difficult that the NS, put that down to being right handed to getting at things maybe a bit trickier.

The spring tool has gone up to £8
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Dave

Just a quick add-on note if it helps anyone.. re fitting the most difficult spring..

What I found easiest was using a very long thin screwdriver, i had a set anyway, the shaft is like 3 or 4mm by about a foot and a half long. Any thin steel rod would do I guess.

Hook the spring on to the bottom shoe first, then use the screwdriver / rod across the hub for leverage to stretch the top hook into place. It'll sit about half in when you first get it there, then you just hold it steady with needle nose pliers and tap it with a little hammer and it jumps in the rest of the way

Fiddly first couple of times but after that got it in first time every time literally minimum effort.

Just done mine got new backplates and springs new shoes and new hubs all for less that £200 fitted

Use Genuine Volvo Shoes and Prob Pads too.
 

I just wanted to echo what others have said and advise using genuine Volvo Shoes for the handbrake/e-brake.

A couple of years ago I replaced the shoes on my v70 2003 SE, using after-market shoes and then it failed the MOT. I thought it was due to the age of the car and perhaps the handbrake cable, so I had fun & games replacing the handbrake cable, again no dice. So I replaced the shoes with Volvo shoes and hey presto, sailed through the MOTs since.

I heeded the forums advice and I was lucky.....thought I would document it here further...


I also had a real fight fitting the new pads and ended up taking a file to the recesses on the back of the pads where the handbrake expander and H-spacer slot into. Without grinding these sections back the discs wouldn't go over the new pads.....and yes, they were genuine Volvo parts!

This is what happened as I was removing my old pads:

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/attac...3&d=1704581252

Yes happened to me, the handbrake shoes delaminated. I got a new hub assembly from a scrap yard. At the time they were hard to get as it was a common fault. The handbrake shoes didnt appear to be a service item so stayed in place until this happened. If I remember a new hub could be £1000 and that was ten years ago. Use Volvo shoes as they fit. The cable is another failure point and cause the shoes to bind.