Rear brake calipers

[GCM]

I am starting a rear brake pad replacement on my wife's 2008 xc70. How do you retract the caliper to fit over the new pads? I tried using a c-clamp, but it didn't burge. The car is currently in pieces. Can someone tell me how to finish this job?
Thanks.

[XCovlov70]

Hi,
You might just have a slight 'problem'!
If the car has got the EPB then I understand that the pistons have to be retracted electronically, which makes DIY impossible!

[Volvos rock]

go to Swededspeed and check out the 07+ S80 forum. FWIW the parking brake has to be retracted by turning torx nut out and then the caliper spins in...

[beavenx5]

I remember last year when my brother's mechanic installed my new tires on the XC70, he told me to be very careful with this electronic parking brake when changing the pads. There is a little trick to perform (not sure what anymore) but I remember that he warned me to be careul or it could be a costly mistake.

[GCM]

Thanks for the input. I do have the electronic parking brake. I may end up having the dealer install the rear brake pads. Is there anything special on the front? What size wrench do you need th remove the front calipers?

[MartinK]

WRT Front Pads - it's been written-up here:
http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=114564

On the Rear's - I was planning to buy one of these (http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilde...iredresults=16) - when the time comes...

[XCovlov70]

On the Rear's - I was planning to buy one of these (http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilde...iredresults=16) - when the time comes...

Looking at that link it will only "Re-set the Service Light" it will not retract the brake calipers to allow new pads to be fitted.

Sorry misread the details, but considering the rear pads usually last for more than 50,000miles I would take the car into a local garage and ask them to fit new pads when the time came as I think it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than £215!

[Lotus99]

Sorry misread the details, but considering the rear pads usually last for more than 50,000miles I would take the car into a local garage and ask them to fit new pads when the time came as I think it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than £215!

Where did you get that info? Ours only lasted 22,000 miles (almost all city driving), and even the tech there said that these cars have a rear bias for their brakes. Most modern cars seem to be going that way, not sure why. I've heard it's because they are trying to prevent nose-diving in the car when braking. It seems against physics, since most of the braking force you'd think is done by the front b/c of the weight transfer. My current 08 BMW 335's rear are wearing out much faster than the fronts, and exact same thing happened with our 05 Mazda 3. Rears were gone when there was over 50% left on the fronts.

[XCovlov70]

Where did you get that info? Ours only lasted 22,000 miles (almost all city driving), and even the tech there said that these cars have a rear bias for their brakes. Most modern cars seem to be going that way, not sure why. I've heard it's because they are trying to prevent nose-diving in the car when braking. It seems against physics, since most of the braking force you'd think is done by the front b/c of the weight transfer. My current 08 BMW 335's rear are wearing out much faster than the fronts, and exact same thing happened with our 05 Mazda 3. Rears were gone when there was over 50% left on the fronts.

On our last 3 cars I have had over 50K out of the rear pads and the last XC70 was sold at 34,000miles on the clock with around 50% of the 'meat' still on the rear pads.
We did some long hard runs with that car but then again I don't hammer the cars I own but I do look after them, and take the wheels off to make sure all is OK underneath.
Like I said in another post 'Look after your kit, and it will look after you'

[MartinK]

I'm on 31000 miles, all pads have plenty of meat on them - I also expect to get to 50k miles based on current usage....