1998 V70 Rear Wheel Rotor Replacement

[MrAl]

Hello,

One of the rear wheels on this vehicle is making a rubbing noise especially when the brake is applied. I have been told it is because the rotor is 'rusty' and it needs replacement.

My question is, how hard is it to replace the rotor?

I have done about 10 brake jobs in the past on various vehicles but they were all on brake drum systems, not brake discs. How much harder is it to work on a brake disc system?
Are there any little replacement parts that should also be replaced , i remember little springs that were replaced on several brake drum systems, that came in a kit, and it was a good idea to replace them although not mandatory, so anything like that for the discs ?

[abscate]

Pull the wheel and take some pix. If the car hasn't been driven a lot, the rotors can look bad but clean up nicely under use.

These cars are a bit strange in that they have both disc brakes in rear, and drum brakes for the emergency/parking/hand brake inside the rotor. With an automatic, its common for people to not use the hand brake and let it corrode into non-functionality.

[MrAl]

Hi abscate,

Oh that is very interesting too. The guy at one of the garages said it was OK to drive like that, but that noise did not sound good, and they did say it was a rusty rotor.
So you mean the sound might go away without repair then?
I have driven about 100 miles with it like that so far, but some of that was on the highway where there was no braking action. When i do drive the car i dont gun it or come to a screeching stop either, so i have only used the brakes gently so far. I wonder if that is enough to help them clean up a little.

Would it help to scrape or lightly sand some of the rust off, assuming that area is accessible?

[scot850]

When you put your foot on the brakes pedal while driving, does the sound reduce, or do you get any pulsing/vibration through the brake pedal?

There is another possibility and that could be the parking brake shoes. With age they can become detached from the steel backing and cause rubbing. That will give you the rubbing sound also.

Does your parking brake work? Again, if it does work, you can get a rust build up on the inside of the parking brake drum portion of the rear rotors. Volvo suggest driving the car for a short distance with the parking brake latched on slightly to clean them off. I am wary of doing that without knowing the condition of the shoes.

What I would suggest is to pull the rear wheels and I believe the 2WD cars have an inspection hole in the front of the drum for parking brake adjustment. You may be able to see through the hole to tell if all is good.

The last issue is the parking brake cable(s) have rusted through and stuck. With the car off the ground, have someone gently pull the parking brake lever and see if anything happens on both sides.

Rear brakes on a FWD V/S70 P80 are not particularly difficult to repair assuming everything comes undone ok.

It may be worthwhile taking the time and pull the rear rotors and clean lube everything and check everything is moving smoothly including the caliper piston(s).

Neil.

[MrAl]

Hello and thanks for the detailed reply,


No pulsing through the brake pedal itself.
When the car is going down the road with no brakes applied there is a slight 'scraping' noise heard, and when the brake is applied the noise turns into a low rumble, like a louder, deeper tone sound that pulsates.

Now that you mention it, i dont think the parking brake works, but i'll try it again tomorrow.
I pulled it back a little one day and it didnt seem to do anything, but i'll pull it back all
the way tomorrow and see what happens.

I'll try that, looking through the hole to see if i can spot anything.

But are you saying that there are actually brake shoes on there too (as well as the disc pads) for the parking brake?

[scot850]

Yes there are parking brake shoes in there too. The rear rotor has a brake drum built into it for the parking brake, and the shoes are inside that.

Not too difficult to remove. There are different brakes, but usually there is a caliper, mounted to a bracket, and all that mounted to the hub.

You need to remove the caliper and bracket, loosen the parking brake adjuster through the hole in the drum front, and off comes the disc/drum.

If you look on this site there are write ups on how to do this.

Be careful if you pull the parking brake up hard that it doesn't lock on!

Neil.

[erikv11]

It's pretty common for the parking brake shoe material to just fall off one of the shoes and be riding around inside the brake drum, I have seen it a few times now. The inspection idea would pick that up.

[MrAl]

Thanks for all the replies, some very useful information i am happy to read about. i also search on the web but i see there is limited information in various areas on these cars.

I will not pull on the brake handle to abruptly, thanks for that info.

I guess now i'll have to take a closer look. I am hoping that to get the thing apart it is a little obvious once you see it, but are there any little tricks that i should know about?
It's been quite a while since i did any brake job at all, and then it was only on the drum type brakes not discs.
I'd like to get this off myself even if i cant fix it for some reason, just so i know a little more about it.

I am also taking pictures of everything so i can post once i get these problems solved.

Another problem that came up was when i went to look for replacement rotors, i find different types for this same year. Not sure at all how to get the right type... any ideas here?

[EstVolvo]

Here is what you may have:

[erikv11]

^^ Yes, EstVolvo's pic shows what I was talking about. Very common.