Re: P80 Pro-Parts parking brake cable issue

Post by **scot850** » 26 Mar 2017, 23:00

I have been in contact with FCP Euro from whom I bought a pair of Pro-Parts Sweden parking brake cables for my 2000 V70 NA project. I have been trying to keep costs down and normally would not use non-OE parts but at 1/4 of the OE part price from FCP and several 4-5 star ratings by users of the parts it was worth the savings surely! Well once again the aftermarket crap part has bitten me in the butt.

I had completed all the repairs (I thought) at the rear of the car and all I had to do was drop the car back on the ground after fitting the rear wheels. As normal I spun the wheels to ensure all was good, but found that they were rubbing on something. Looking up behind the wheels showed the parking brake cables were rubbing against the rear of the wheel rim and tire on one side and bound the other side.

: Pro-part cable binding on rear wheel and tire

I couldn't understand what I had done wrong at first, so took the approach of removing the tire and doing some basic checks. I also posted a request note on VS for help. Robert replied and part of his note was a reminder there should be a plastic tie-back between the rear hub and the mounting point just forward of the rear wheels which pulls the cable away from the wheel and tire. In my defense I have only replaced the parking brake cables on one P80 FWD and that was over 10 years ago and this car had neither tie-back in place and dirt covered the rivet point holes. Usually over time the rivet (aluminum) and the steel of the training arm react and the rivet fails or the plastic band snaps off once it has flexed many times due to plastic aging and flexing. This is how mine were after cleaning the remains of the rivet out. You can see that the Pro-Parts cable has a large gap between it and the trailing arm. I tried to bend it back to where it needed to be but it only pulled the cable out of the rear of the hub:

: Gap between mounting and cable

I had kept the original cables I removed and measured the length of the cable between the hub and the mounting point forward of the rear wheel:

: Measures from here on the hub

To

: To here at the mounting

With the cable tired back correctly, the cable now has plenty of gap between it and the wheel rim and tire:

: OE cable fitment

The overall length of the cables is the same, but it would appear either there is a bad batch out there or the basic manufacturing design from Pro-Parts is faulty. The difference in length of the 2 cables between these 2 points was 1.5" approx.

: The difference can be seen here

Once I fitted the Volvo OE cables shipped from FCP they look like this:

: Hold back strap in place

I have communicated this info to FCP Euro and they are investigating. They shipped out OE cables for cost difference between the parts.

Naturally the work could not go to plan as in trying to remove the Pro-Parts cable on one side the retaining finger in one of the parking brake regulators at the hub snapped off. Now have had to order a new one at $50 CDN from dealer to complete the job.

I hate doing work more than once, and have to say I used to think the AWD cables were a pain, but have to say the FWD are worse. This is mostly to do with the corrosion that forms between the hub and the cable end where it fits. It took a while to figure out why the OE cables would not fit but the Pro-Parts would. The Pro-Parts cable end at the hub is a much more flexible plastic. This allowed it to bend over the rust in the hub to fit. There was no way the OE cables would go in. I have seen several threads on this issue being blamed on the slightly thicker 'O' ring seal on the after market parts. I had swapped these for Volvo parts before fitting, so assumed the OE parts would fit ok. Eventually I realised there was a layer of rust at the end of the hub opening. In true Volvo engineering style, it is near impossible to access until I used my Dremel and some of the fittings it came with to remove this layer. Then with a little Vaseline and a little wiggling they popped into place.

Doing these again (no plans I hope) would make the job easier, but what a pain!

Only bonus (and not a good one) was I found the front fuel pipe seal at the fuel filter is weeping. Another job to investigate. Man are these cars a endless source of pain!

Neil.