How stuck are your brakes? Mine are nearly constantly making some sort of noise or another. Ranges from squeaking/squealing to a light rubbing sound. Whatever is making the noise is clear enough from the rotors to drive normally. Just really annoying. I’m planning on bringing it in to the dealer to have them looked at after the holidays.

 

The two problems I have seen mentioned most often here seem to be:

Rocks under the water shield on the front brakes causes squeaks and scraping sound.

Rear pads wearing fast and the inside wearing faster (which is hard to visually check).
Rear rotors sometimes ruined when the pads wore out faster then you would expect.

I've not really seen anything about stuck brakes. I've had the rock problem but no other
problems and coming up on 60K with original pads and rotors, front and rear -- will be changing soon

 

Hmm interesting. My wife has an XC90 that's almost 2 years old. It had the back brakes break off on one side and damage the rotor. Volvo charge me $800 and said it's not covered under any kind of warranty since it's a wear and tear part. I should go post over there and see if people are seeing something similar. Not sure how many parts are shared but design principals are usually very similar.

 

The brakes don't get stuck so to speak but the characteristic wear of the inner pad on a parking brake equipped caliper is probably what you are referring to. Frequent use of the parking brake will accelerate wear of the inner pad even quicker.
In a market where you may drive on treated roads in the Winter, it's also more likely to have corrosion form between the pad and caliper guide and will cause the pads to "stick" in the guide thus accelerating wear. Caliper guides can also get a buildup of brake dust making the pad move less and increase wear. Proper washing of the vehicle including the brakes is a good idea.
I've also run into on more than one occasion, rusty brakes on one side and accelerated wear on that side. My first question is do they park on their driveway and do they have lawn sprinklers? Usually the answer is yes to both but one lady wanted to argue that but admitted that there are sprinklers at her work next to her parking spot.

As for noise, Volvo Genuine Pads will be your least likely pad to make noise. If you don't like brake noise, don't cheap out on pads or buy Ceramic pads. Rotor composition can also have a large effect on noise so going with the rotors that were engineered for your vehicle would be a wise choice.

Hope this helps

 

The brakes don't get stuck so to speak but the characteristic wear of the inner pad on a parking brake equipped caliper is probably what you are referring to. Frequent use of the parking brake will accelerate wear of the inner pad even quicker.
In a market where you may drive on treated roads in the Winter, it's also more likely to have corrosion form between the pad and caliper guide and will cause the pads to "stick" in the guide thus accelerating wear. Caliper guides can also get a buildup of brake dust making the pad move less and increase wear. Proper washing of the vehicle including the brakes is a good idea.
I've also run into on more than one occasion, rusty brakes on one side and accelerated wear on that side. My first question is do they park on their driveway and do they have lawn sprinklers? Usually the answer is yes to both but one lady wanted to argue that but admitted that there are sprinklers at her work next to her parking spot.

As for noise, Volvo Genuine Pads will be your least likely pad to make noise. If you don't like brake noise, don't cheap out on pads or buy Ceramic pads. Rotor composition can also have a large effect on noise so going with the rotors that were engineered for your vehicle would be a wise choice.

Hope this helps

I have heard the noise you are are talking about before from noisy brake pad or the squeaky pads that sometimes happen. What I'm experiencing is most definitely not that. Those while annoying, are really not THAT bad. What I'm getting is an awful metal on metal grinding noise from the brakes once they wear down through the friction material of the pads. It's to the point that It's embarrassing to pick my kids up from school in my wife's car.

I've been working on the front brakes on the XC60 today, I will post some pictures up later when I have some more free time.

Just looking at the front brake calipers, I see exactly what you are saying about corrosion being an issue. While I have it all apart I'm going to spend some time cleaning up all of the parts of the caliper with the wire brushes in my drill. We live in northern Utah so not only do we get salt everywhere 6 months out of the year, we have salt in the air just from being around the Great Salt Lake. Things seem to rust here faster than any other place I have ever lived.

 

I like this thread a lot and yes I read too about the brake/pads issue.

Mine is quite the same. I noticed that I have more brake dust on my rear wheels to an extend that my rear left rim was even darker than my rear right.
I asked Volvo and for them there is nothing to worry. This is normal --'

Anyway, I am good to unmount my 2 rear caliper, clean them and put them back

FYI: I read on this forum that some volvo's owner even paint their caliper to protect from rust.

 

I have two cars, a Pontiac and a Volvo. In both cases, a thin film of rust can build up on the rotors after being exposed to water from washing or from a driving rain. A grinding noise will occur until the car is driven a little. This is normal

Both cars (and several before them) exhibit higher wear on rears compared to front. This is also normal.