[joeflies]

Hi - time to do my rear brakes. I just wanted to ping the board to see if there's anything unusual about changing pads on the S40 or if there's anything that I need to watch out for (the piston's not going to pop open and crush my fingers, right?) On my A4 it was as simple as unbolting the caliper, clamp the brake piston down, and slap the new pads in.<P>I know I need to find a caliper compression tool (anyone know where I can get one). Better yet, if anyone in the bay area can help me out with the tool and a garage (I have neither), I'll gladly give you something (gift certificates for restauarnant)<P>Thanks for the help!

 

[joeflies]

I'll answer my own question - I took apart the rears -everything is pretty standard. two bolts (a 15mm to hold the middle bolt, and a 13mm to remove the back, if I remember correctly) for the caliper assembly. The pad kit from volvo has new bolts, which is a nice touch.<P>The pattern for the rear piston is two quarter-pie shaped notches. brake line is pretty short back there, I don't think you'd be able to do the c-clamp trick, so I'm hoping that the kit from Harbor Freight will match the piston pattern.<P>and the bleeder valve is in the front, not the rear, so it's a little tricky getting a wrench in there. have some small wrenches on hand for that one.<P>My pads are pretty worn but still have pad at 22k miles. Highly recommend that you start checkingy your pads if you're at 15k.

 

[fprintf]

Boy am I pissed! 23,000 miles on the car and only 20% left on front and rear brake pads. This is so friggin ridiculous - my VW pads lasted more than 80,000 miles and I spent $10,000 less for the car. $170 for each end of the car, means I have a bill for more than $400 including the oil change and tax.<P>Damn! Not at all what I expected from Volvo.