Okay, so I have owned my 99 Volvo s80 for exactly 2 weeks today. When I picked up the car, the owner himself said that he had just had the brakes serviced about a recently...and he said straight out before I took the keys and drove off that the ABS service notice came up on the info screen when he drove it for the last time earlier that day to work, and to have it checked out or reset. (which I checked out and he was telling the truth). The front rotors were resurfaced but only have about 15,000 miles left of use on them, and the rears were replaced with new ones.

I have tried to ingore the nagging notice because I just don't have the money right now to take it into the dealer to have it looked at (also the nearest Volvo dealer is nearly an hour away). I have driven the car around town almost every day for the last 2 weeks and my brakes seem to be working normally. Does this mean they need to be serviced again so soon or is the computer giving me a bad reading?

Help appreciated.

 

Everything I've ever heard to these cars and brake jobs is that the rotors should be replaced everytime the pads are. This could be causing your issues.

I've seen previous threads on the forum where people have scoped out pads and rotors for a lot cheaper than having the dealership do them for you.

I'm not very mechanically inclined (alas, I'm a computer dweeb! hahah), so I just pay the premium to know it's done right, but if you can do the job yourself, you can save a considerable amount of cash doing so!

 

Changing your rotors with the pads at the same time is true and IPD even told me so, so did the dealer because they are a very soft compound.What they also told me is that if you buy new ones you can resurface them ones and reuse them. you can get OE brakes from volvo-parts.com they are a dealership in Olympia Washington, i ordered my rear set up from them adn a had a european shop install them because you cant go wrong installing brakes, i couldve done it myself but did not have the right wrench so i gave it to them. it might be your abs sensor going out on one of the wheels. Is it throwing a check engine light? if it is you can go to autozone and diognose for free. if its not i would just pay the dealer to see whats wrong with, and depending on the severity i would think about it replacing the parts or just drive it.

 

No, it isn't throwing a check engine light...but on top of the ABS brake service required notice on the information center, the ABS light on the dash has come on.

 

I have a 2000 S80 that had the ABS failure message and warning light come on intermittently (it would also take out the traction control [STC] at the same time). Brake were working fine. The ABS failure (and associated traction control) message would pop up about a couple times a month and even more frequently in hotter weather. Turning the vehicle off and on would clear the condition until it popped up again. Brought the vehicle into the dealer to troubleshoot. They indicated it was the ABS controller failure.

Do a search on this forum for ABS failure. It seems that the ABS controllers manufactured by ATE seem to have a high failure rate.

Now here come the fun part. Since the ABS controller is a sealed module, the dealers will want to replace it as a complete unit. For me this translated to a CDN$1000 job. Yeah, the controllers are stinking expensive.

With the search I recommended in the previous paragraph, I believe there's a few recommendations for some folks out there that will repair your ABS module. I sent mine to BBA Remanufacturing just outside of Boston. Turn around time is very fast, we're talking days. With shipping and their repair fee, it cost me approximately US$150 plus and hour to RE+RE the module. I'm absolutely happy with the work they've done so far, it's been working for over a month now and they have a lifetime guarantee on their work.

Be sure it's an ABS controller failure before you take this route. Removal of the module is quite easy, however you will need to get an E5 socket (inverted torx).

Here's a link to one of BBA Remanufacturing's eBay listings.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Volvo-850-S60-C70...QQcmdZViewItem

It's recommended that you don't drive with the ABS module removed. In fact on my S80, I can start the car and the car will run for about 5 seconds and stall with a 'brake failure' message.

Good luck and let us know how you made out!

 

Great response, and thanks for the heads up! I too have a 2000 S80, and I like to know what to keep an eye out for!

 

the pads and rotors could, but arent causeing your problem, the code in the vehicle is probably a brake pump code, notorious on S80's the controllers are expensive, however you need to be sure that is whats causing it, take it to a dealer get the codes, and let them tell you what it needs, HOWEVER since ABS modules are so prone to failing it does not mean this is the prob, so even if they tell you, that you need a ABS mod, and you take it off and send it away, and pay to have it fixed only to find out that you didnt ahve a 12volt supple (low or weak batt) (voltage drop across wires) bad sensor etc etc etc.

So think twice before an outside source,

The saughter in the ABS mod is the problem it is cracking due to heat. no guarentee when you get you ABS back that it is fixed or wont fail..

 

Over the years I have benefited from these posts on repairing my old 01 S80 in one way or another and I do appreciate whoever maintains and posts on the forum. I have dealt with many issues on this car and always used internet and this forum for help that is why I am making my first post to may be help someone with these type of issues. I have experienced this ABS/STC Brake failure on my car and searched through the forum for the cause of this issue and checked the ABS module by opening it and looking for dry solder and could not find any. I continuity checked the circuit from the pass rear connector to the module everything good. Replaced the speed sensor and still the lights were on after clearing the code using the Autel619(Works well). Frustrated with the whole thing open the rear left brake and inspected and finally notice a bit of a black grease sipping to the surface of the back of the wheel bearing asy. where the speed sensor mounted . Cleaned it with WD40 and After a month finally problem solved and the DTC didn't come back after clearing. Thank god. If you see the same DTCs check these sensor, wiring and grease inspection, before you do that. if you have the 8619538 by Bosch, chances are you don't have a dry solder issue and many posts indicated that as well. Good luck