I have a 2006 Volvo S60 with 25,000 miles on it. The front left wheel squeeks once in a while in stop and go traffic. I am thinking i need new breaks. I called my dealer to schedule an appointment and he told me that you ALWAYS have to change the rotors when you change the break pads since the rotors are "soft". This ddidnt make sense to me. is this true?

Also, in the rear left wheel i hear a noise like something is rubbing up against the tire as i ride. any ideas?

still have 25K or 1 year left to warranty.

 

The Volvo rotors are thinner and are not recommended to be turned. You don't have to change the rotors when you change the pads (and I doubt your rotors are worn out after only 25K). I got 93K out of my rotors, which is more than normal.

So yes, you can change the pads but only change the rotors when they are worn out. By the way, I went with the Akebono Euro pads and have driven 9 days now with NO dust. I definitely recommend these pads.

 

You can take the front wheels off and look for yourself to see if you need new pads. if you have at least 1/8" left, then it's probably not the pad, but the slight vibration of the pad against the caliper. if you brake hard do you hear it? my guess is that you hear it just before completing a stop as you are letting up on the brake pedal? if so, and you have plenty of pad left, you may be able to have the dealer fix the squeek by re-lubricating the moving parts (or do this yourself, if you know brakes).

no way is a Volvo dealer going to just change pads. an indy probably wouldn't even do it unless they know you well enough that you won't complain about how the new pads break into the old rotors. for a shop, the problem is that the rotors need to be turned, but that may leave too little material left to make it through the next set of pads without warping. this makes an unhappy customer.

if they don't turn the rotors, leaving an uneven/grooved surface on the rotor to break in the new pads and you have an wreck that gets blamed on the brakes, the shop can be held liable for a faulty repair.

you may be fine with how it feels to break in new pads on worn rotors, but 90% of the time the customer will complain.

the warranty is a bit sticky. if you just do a pad slap yourself then have a seemingly unrelated brake part failure later, you may be denied warranty, if someone notices it.

what would i do? well, brakes are no problem for me, so i would disassemble, clean and relube everything if i had enough pad left. if i needed pads, i would just replace the pads. it won't be warrantied anyway. i would buy the pads from a Volvo dealer, to avoid warranty hassles in the future.

 

went to an indy and he showed me the rotors were being damaged by the pad on the inner ring, i could see the scraping. Also, the ends of the rotors were all rusted through. So he replaced the front rotors and brake pads with genuine volvo parts (he picked them up at the dealership). Total cost was 332.94 (with tax). Sounds like a greta price to me since i remeber paying over 600 for my old SUV. Is this a good price?