I repalced my front rotors and pads on my 2003 S60 AWD and now when i push break pedal down with a smal amount of force the brakes pulse and i can feel it in the pedal and hear a tap sound from brakes.I removed tires and checked everything twice and all looks o.K and nothing is loose.When i push pedal with force and come to a fast stop it does not happen?anyone have a clue what would cause this??

 

New rotors and pads should operate very smoothly if maybe just a bit weak for the first couple of stops. To avoid uneven wear, I would check each side and pull the brake pads back out to verify even wear across the surface of both pad and rotor. Double check that everything is tight, free of any oil, and see if you can isolate what is tapping. From the initial description, it doesn't sound related to ABS. You could have gotten a bad rotor, and swapping the old ones back in may help to isolate this possibility if you don't find anything else.

 

Did you use Volvo pads and rotors or aftermarket?

From my past experience from what I remember brake pulsating comes from the rear pads and steering wheel shimmy comes from the front.

 

I did use after market pads and rotors and the pulsing is all the way to the floor boards.I can feel it in the floor boards and break pedal in the front drive side but i would guess that its both sides.It all most feels like something is loose but i checked and doubled checked everything.I did s that the pads may be hitting un-even.So im going to remove pads and check.

 

I always buy oem pads and if they don't already have them I'll lightly chamfer all the edges except the bottom to reduce noise. Pulsing is ussually caused by the rotor. Either a build up of the friction material on the rotor where the pad is not aggressive enough to clean up the rotors, typical problem for non asbestos organic pads not so much with semi mettallic. The other cause is a driver that rarely uses his brakes, for example mainly highway driving with heavy off ramp braking which can cause the rotor to warp. If you have a dial indicator you can check for this.