I am looking for an advice from this forum.
I have ’07 XC70 with 20,000 miles. From day one I felt that brakes have a soft feel to it (no initial bite not progressiveness is to be desired). My other car is a Touareg with OEM Brembo brakes, which stops on a dime. I may have been spoiled by Touareg, but in comparison Volvo brakes suck big time. I am not looking to replace the whole disks/brakes combo let’s say with Brembo kits.
Now I am looking for the start to flush/replace brake fluid with ATE SL 6 or ATE Super blue racing. I hope that it will give me some improvement. I am planning to do gravity bleeding,
My pads have a lot of meat left on them but most likely I will be replacing them fairly soon. Other than OEM pads which I usually prefer on my cars, what are better alternatives. I came across Akebono’s what else is out there for 2007 XC70?
I do not care about black dust on rims(I learned that no dust no stopping power ) and do not want ceramics that require warm up. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Later I may consider replacing rubber brake lines with metals, but not at this point with only 20,000 on the car. My tires are the original Scorpions STR’s if it matters.
Please share your experience and suggestions. I want a firm brake pedal and inspiring confidence brakes that do not straggle with the weight of car.

 

I have used EBC green pads on many other cars with excellent success! They have excellent initial bite and follow all the way through till the car stops. They seem to have a much higher temp rating than most stock pads Great for driving down hills. These are a racing type pad that offers less dust (possible more noise) however they have worked really good on everything I have tried them on.

Good Luck

 

Old thread, but hey, I'm new here and wanted to contribute before I go asking a thousand questions of my own.

Porsche is renowned for having some of the best factory brakes in the world. It's not a surprise that your Volvo's brakes don't match up!

Quote:

Originally Posted by XC_70

Now I am looking for the start to flush/replace brake fluid with ATE SL 6 or ATE Super blue racing. I hope that it will give me some improvement. I am planning to do gravity bleeding

Bleeding the brakes is something that most drivers probably don't do frequently enough, so that should give you some improvement. If this is just a street-driven car (as I assume it is), I wouldn't even bother with the ATE stuff. I've had great results using Valvoline Synpower - comes in goldish bottles, readily available at most chain auto parts stores or Walmart, and about 1/2 as expensive as ATE Super Blue. It's performed better for me on track that Super Blue has, so obviously on the street it'll be more than good enough.

Oh, and find someone to help you bleed the brakes properly. Gravity bleeding is fine to initially get the system filled with fluid, but if you truly want a solid pedal feel you're never going to get it with gravity bleeding. You really need a helper or some way to control flow out of the bleeder valves (Speedbleeders, for instance).

Quote:

Originally Posted by XC_70

My pads have a lot of meat left on them but most likely I will be replacing them fairly soon. Other than OEM pads which I usually prefer on my cars, what are better alternatives. I came across Akebono’s what else is out there for 2007 XC70?

Take a look at Hawk HPS. They're a moderately aggressive street compound and should give you the dust you're looking for! Good cold performance, so you get good grip from the first stop, and they just get better with more heat in 'em (up to a point, of course). You can get them from Tire Rack.

Quote:

Originally Posted by XC_70

My tires are the original Scorpions STR’s if it matters.

The tires are what do the work of stopping, so a more performance-oriented tire will definitely help with ultimate braking power. They won't do much to affect the day-to-day pedal feel, though.

I've always read mixed reviews on EBC's stuff. And the Greenstuff is not a racing pad - it's a street pad. Yellowstuff is EBC's track duty compound.