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Brake Rotor frustration

bluemoose

Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2015
Location
Hurdle Mills, NC
Just venting on my experiences trying to buy brake parts for my '90 740 daily driver. It is non-ABS and has Girling front rotors with ATE rears, and decent rotors for this are practically unobtainable. I've been running the el-cheapo Centrics but they have been ground to dust in only 20k miles of street driving. At the time I bought them they were the only rotors I could find that would fit. I am running a set of EBC GreenStuff pads that took about a month to get, and they have also ground to dust along with the rotors. It's literally metal-on-metal in a couple of spots so I've had to park the car while I attempt to find more brake parts.
After a week of scouring the internet earlier in the summer, I discovered that StopTech *supposedly* makes rotors that will fit, at least according to their website. Summit Racing had the correct part numbers on their website, so I ordered a set. Going on 4 weeks later I'm cancelling the order after they have been playing the whole game of "expected ship date", which keeps moving every time I ask about it. It is frustrating as hell that a vendor would advertise something as being available on their site and not disclosing up front that you are going to have to wait months to get it, if it ever actually becomes available. This was my first and last attempt at buying StopTech products. I was skeptical that they were really any better than Centric or other cheap brands, but I will never find out.

I realize there is not much of a market for 'performance' rotors on a Volvo 740, but manufacturers shouldn't advertise a part that they never intend to actually stock. At this point I'm just going to try NAPA to get another set of el-cheapos that will be toast in short order again. They stop fine, but they don't last long.

It seems like if you want to get something quality like a DBA rotor, it will require a custom brake conversion. If anyone knows of any good rotors and pads that will fit a non-ABS Girling 740, I'd love to know about them!
 
You wore rotors out in 20K miles? That seems... unusual.

Are the ATE rotors easier to find? Maybe replace the calipers, pads, and rotors with them.
 
20k on rotors with ebc greens is very difficult to achieve, even on centric stuff. I would begin to question driving style.

That said, swap over to cryo'd rotors and you should get 60-80k from them instead of 20k. Cryo normally gets 3-5x the lifespan. I just bought centric cryo'd for the v50 from tire rack a few weeks ago, in stock.
 
They're all chinesium now.

Buy some Brembos at IPD and support those that still support the cars?

101645 - Brembo - Front Brake Rotor - 1359908

fullsize_1657.jpg
 
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I have had no such problems with Centrics and EBC yellows (which I get in 2 days from Amazon,) and I would be surprised if there's any different steel in mine than yours.

I'm not impugning your driving, but excluding track use I've only ever seen that kind of wear with older drivers who use their left foot to brake, and let it rest on the pedal so they're perpetually dragging. I mean, if you're doing that, stop; if not, that's pretty weird.
 
I agree that it is weird, I normally get 50-60k at least on a set of brakes. I just assumed the Greenstuff pads must have been chewing them up. The pads are worn down near to the backing plates too, so it wasn't just the rotors wearing. They had been dusting really bad too. I don't drive with my left foot on the brake, and there is only so much 'spirited' driving you can do in a non-abs non-turbo slushbox 740 :). I do have Koni struts so racecar and all...

I went to Napa and they had the rears in stock, but think they can get the fronts in about 5 days, so I'll try that. Those Brembos on the IPD site are the wrong size, they are the 11.25", and my lucky car got 10.3" turds for rotors. The rockauto part number above does look correct though (262mm=10.3"). I'll have to keep that in mind for next time.

As far as I know DBA is the only rotor company in the world that still casts their own rotors, but perhaps they have gone to China too now?
 
I have ebc greens on my wilwoods, dusty as all hell. 50 miles and the wheels aren't clean anymore.

I might check for sticking calipers or master.
 
Shouldn't 90 740 w/o ABS be running 11.25 inch/287mm rotors? They should be same rotors as used on 88-90 760 with ABS. I installed rotors from a 91 740 w/o ABS and with Girling dual piston calipers on my 88 765 with ABS. The difference being my 88 765 with ABS used Bendix dual piston calipers.

I've since upgraded to Jumbo brake rotors from a 92-94 960.
 
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It's not unusual to have sticky calipers, that is the main reason for tearing up new brakes. The sliders get gummed up, pistons stick, etc.
 
Shouldn't 90 740 w/o ABS be running 11.25 inch/287mm rotors? They should be same rotors as used on 88-90 760 with ABS. I installed rotors from a 91 740 w/o ABS and with Girling dual piston calipers on my 88 765 with ABS. The difference being my 88 765 with ABS used Bendix dual piston calipers.

I've since upgraded to Jumbo brake rotors from a 92-94 960.

I think this may depend on what wheel size you had originally. My car had 14" wheels, and I believe that may have dictated smaller front rotors. At least when NAPA was looking up the parts, that made the difference moreso than ABS or non-ABS.
It could also have been that the Swedes just slapped on whatever was lying on the bench during assembly :)
 
I always pull the rods out, clean and regrease them, douche out the hole they ride in. The grease gets pretty caked on there and sometimes calipers are needlessly replaced because of that.
 
Thinking you can upgrade from 262mm rotor to the larger diameter 287mm rotor by swapping to the Girling caliper mounting brackets from car that has 15 inch wheels. The Girling dual piston caliper should be the same with either setup. This all depends on your car having 2 piece hub and rotor (not one piece hub and rotor). This upgrade may require running 15 inch or larger wheels.

Caliper mounting brackets:
w/14 inch wheels 8251155
w/15 inch wheels 8251153

287mm brake disc 1359908
 
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I'll have to consider trying to change out the brackets for the next brake change, so I can run the larger rotor. I'm running 16x7 wheels so clearance isn't an issue.

I finally got a set of rotors from NAPA. They're made in China, but at this point, whatever. I got the car up on jackstands and the wheels off for a closer inspection. To my surprise the fronts aren't nearly as worn as I thought, probably only about 50%. One of the rear calipers is stuck though and is the source of my metal-on-metal grinding. It could also be the source of the vibration and poor braking behavior I had been experiencing before the squealing started.
I may just change out the rears and fix the stuck caliper for now, then hold off on doing the fronts until I can test it out again.
 
It's not unusual to have sticky calipers, that is the main reason for tearing up new brakes. The sliders get gummed up, pistons stick, etc.

ding ding

hit up ebay or IPD and replace all the calipers if needed, cheap and easy to replace for piece of mind
 
Just to conclude this one in case someone finds their way in here with similar issues... I discovered that I had a rear caliper on the passenger side with a frozen inner piston, and the front passenger side rotor had one of the pins frozen up so the caliper was not moving properly in relation to the bracket. These combined were why I wore out the brake pads and rotors in 20k miles, and also explains the brake vibration and metal-on-metal noise I was experiencing. Replace the rear caliper and got the front cleaned up and moving freely again.

I ended up with a set of Napa rotors and StopTech "street" pads, as that was what I could get without an indefinite backorder. Working fine so far.
 
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