I’ve owned a Volvo S60 2003 since about 2006 with very few problems and I take it in for regular maintenance (at the dealer no less…ugh). In May of 2011 I went on vacation to the Vineyard for 10 days leaving my car parked in my carport, when I came home on the 11 day I found that my brakes were grinding and even making the car shake a bit. There were no signs before my vacation that my brakes were acting up. About a week later I had new brakes put on a new emergency brake - the works! Now in May of 2012 I went on the same Vineyard vacation for 10 days and the brakes are doing the same thing. What is the deal? Do I really need to get new brakes again? I had parked the car in the same carport and I do leave the emergency brake up when parked - which my husband is partially attributing to the problem. Please help - I don’t think it makes sense to need new brakes every year!
Where is the car parked for those 10 days? Near the ocean? Sounds like it might be corrosion that would wear off after a while.
First, if the car isn’t used for a stretch of time, quite a bit of rust can occur on the rotors. This should wear off by itself as you use the car again. A few firm stops from a higher speed would help with this.
Second, although it’s normally a good idea to use the parking brake all of the time, this is one exception where you shouldn’t use it unless it’s actually needed to hold the car. If it’s set for a long time, it can get stuck on.
No it’s inland - about 30 miles from any salt water.
Lion9car - Thanks…It does seem to have improved after driving more but I didn’t want to neglect a serious issue.
Just for further details I had left for that same vacation in 2010 and this did not happen. Car parked in same spot etc.
It sure sounds to mr like corrosion. And hubby might be right about the parking brakes. I don’t have access to your car’s specs, but of your car uses the rear calipers for the parking braks, the rust will have a bald spot where the pads were in contact with it.
Rotors rust like crazy. While it’s worse near salt water, and environment with any wetness will exascerbate the problem. I’ve come out from a shopping mall on a rainy day and had the rotors already starting to rust.
Thank you all for your help! I think I will try some controlled stops and hope that cleans the rotors up.
If I let my car sit for a doy or two my rotors start to rust in the braking surface the noise does go away in about a couple of miles driving, i live a hour fron the Jersey shore. my car was making a bad grinding noise for about a few days and my mechanic pulled al 4 wheels and the front brakes apart and found nothing but the noise was gone after that i believe maybe the car had a build up of brake dust.
Your volvo has a separate drum brake assembly for the parking brake. To get rid of the grinding, Try driving about 10 MPH and pull the parking brake so the car slowly rolls to a stop. This should scrape the rust off the parking brake drum. You may need to do it a few times.