Any experience with proven P3 aftermarket REAR brakes?

[mynewvolvoexp]

I am a long time loyal Volvo owner that has owned many Volvos over the years and owned P2 Volvos for a long time. I never once felt the need to go aftermarket until my horrible experience with our 2016 XC70 rear brakes.

After my experience I feel like the TRW sourced rear pads don’t hold up. They are so bad in my opinion I have a hard time believing they are even TRW and wonder if these are actually Lucas since I believe TRW acquired Lucas. If that’s the case I’m not sure why Volvo would have sourced these but I think it would have to do with cost.

I used to get up to 70,000 miles out of our P2 rear brakes so I know it’s not us. Personally, I don’t buy that it’s due to EPB or increased rear brake bias because the fronts still get the most brake distribution.

I feel completely screwed because I don’t see any aftermarket alternative that I really feel comfortable with. I know people will throw all kinds of things out there but I need something high quality members have used for a long time and proven. When I say proven I mean original braking performance, smoothness, quiet with no noise but actually hold up in my opinion where I can get at least 30K from rear brakes. The problem I am having is everything is questionable. When I have tried even what were supposed to be quality aftermarket pads with my first Volvos many years ago they always seemed inferior and they always made noise.

It also seems like everything aftermarket is now ceramic.

My first instinct was ATE Pads but they appear to be ceramic. My concern is one website said ATE 602736 pads were discontinued and I found some on ebay but it makes me concerned there may have been some issue and even if they are great I may not be able to buy them for very long anyway so this option doesn’t look good.

My second instinct is TRW has what I think they are pushing as kind of a premium black series pad. I looked at the reviews of these pads used with other brand vehicles and the reviews seem good and say they are quiet with good brake performance which has me leaning toward these.

Textar was a brand I was considering but I believe that I read a forum post from a BMW owner that put these and Brembo rotors on the rear and said something I think like he kind of feels a delay before they grab unlike original brakes. This is something I cannot accept because I need something with original braking performance.

I have seen Pagid brake pads but personally I think they look like too hard of a pad where there may be noise or decreased braking performance in my opinion.

I am leaning toward the TRW Black TPC1307 Pads

Now for rotors I don’t know if the rotors with uneven wear rings, grooving and scoring I never seen before that you can see in my video are because Volvo is now using a really soft rotor material or just the pads being inferior in my opinion did this. Now I’m trying to decide if I should go with Volvo rotors or try aftermarket.

The only possibly decent aftermarket rear brake rotor I found seems to be Brembo 09958711. I would NOT go with Brembo aftermarket pads because I think I saw a review complaining about noise even when using with Brembo rotors. My only concern is that I remember when I tried Brembo rotors years ago with my first Volvos Brembo had started putting these stupid wear indicator dimples in the contact area even though none of the online photos showed these. I believe I called them to complain and think I ended up sending the rotors back.

Also, how low should you safely be able to wear your rear brake pads down to? Shouldn’t you be able to wear pads down to 2 or 3mm safely and as long as there is still some pad material left the rotors shouldn’t be grinding or scored? I know this sounds like a stupid question but I never experienced anything like this. 

Here is a video that shows the pads and rotors so you can see the wear

Here is my article I wrote about my new Volvo rear brake experience

I’m leaning toward the TRW Black TPC1307 rear pads with Volvo rotors and seeing what happens but it’s not a cheap experiment if the rotors are somehow part of the problem and wear like before so it’s kind of a tough one.

I would appreciate proven suggestions for P3 aftermarket rear brakes.

[Ihatespeedbumps]

I have used Bosch Quiet Cast pads front and rear on my wife's XC60 with great success. Very little dust and no noise. Not really used for anything other than a daily commuter.