Saab Pads on my Volvo Calipers for my MS3

I'm tired of ordering "915" pads only to find out there's 561619149 different parts under that same part number, most of which are just mixed up Volvo pads with wear sensors or the wrong backing plate.

Now, thanks to www.niparts.com (I found it accidentally and man is it fun to play with,) and RockAuto, I was able to track down a similar pad to ours from a Saab 9-3 Aero. Like our cars and the Volvo, you have to watch the rotor diameter BUT here's the nice thing - They're all listed under '1257' numbers and they all have compatible backing plates/no sensor. You can also get non-part-store pads under this listing.



The catch? You have to clearance the bracket in two ways. The pads are larger, so you have to grind away material on the bracket as well as drill two clearance holes. You could just grind the pads, I think, but there goes your lifetime warranty and you'd have to do it every time. Plus the casting marks line up with what you have to grind, so easy peasy.



Why did I do this? You can buy __1257 pads and they'll fit, unlike __915s that could be wrong. They're on, they feel fine, and the Autozone pads I bought are FF rated with legit lifetime replacements.



So yep, just posting this so you can get off-the-shelf parts without pulling your hair out, plus there's a lot more pad material so there may be benefits there.

 

Nice find!

 

Thanks! I got reeeeal tired of the idea of expensive pads and waiting for things to be ordered.

As a side-note, that niparts website is amazing. You can paste in an OEM number and a whole slew of aftermarket listings (where available,) will pop up.

 

What did these saab pads cost you, and what kind of bite do they have?

 

They retail for $55.99 but Autozone will match Advance's online-order 20% off retail which wasssss.... $27.99 and Autozone will replace them forever.

The Carquest pads at Advance are slotted and chamfered if you're into it. Since I got slotted/drilled rotors on clearance, I went with the full pad Autozone has (plus they sold me calipers for $39 a pop soooooo)

Bite in the rain without break-in was reminiscent of my Akebono ceramics (aka very soft bite yet still stop great.) It's not inspected, so I couldn't really bed them in and play with them lol. Having said that, they're FF rated so they have the same drag rating as basically every other ceramic pad on the market - it's just that initial bite you don't get like the OE.

Interestingly enough, the OEM pads are stamped EH - which would mean they have trash friction at 250deg, but carbon-fiber equivalent friction at temps up to 3,000deg... And you can order Ferodo FDB1706 off RockAuto for $59 - Rated R90, this means they have to meet or exceed OE standards (plus Ferodo made the OEM pads,) so if anyone feels like waiting for the order to come in, they could try those. RockAuto doesn't even list them for any car but Ferodo lists them for ours.

niparts will take you down one hell of a rabbit hole lol

 

got a saab 9-5 and noticed how the caliper/pad combo was nearly identical. very cool.

odd thing to ask - how is the caliper paint holding up and what did you use (and how did you prep)?

 

This is the stuff you want. https://www.ebay.com/itm/BLUE-G2-BR...424016?hash=item3d4cad3210:g:wpMAAOSwYENcm5p3
Prep is simple just clean the crap out of it. I have had this paint for 2+ years now with no sign of wear.

 

I used VHT caliper paint I think. They were new, so I cleaned the shit out of them with paint prep cleaner and denatured alcohol, then taped off the machined surfaces.

So far so good, tho they're very shielded by steel wheels currently.