Topic: Front vs rear brake rotors / pads

[skypoint]

I had my car serviced today and on the service report they stated how thick my rotors and pads were.

The front rotors were 24mm thick and the front pads were 9mm thick.
The rear rotors were 11mm thick and the rear pads were 4-5mm thick.
I was told that pads need to be replaced at 3mm.

I'm a little concerned about the disparity between the front and rear. - The rotors and pads on the front are almost twice as thick as at the back. Is it supposed to be this way? I know that most of the stopping power of a vehicle is in the front brakes, but is it normal for them to be this much thicker than the back?

[Wetson]

Have you had your front brakes replaced?  Pads/rotors?  If this is the case it explains why the fronts have more than the rear.   Your car is 3 years old so if I may speculate, the rears are probably the originals that came with the car and the fronts have been replaced.  Just a humble, educated guess. 

If this is not the case, someone on here is bound to have knowledge about Volvo braking systems and should be able to offer insight.

[skypoint]

I never replaced the front brakes.

My original thought was that the previous owner may have done so. But then I recalled reading that the front brakes do most of the braking, so I thought that it's plausible that since the rear brakes deal with less force, their rotors and pads may be thinner.

[jamie1]

The frt rotors are thicker and vented on all cars. The frt pads are larger and generally thicker then the rear on all cars. This is because the frt does 90-95% of the braking in most cases. Most rear discs are solid,some have a rear vented disc,but both are a friction of the thickness of the frt rotors.

[barrie1]

This is very common for the Original Rotors to be different sizes between the front and the rear of any vehicle. Yes the fronts take the majority of the work but it averages out to usually be 2 set of fronts to 1 set of rears. Thats the usual odds on brakes generally in my mind. It is not uncommon for them to be different sizes and thickness's as well as the heat disapation means a lot on this area of your vehicle. Even the Rotor sizes can vary quite a bit between them. All Vehicles are different in their design and how they get rid of the heat. Buy the better grade pads when its time to replace them and have much better safer driving.    

[articsteve]

The rear rotors were 11mm thick and the rear pads were 4-5mm thick.
I was told that pads need to be replaced at 3mm.

I would go ahead and replace the rears asap providing the rears are indeed 4 to 5mm.  Thin pads kill brake rotors.  No place for the heat to dissipate other than the rotor.

Stay clear of Volvovilla.