Excessive tire and brake pad wear on leased Volvo XC60

Back in November, I leased my 2019 Volvo XC60 T6 w/ 20" rims. I’ve had a few run-ins with the dealer since then for a a couple warranty issues (broken clip on reflector + ridiculous brake squeal that resulted in replacing all 4 rotors at 4k miles after a couple trips to the dealer. I was looking at my most recent receipt and the vehicle condition report that they provide and saw that my rear brakes are at 8mm (front are at 10mm), my front tires are at 7/32, and my rear tires are at 8/32. Verified my tires are at about 7-8/32 - but I didn’t take my wheel off to check my brakes. I have about 4300 miles.

Assuming new pads are 10mm and new tires are 10/32, at this rate, I’d need new rear brakes around 17k miles and new tires around 12k miles. I know there are a lot of Volvo brokers and Volvo lessees here and wanted to see if I’m the anomaly here.

About 3800 miles are highway miles (trips from VA to CT/NJ/PA) and about 500 miles are from me driving from my house to the metro station or gym, and I took delivery of the car with 159 miles. My 2014 Lexus GS is driven far more aggressively than the Volvo (shocker there) and both brakes and tires last about 40k miles with my driving… Any ideas? I do have excessive wear + tear coverage, but at this rate, I’d be wearing down my second/third set of brakes and tire by 36k miles!

That’s excessive even for the new Volvos. They like to eat brakes, especially in the rear. I have seen mention that the acc only brakes with the rear wheels, so if you use that a lot, that could explain wear there.

If you’re seeing excessive brake wear on all 4 wheels and excessive tire wear, you may need to revisit your driving style. Oddly, I have seen the same complaint before on wear all around and it was also someone from NYC who eventually admitted that he drove very aggressively from stop to stop.

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I will also chime in and say that using Pilot Assist also wears your rear brakes as well. The car uses more rear brake bias when pilot assist is engaged. I’m able to feel it.

That and if you have the automatic brake hold engaged, it leads to wear also.

Volvo has had issues in the past with brake rotors and pads. They’ve changed suppliers but still the wear is a bit too much.

It’s solely this reason why I only use ACC/PAII in very parochial situations where brakes really aren’t required.

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I had 7/32 at 16k miles with a AWD T5 but new I think are 9/32. Brakes replaced under warranty for vibration @ 16k. Didn’t even complain about it, fixed on there own and my response was I read that Volvo brakes all shake so never thought of it. He said 2 of 10 do have brake problems

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There is also another thread, started last year, on this topic

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Excessive rear brakes make sense from the auto hold/parking brake, don’t have ACC (Don’t think I have PAII either, unless it’s the same as LKA) on my car. Pads aren’t too big of a deal for me since it’s an hour of time and $40 or so for pads from an auto parts store. Tires at first glance seems like they’re around $1k a set.

No longer in NYC area, but in Northern VA, a bit outside DC. The thing that just doesn’t make too much sense to me is that the majority of my 4300 miles was from cruising up and down the Jersey turnpike (or Penn Turnpike) and only about 500 on local roads. Will keep an eye on my driving though. Majority of my errands around town are done in my GS350 and the XC60 is almost exclusively a long weekend trip car/Home Depot car.

Dealer replaced all 4 rotors for squealing at low speeds (deafening in my parking garage) but I have original pads still.

I’m not convinced they do. Pads holding the vehicle static are exposed to very little wear vs pads slowing the car down.

For automatic parking brake, I’ve noticed that they don’t “release” as quickly as my GS350 or other Lexus loaners I’ve had when shifting out of park, so usually my car is already moving for a second before the brakes fully disengage on the Volvo. I guess I could be imagining that though, if we’re being completely honest :rofl:

My GS doesn’t have auto brake hold, but I’d imagine that the same thing is happening every time I start moving from a red light, causing the additional wear on the rear brakes (i usually coast to slow down on the highway and don’t ride my brakes on the highway). This is my theory at least.

I was trying to remember that thread, this issue felt so familiar

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You don’t need to get tires for 1k a set. You can get tires with 75% tread wear left in bestusedtires.com for like 85 a tire.

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There have been a couple on Volvo reliability. When I had my XC60 serviced last week, I looked it up to try and update the most recent/relevant. Not to say it doesn’t merit another thread, but already some good discussion on what models/features seem to be causing what particular issue.