Here's what happened to me. I replaced front pads and rotors about 2 weeks ago - amazing improvement in steering and braking. A couple of days ago I started to hear a terrible scraping noise from the driver's side front wheel after braking - what could it be I ask myself, after all my hard work - ends up to be a sheared lower caliper bolt - yes the one I had to beat on to remove and then didn't replace with a new one. Now I have the hastle and inconvenience of getting this sheared bolt out. All this after reading someone's recommendation here to replace caliper bolts when doing a brake job! ay.

Check the bolt head for markings. It should be a grade 8 or 8.8 bolt. If it's a 5, someone replaced it with a lower grade bolt. Check the other side as a comparison. I have reused the bolts on my 1986 and never had a problem.

BTW, I have a cousin in Brantford.

Unfortunately, the sheared bolt is gone. Small world.

What comes to mind immediately is, if this is always recommended, why aren't the bolts as commonly available as brake pads?

hello,fellow canuck:

I did my brake jobs without new bolts too.Haynes advise people to.

Reason:I went to Volvo Villa, a dealer locally(T/O),the parts guy told me they dont have any in stock,both when I did my front and rear,cos they dont change them even when they do them.Special order price:4.50$ each

moreover,if you let them do the brake pads jobs at the fixed 135$,front or rear,they frequently say that you need new rotors,and the job is now not 135$ but 500$ including rotors.

only conclusion:they dont change the bolts when they do it at the dealer cos that is what the parts guy told me,and the fact they have none in stock.

Tom ,BTW fcpgroton also do not stock these,goes to show how popular they are.