Brake pads Bosch or OEM Volvo

I went with Bosch Quiet off Amazon. I just cruise around and they work fine and are quiet.

Bosch’s Quietcast brakes have never done me wrong. I’ve used them in three vehicles now and had good pad life and performance on a budget. No squeaks, decent life for ceramics.

Honestly for everyday driving the Bosch and centric is a good combo. The powerstop are very grabby and have a bit more stopping power but it’s not worth the extra money, plus long term normal rotors are better. Drilled/slotted don’t have as much durability

Yes to the Bosch/Centric combo. No to drilled rotors on a daily driver.

I had this problem too and I saw in other forums quite a few other people as well. I used Bosch pads too I think (can’t recall right now) but when I compared them to the OeM ones I removed, there was a difference similar the the gaps you pointed to in your pic. Putting the old OEM ones back and the gap is not there. So what I ended up doing was simply added a bit of shim to one side of the Bosch pad to take up the gap and the problem went away. I put the shim only on one side, the side that would be compressed when in reverse. FWIW others have tried other brands of pads and they all seem to have the same issue. Apparently the only ones that don’t are the OEM ones for some strange reason. When I compared mine, it wasn’t the pad backing that was causing the delta, it was the shim.

I'm very happy with Bosch QuietCast pads and rotors.

I went aftermarket with centric posi-quiet pads or Bosch quiet cast. Won’t ever go back to factory.

Canada here: paid around $700 CAD for rear brake pads and rotors at Canadian Tire back in May for my 2008 V70.

I took my XC40 to a local mechanic who only works on Volvo's and Saab vehicles and the cost for brakes, rotors, and oil change was $1200.

I have a 2019 XC40 and kept having brake issues - they ended up replacing the pads and rotors… at less than 15k miles. I continue to have issues (now it’s nothing serious, just a very loud obnoxious squeal)