So we were replacing some front end parts on my son’s Volvo, and when he removed the brake pads this is what we found. Driver’s side was fine (top pads), however passenger side outside pad was detached and inside pad was rusty.
I saw that and said I had never seen anything like it, I wonder what could have caused it??
Turns out he was parking on the grass, in front of a sprinkler. A combination of just soaking the pad routinely, and we are assuming steam created when braking on wet pads caused the friction material to completely separate from the backing.
So the moral of this story is, no matter how much you don’t care about what your car looks like, if you don’t want to have unnecessary mechanical repairs probably best not to park in front of a sprinkler..