The brake pads I used in my car were purchased at the dealer. They charged me something like $60. What a rip off. Anyway, I don't know what brand they are. I haven't looking at the caliper housing recently, but if I recall correctly there was maybe 4mm on each side of the pad.

Mark,
When the front end work was done to my car, the mechanic disassembled everything in the front end, springs, control arms, strut rods and all. Since he removed the springs I'm assuming that he changed the bushings on the control arm that you were talking about. He usually prefers to do more than less. I'll have to go ask him for a print out of the bill for that repair.

I will check about the upper control arms that you mentioned as soon as it gets a little dryer out. I'm pretty sure he changed these too though because last time I poked around in there, I think I saw new metal. The calipers are functioning ok and the caliper bolts are secure (first thing I checked). Oh, and the car has 127,000 miles.

This whole thing has me really frustrated because I really want to get rid of this clunking noise. I'm really tempted to just buy new pads (ATE?) through fastlane and see if there's ANY change.

Volvos are all very frustrating. Parts are expensive, and a lot of things seem to go wrong. Chances are, your car is fine, but with the 850s from 1996, you need a special diagnostic tool to tell you what's wrong. With the ones 1995 and earlier, there is an LED light that flashes to represent problem codes. Try going to www.brickboard.com
They are a tech help website similar to mercedesshop.com and they might be able to help you. good luck

Alex