While technically my Disco did not need a brake job, replacing the ABS sensors warranted the work. The Passenger side rotor was all but welded on, and needed to be cut into pieces to get it off of the hub.
As I prefer to upgrade when I do routine maintenance, I went with Hawk HPS pads, DBA slotted rotors, and Goodridge Braided brake lines.
First the carnage. I had to cut grind/cut the entire top of the hat off of the rotor, then cut a few slots across the face of the hat to break it loose. Even then, I had to slowly work it free from the hub.
I still have to do the rears, the fronts took 4 hours out in the hot sun today and that was enough for now. Tomorrow I need to rewire the ABS sensors and next week I will do the rears.
Wow. That's WAY too much work for a relatively simple brake bad and rotor swap. Good thing you weren't paying by the hour for a Range River Tech to do that.
Also, nice job on the slotted rotors, glad you didn't go for the drilled pieces.
What can you do to prevent the corrosion from causing that problem again in the future? I doubt anti-seize would survive the heat for very long.
even though nothing says otherwise, I believe my Disco was in an accident before I bought it. The passenger side front corner has all the signs of shoddy repair. missing underbody screws to hold the plastic inner fenders in, the clear coat on the fender and the bumper corner "fell off", the headlight was less cloudy than the driver's side.
I am thinking that they replaced some of the suspension too, but not with new stuff. Hub looks older than the driver's side and I need to replace the lug nuts on that side as the aluminum covers are beaten up to the point were you need to gently use a hammer to tap the 27mm socket onto them.
My original plan was to replace the hub (I have a new one) but I could not budge the nut that holds it into place. I bent a 5 foot 1 inch diameter pipe by jumping on the end and it did not break loose. I may have to cut the nut off too someday to replace it.
I just did all 4 corners on my wife's P38. Absolutely the easiest brake jobs ever. Total for all 4 took less then 1.5 hours and included new pads and rotors. I was surprised just how cheap they were. Figured Rover = expensive, but have not found that to be the case during my 2.5 years of ownership. Joked to my wife that 2 new rotors delivered was cheaper than a single TR8 rotor. The Rovers rotor dwarf the TR8 rotor. Even the massive rotors on my F350 are considerably cheaper than the TRs. No wonder I prefer Wilwoods on the TRs.
I just did battle with an axle nut on my daughters Mazda 3. Ended up applying heat to get the nut red. This was after braking four half drive ratchets and a beaker bar.
Did the rears on my 128i yesterday. Should have been straightforward, but the rotors were old and worn enough that a ridge developed on the inside lip, making coaxing the rotor over the parking brake shoes a royal pain (yes, the brake was released and tension on the cable relieved by putting it in the service position). A hammer and two large screwdrivers allowed me to eventually walk the rotors off, amid much sweating and colorful language. Other than that, no problems.
Have all the parts for the fronts, but they have a little life left in them yet, so they'll probably wait until next spring.
Stefan wrote:
Wow. That's WAY too much work for a relatively simple brake bad and rotor swap. Good thing you weren't paying by the hour for a Range River Tech to do that.
Also, nice job on the slotted rotors, glad you didn't go for the drilled pieces.
What can you do to prevent the corrosion from causing that problem again in the future? I doubt anti-seize would survive the heat for very long.
Copper anti-seize was always still there on my track car?
tr8todd wrote:
I just did all 4 corners on my wife's P38. Absolutely the easiest brake jobs ever.
The Driver's side took half an hour. It was easy peasy. Once I got the rotor off of the passenger side, it too was super easy. With no hand brake on the rears, I am sure they will also be very quick to do.
I did front and rear brakes on my DISCO 2 in about 45Min and the Disco 1 in about a hour. Id be PISSED if i had to cut the rotor off.
Spoke too soon. Apparently I forgot to lock in the little spring clips that hold the parking brake shoes to the backing plate. Predictably, one of them fell out (they were left loose in the shoes) while running errands this morning. Fortunately I wasn't far from home and, having a pretty good idea what happened, I nursed it back making a hellacious racket, pulled both sides apart, straightened the slightly mangled fallen clip, properly installed all of them, and buttoned it back up. Hopefully I didn't screw up anything else....
I put myself in physical therapy once after beating the rusted-tight rotors off all 4 corners of my Jeep ZJ a few years back. Used it as an excuse to get an air-tool-worthy compressor afterwards.
In reply to JBasham:
I almost needed mental counseling after rebuilding the parking brake assemblies on mine a few weeks ago... Installing the 2 stupid clips that hold the shoes to the backing plate should not have taken an hour on the first side...
rslifkin wrote:
In reply to JBasham:
I almost needed mental counseling after rebuilding the parking brake assemblies on mine a few weeks ago... Installing the 2 stupid clips that hold the shoes to the backing plate should not have taken an hour on the first side...
The parking brake on mine is damn near out of commission, rusted-together hunks of crud from one end to the other. I'm nursing it along in the hopes it will keep passing safety inspection and I won't have to deal with it.
As I'm thinking about it, the parking brake clips wouldn't have been loose in the first place had I not had to hammer the rotors off with extreme prejudice. I saw a little deformation around holes in the plate the clips lock into, but they still seemed to hold OK.
To be safe I just ordered all new clips and springs, parking brake shoes, and locking plates. Yeah, it means taking everything apart again, but it won't take too long since everything's been broken loose at this point, and then I can stop obsessing about it.
