Discovery II Brakes
An easy do-it-yourself job that can save you hundreds! |
| We've seen dealers charge as much as $2800 for a simple
brake job on a Discovery II, which as you'll see here is absolutely out
of line. With parts available from many other sources, such as
DAP, you can do this job easily right in the comfort of your own
home and pocket as much as $2000! All you need is a metric socket set, a
jack stand and less than an hour per axle including removing the wheels
etc. Actual time installing the brakes is 10 minutes per corner. |
| For this installation, we used DBA rotors and Lockheed
standard pads from DAP. If
you tow or drive in areas with hills and mountains, you may want to
consider using Kevlar brake pads instead. My personal preference
is stock pads on these rotors for the way I use my truck. The cold
"bite" with stock pads is better than Kevlar based pads, although Kevlar
resists fade when hot far better than stock pads. |
| These are how my stock brakes were looking after approx 30K miles.
There is a large lip on the rotor where the pads have burrowed rather
deeply into the rotor face. You can also see scoring on the front
face of the rotor which you can easily feel. These rotors actually
meet the minimum thickness allowed and could be used again, but I
elected to upgrade. Considering the scoring on the fronts, they
should be replaced. Land Rover does NOT recommend machining the rotors
to remove scoring. One thing particular to Land Rovers is that the
rotors they use are generally a little thinner than most other trucks
and if you machine them (or "turn" them as many shops call it), you will
likely make them to thin to use safely. |
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| The caliper is the first thing to remove. There are only two
small bolts which hold the caliper in place. If you are only changing
the pads, remove just the top caliper bolt and loosen the lower one.
Rotate the caliper until you get access to the pads.
If removing the rotors, remove both bolts and remove caliper.
You will notice there is a frame around the caliper- you can gently pry
the caliper up off the rotor by wedging a screw driver between the
caliper and the frame/mount. Be gentle and do NOT bend anything!
Do not let the caliper hang by the brake hose! Support it by
hanging it from some wire or setting carefully on the suspension. |
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| Now the caliper is removed, check the caliper mounts as indicated by
the yellow arrow. The mounts should slide easily and the boots
should not be torn.
The white arrow indicates the ABS sensor wire. In this photo,
it has been moved from the normal mounting location to provide better
access to the caliper mounting frame bolts. |
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| The infamous caliper mounting frame. This must be removed if
you want to change your rotors. If you are only changing pads, it
can stay in place. Now is a good time to clean all these parts! |
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| Now we have everything removed and ready to start reassembly.
It's a very good idea to clean everything at this point. It's a great
time to inspect the hub and CV joint. Look for any fluid loss, wet items
and tears in the rubber CV boot. |
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| The rotor simply slides on. For best results, you should wash
your rotors with soap and water before installation and only use clean
hands to handle them. Contamination of the rotor can lessen the
chance of a proper break-in period. The arrow shows the retainer screw
that holds the rotor in place during assembly. These screws are
often thought to have a more important role, but in fact they are only
there as a convenience. If yours strip out or get lost, don't
worry about it. |
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| Now for the pads. Anti-squeal backing is always a good idea.
There are many brands, but Wurth is my favourite by far. CRC works
well and is much easier to find and less expensive. Generously coat
the BACK of the pads. Let's get this clear- it goes on the BACK of
the pads- the metal part. If I had a dollar for everyone who put
this stuff on the fronts, I'd be swimming in cash.
While the anti-squeal backing dries, install the caliper mounting
frames.
Clean the face of the pistons on the caliper and press them in with a
brake piston compressor ($6 at any car parts store) or a c-clamp.
Press them in slowly and if you feel some binding, you may be in store
for new calipers.
Place the pads back onto the caliper and reinstall the caliper. |
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| Done! All that is left is to break in the pads and rotor.
The break-in procedure I use is fairly simple. The most
important part is to NOT STOP when the brakes are hot, but you must get
them hot to break them in. I find a lonely stretch of road and get
up to about 60mph, then brake hard- not enough to invoke ABS or
anything. Slow to about 20mph and let off the brakes, then back up
to 60mph again. I do this cycle about 5 or 6 times, then drive
gently while everything cools down. |
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| So that's it! That's all there is to it. For
this article, we only show the front but the rear is very similar
although the rear calipers have less pistons than the front. Total
time to do the fronts, one hour including jacking up the truck and
removing/reinstalling the wheels etc.
The brake kit we used retails for $599 with DBA rotors and Kevlar
pads or you can go with OEM replacements made by Lockheed (which is what
the Discovery II was delivered with from the factory) for $299 for all
four rotors and all the pads. If you only need front brakes, the
OEM set would retail about $74 each for rotors and $39 for pads.
Avoid generic or "house brand" rotors and pads. The only true OEM
quality stuff is Lockheed. Fake brands like ProLine are really
third world country parts with a name added to hide their origin. |
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