Poor Brakes Defender TD5

[BilboBoggles]

Defender MY03 with 200,000k's with ABS.

New brake fluid recently. Everything seems to check out OK when it was just serviced.

BUT - The brakes feel like they are not gripping as well as they should. The pedal is not hard, just that it's like someone has oiled the pads. I can still lock up the wheels, although on tarmac, I get one rear wheel locking up first (then ABS kicks in).

I towed an unbraked 1500kg trailer the other day and it was rather terrifying. I could stop - just felt like I was not going to.

Part of the problem could be I'm comparing to a NEW 2013 Defender. But I think the brakes should feel the same between the two, and they don't.

So plan is to
- Change the pads again.
- Check Vaccum pump is sucking OK
- Check Servo for visible leaks.

Then if nothing - swap in a new Brake Servo.


Any other idea's? Anyone else worked through this?

[steveG]

I hope you weren't anywhere near a public road with that trailer...

Brake servo's are known for cracking around the M/C flange. Get someone to press hard on the pedal while you have a look around that area.
They should hold vacuum after you turn off the engine. If you can't get a couple of decent brake applications after you turn the engine off before the pedal goes rock hard then its probably leaking.

Put a gauge on the vacuum pump line and make sure you're getting good vacuum. Not sure of the pump setup on the Td5, but a mate of mine recently replaced the pump on his 300tdi and commented that he now had decent brakes again. He'd checked previously by feel and seemed that it had a decent amount of suck, but obviously not enough.

Any chance there was some air introduced when the fluid was changed?

Edit: "Replace the pads again" ??? Were they changed recently?
If so were they the same type as previously fitted?

Steve

[DEFENDERZOOK]

that would be my first question too.......were the pads replaced.....?

were the rotors machined or replaced as well......?
otherwise....the new pads will need more time to bed in......

also....as mention above.....different compound pads will need different pedal pressures to work.......

if it was only the brake fluid changed......does the pedal feel spongy at all.....?

[BilboBoggles]

Thanks, pads were done about 40,000 ago, so need doing. Rotors were done at same time. All genuine parts. bleeding and fluid change done a few weeks ago, made no difference. The fluid change was done by a very good land rover specialist, I'm too scared of the abs pump to touch it.

I think this has been a gradual issue, that's now very obvious due to the other new defender.

[schuy1]

X2 on the brake servo cracking, Drove me mad with changing stuff until I saw the hairline rust trace around the flange. And yes I could get a wheel to lock up but after a while even that stopped.