Rear Brake Query.

[dirvine]

I had my 56,000k service yesterday, and was rung up and told that the rear brake pads needed replacing. I asked for the old pads to be kept but alas they were not around when I picked the car up. I thought it unusual that the rear pads would wear out before the front given most breaking is done with front brakes. I have towed a caravan for about 40Ks of the total but can anybody explain why this could be so or am I being ripped off.

[Tombie]

Common. They’re only small...
And come into play with DSC.

[justinc]

56k is a good innings actually!! Hopefully the park brale adjustment/ service was done too....

[DiscoJeffster]

Unlike most cars, the Discovery has a lot of weight over the rears (wondered why the rear tyre pressures are higher?). The rear brakes come into play when braking more than most cars, and as stated above, being smaller, will wear faster than other cars.

[BobD]

My fronts last somewhere around twice as long as the rears.

[dirvine]

It seems it is acceptable. Must be a landrover thing. Just that in all of the more than 100 cars I have owned I have NEVER experienced rear brake wear greater than front brake wear, unless on an old car the handbrake was left on!!

I dont use the park brake at all. I dont have much faith in the EPB being reliable so rather not use it unless really necessary. Also I found that when lining up the caravan, despite using the EPB, it did not lock the car in that exact place when applied but rather the car rocked either forward or back, so I find it a rather useless piece of equipment. I thought the park brake applied pads/disks or what ever at the rear wheels so there should not be any movement once applied, but clearly it isnt. Soon learnt to use the Air suspension height adjustment to attach the van, which is even better with a DSO35 hitch!

[Mike57]

Not unusual to wear the rears out first and if you do a lot of dirt road driving the DSC seems to chew through the rears pretty quickly.

[DiscoJeffster]

The key to happy EPB usage is annual maintenance including an adjustment. Keep the shoes with enough material and the unit adjusted and it will perform day after day. Don’t trust the dealer has serviced it - request it especially or DIY

[LRD414]

more than 100 cars I have owned
wow, 100 cars, you must turn them over often .... or you've had a very good innings.
Oh and my rear pads last about half the fronts too.

Scott

[justinc]

Evoque and freeloader seem to go through rears at a high rate too...

[DI5CO]

I got the rear brake pad call at the second service at 29000ks☹️ Only 2mm left.
I can’t understand that!! I only did 7000ks last year and at the 1st service there was no mention that they were low.

[BobD]

Interestingly the rear brakes on my BMW K1600GT motorcycle also last half the time of the front brakes. On these bikes, you apply the front brakes and the computer applies the rear accordingly based on load, deceleration etc. You can also apply the rear brakes by foot if you need to but whenever I do that they are already at the optimum, so no point. This system has been on my last three bikes and I love it but it does create more wear in the rear brakes with my kind of commuter type riding with little heavy braking. Lots of heavy braking would wear the fronts a lot more and I think it would probably be the same on the D4.

[Geedublya]

Run Akebono rear pads to get much greater life. Both front and rear replaced at 160,000km. At 208,000km front pads at 7.5mm rears at 9mm. Both front and rear disks are showing less than 1mm of wear since the change. Also brake dust is negligible.
I'm swapping my smaller 2.7 D4 brakes back to the standard larger brakes on my D4 V8 and have them in my workshop at the moment. I'm astounded at how little wear there is using the Akebono pads.
Unfortunately you can't get Akebonos for the larger front brakes used on the SDV6 or V8 only the rears.

[Tombie]

You can get a Ceramic based pad from Repco though that fits the fronts

[rick130]

Do QFM do a pad for that backing plate ?
They have a couple of ceramic compounds, the Extreme 4WD pad is a ceramic compound with a bloody high Mu and rated to 800°!

I'm going to be using either that or the standard 4wd pad on the rear of the D2.

[Tombie]

Akebono do D2 pads. Muppet has the part numbers.

[rick130]

Yep, thought QFM might have one for the front of the D3/4.
Todd from Delios rates them.

[scarry]

My last D2a went through rears before the fronts,but that could have been a lot of beach work.I remember changing them all at around 80K.

The D4 has about 2mm until the wear indicater on the front,and about 4mm on the rears,until the wear indicater.Lots of dirt roads,but not much beach work.Original pads.
Done around 62K.

If towing reasonably heavy loads,and the brake controller is set up correctly,i would have thought the wear on the vehicles brakes may not increase a lot at all.

[rick130]

My last D2a went through rears before the fronts,but that could have been a lot of beach work.I remember changing them all at around 80K.

[snip]

Ditto my D2.
The previous owner changed the rears about 25-30,000km ago and the fronts (plus discs) are cactus at 120,000km.
It's lived it's life in and around Alice Springs until now, so lots of dry creek beds/sand too.

[Tombie]

My last D2a went through rears before the fronts,but that could have been a lot of beach work.I remember changing them all at around 80K.

The D4 has about 2mm until the wear indicater on the front,and about 4mm on the rears,until the wear indicater.Lots of dirt roads,but not much beach work.Original pads.
Done around 62K.

If towing reasonably heavy loads,and the brake controller is set up correctly,i would have thought the wear on the vehicles brakes may not increase a lot at all.

My rears just hit the wear indicator this week.
116,000km on the factory pads.
Fronts still have plenty of meat left on them - fitted Slotted rotors and Akebono pads up front at 10,000km.

Lots of towing and off-roading. But I don’t drive it (brake) like a go kart.

[crawal]

The QFM pads are highly rated by a few guys I know , and are well prices

[scarry]

So Tombies has done around about double the k's mine has done,on the OEM rears,and the fronts,the different brand probably helped.

Similar spec vehicle,different driving habits,and type of driving for sure.

I blame SWMBO for the brake wear,its her daily driver[wink11]

Since that power upgrade i am sure those front wheels need cleaning a lot more often[bigsad]

Other guys have used Akebono pads,OEM rotors,which is probably what i will do once the light comes on.

Fronts should be easy,but rears,particularly the rotors with the hand brake set up will be more difficult.

[rick130]

I blame SWMBO for the brake wear,its her daily driver[wink11]



I dare you to say that out loud and within earshot Paul ! :lol2:

I should be in Brisvegas in the next two weeks, I'll let you know when I'm coming up. ;)

[DiscoJeffster]

I would presume Tombie spends a lot of time on the open road covering miles without touching the brakes versus city driving where you’re on the brakes more than off. You cannot compare mileage of brakes using only the distance travelled to get any meaningful data in my opinion.
And yes, driving style plays into it I agree

[dirvine]

Just to confirm the K's traveled. I have done three long trips towing a 16' caravan. One being Melbourne to Perth, then to Byron Bay then back to Melbourne. Big K's, not stop start driving. Next was Melbourne to Broome to Perth and back to Melbourne. Then doing the Burke and Will trek, Until this year most Kms in this car have been towing a van. So all in all probably 45K of towing a caravan, so hardly using brakes. Until Xmas I used the 76 Toyota for 4wding so very little done in the D4 and I switch off HDC as I do not like it when doing any 4wding in the Disco. Hence my query. Pads must be made out of liquorice or a similar substance to be warn out so quick in my opinion. However perhaps braking distribution has changed over the years as people have indicated, and with all the fancy electronics and "driver" assist I guess brakes have suffered a similar fate.

[scarry]

Just to confirm the K's traveled. I have done three long trips towing a 16' caravan. One being Melbourne to Perth, then to Byron Bay then back to Melbourne. Big K's, not stop start driving. Next was Melbourne to Broome to Perth and back to Melbourne. Then doing the Burke and Will trek, Until this year most Kms in this car have been towing a van. So all in all probably 45K of towing a caravan, so hardly using brakes. Until Xmas I used the 76 Toyota for 4wding so very little done in the D4 and I switch off HDC as I do not like it when doing any 4wding in the Disco. Hence my query. Pads must be made out of liquorice or a similar substance to be warn out so quick in my opinion. However perhaps braking distribution has changed over the years as people have indicated, and with all the fancy electronics and "driver" assist I guess brakes have suffered a similar fate.

I have to agree,i think Discos in general are hard on brakes.Maybe all LR's are?
Could be European vehicles in general?

Jap vehicles seem to last way longer.
As i have said before,our work vans,almost on GVM,driven around town,do 300000Km,then are sold.We never touch the brakes,or for that matter,anything else.Except the occasional battery.

[Tombie]

I would presume Tombie spends a lot of time on the open road covering miles without touching the brakes versus city driving where you’re on the brakes more than off. You cannot compare mileage of brakes using only the distance travelled to get any meaningful data in my opinion.
And yes, driving style plays into it I agree

Bit more of a mix than you’re average city dweller, but lots of corners, roundabouts etc in this city.
Lots of dust too, and the vehicle is often covered with sand or dust...

Style has a lot to do with it I guess [emoji41] and only one driver of my vehicle ..

[TheCannyMan]

I just had my check brakes warning light come on this week at 35,500km since new - pulled all 4 tyres off to see how much wear was on each.

Fronts are fine, rear RHS inside pad is most worn where the sensor is per below. Am I right to assume about 2 - 3mm of pad left before the metal?

I think I will try Pedders or Akebonos and get them fitted somewhere so as to keep the warranty in tact.

138030

[Barraman]

I had my 56,000k service yesterday, and was rung up and told that the rear brake pads needed replacing. I asked for the old pads to be kept but alas they were not around when I picked the car up. I thought it unusual that the rear pads would wear out before the front given most breaking is done with front brakes. I have towed a caravan for about 40Ks of the total but can anybody explain why this could be so or am I being ripped off.

I have a somewhat similar story with my 2015 Discovery. At a 60K service in February I was told that my front pads were fine but the rear pads were getting down and would need replacing, although I had no sensor warnings. I had the rear pads replaced because I knew I had a 4k trip ahead of me towing a large boat.

About 2k down the road I noticed the start of a shudder coming through the steering wheel under braking. The Disco is now in having its front pads replaced, only two months afterbeing told they were OK, and its front rotors machined. No sensor warnings have come on.

[justinc]

Due to thermal memory it may not cure the shudder if it is only apparent after heavy or prolonged braking... i mostly replace discs now on these and other large 4x4 especially if working hard, towing etc.

Jc

[BMKal]

I replaced all rotors and pads at ~ 60,000km. New OEM rotors and Akebono pads fitted to all wheels by the dealer in Perth.
This week, I had the 130,000km service done on the vehicle. Inspection report shows front pads still at 15mm thickness, and rears at 10mm. I will probably order a new set of rear pads shortly and install them myself at home. Will be Akebono's again - wouldn't use anything else on this vehicle.