Thread: BRAKE PADS WORN

Interesting. 12000km ago, I had the D4 serviced and was advised that I had about 5-8000 km left on the pads, and that I’d have about 2000km after the warning light came on.
Just had another service (12000km later) and was advised I had 5-8000km left on the same pads.....
I mostly drive highways and think I’m gentle on brakes.
I understand how the pads would wear much faster driving in the city.

Pads are generally reliable and predictable but they can let go catastrophically..that's what mine did. It's happened to me twice ever..so not a great risk. But we are hard on brakes here what with living in the hills and towing a lot and with multiple speed limits to constantly adjust too. Using Command shift helps but braking is regularily required here in our lovely Tas 'police' state😚

I agree bits wear out but shouldn't it be the fibrous pads not metal discs? Yes the brakes are good, very good, but that doesn't excuse what I think is premature wear of a too soft component.
AlanH.

We tow a small van quite a bit so maybe that shortened the pad life. 140K is good.
AlanH.

Originally Posted by ATH

I agree bits wear out but shouldn't it be the fibrous pads not metal discs? Yes the brakes are good, very good, but that doesn't excuse what I think is premature wear of a too soft component.
AlanH.

I suppose, theoretically, yes. But my guess is that the two components (disc and pad) are engineered for maximum effectiveness. The trade off is wear of the easily replaceable part (pad) and eventual wear of the more expensive part (disc). I suppose a clue to the designer's thinking is the relative ease of replacing discs on the D4, compared with, say, a Classic Rangie, where the whole hub had to be removed first. This indicates that the D4 discs are meant to be a regularly replaceable item.

Alan, what’s up mate?

Your D4 is a seriously good piece of kit.
Heavy = Wear and something has to give to gain performance. In this case brakes are sacrificial.

The factory combination works really well - it needs to bite to do all the magic of TC, DSC, TR in all conditions. So it’s using a combination of pad material and steel composition to achieve this.

You can move beyond these settings with Ceramic pads and harder steel rotors eg. DBA and Euro pads. The give away is initial bite when cold will reduce. On highways the first seconds of brake application will show this as they’re cold. They will last a lot longer though.

My factory gear made it 120k before pads were done, and I towed a 2.5t boat regularly. I replaced all the rotors at the same time with Slotted DBAs and will get to 250k without needing rotors at that change (unless it drags a rock and wrecks the disc).

As for all the other devices on the vehicle, simple servicing has made it a reliable and competent vehicle. My EPB works perfectly, no electrical gremlins at all. The vehicle just gets on with the job.

Meanwhile my LV is back in for rotors, pads, drums, new handbrake cable (stretched again), bushes, tie rod ends, some wiring loom replaced (Rear ABS lines) and a transmission service. It has a gremlin that likes to turn off Cruise at random intervals, lights like birthday candles, just had 2 new headlight assemblies as they had clouded up again (that’s 4 sets now) and rattles like a babies toy.

By comparison my D4 has done far worse roads repeatedly and is tight as a drum. It really is a great bit of gear. I still have mine because I haven’t found anything worthy of moving to (the new Defender is looking like a successor if I want another similar vehicle) - just waiting to see what 2021 brings with the Cybertruck I have put a deposit down on.