Thread: Warped brake disc replacement.

The P38A is much easier to do than an RRC and can be done at home. I have done it. I unbolted the whole calliper assembly and lifted it out of the way.

See Brake Job Range Rover 4.0/4.6

I picked up some Bembo replacement ventilated discs for my P38 a couple of years ago for $78 ea. Disc Brakes Australia also have replacement units for the P38.

Thanks Hoges, is there much advantage to having ventilated discs?

The discs on the P38A are ventilated.

From wikipedia

Discs

The design of the disc varies somewhat. Some are simply solid cast iron, but others are hollowed out with fins or vanes joining together the disc's two contact surfaces (usually included as part of a casting process). The weight and power of the vehicle will determine the need for ventilated discs.[10] The "ventilated" disc design helps to dissipate the generated heat and is commonly used on the more-heavily-loaded front discs.

Hi Peter, some discs on less loaded applications are solid. Ventilated discs are comprised of two plates separated by fins or a honeycomb structure. These are common on the front end of most makes. For cost reasons many vehicles then have solid discs ("rotors") on the rear. The P38 has ventilated front and rear.

Some ventilated discs are also available with small holes cross drilled right through both faces of the disc and/or have shallow rectangular slots machined radially into the solid faces.

Slots help reduce glazing on the surface of the pads. Cross drilled are not recommended by Disc Brakes Australia for other than specialist applications in that they can have a tendency to develop cracking.

I fitted slotted discs to my LS1 V8 Commodore a few years back and was very pleased with the result when towing a heavy U-haul trailer back from Sydney...

Some members on the Range Rovers forum have fitted slotted discs and also reported a distinct improvement in heavy braking capacity.

I have seen one 4wd fitted with slotted discs which got mud embedded in the slots and which very quickly ground down the pads.

I was tempted to fit slotted discs last time but went with the bog standard ventilated replacement and find them more than adequate... just keep the system well bled!

I recall it took me a couple of hours to replace the front disc rotors. No special tools. It was a leisurely affair including a couple of beers, coffee and keeping an eye on the Bathurst 1000... If in a hurry, you could do the whole job in less than an hour by yourself...

Thanks Hoges, I mistook ventilated with cross drilled.
The standard ones will do me fine.
I checked the manual, it looks like a pretty straight forward job, hardest bit looks like removing that screw through that holds the rotor in place.
I might take your advice and have a couple of beers on hand!
Cheers, Pete.

A nice easy job, I have had my discs off a couple of times when dealing with the CV joints. The 2 bolts holding the caliper carrier are fairly tight but not beyond normal tools, the worst bit is the screw retaining the disc which on mine where a pain to undo. An impact screwdriver might come in handy if you have one. Hopefully yours will be untouched and easy to remove unlike mine which where already butchered by a previous owner / mechanic

The Link posted by p38arover has all you need

Thought you light like to know, I got the first one done in an hour, including jacking up the car, getting the tools out etc, the second one was done in 30 mins! So much easier than the classic Rangies. Impact driver to the rescue, the screws came undone pretty easily with that. Thanks for all the advice, now onto my leaking air spring! Cheers.