I’m approaching my first service and will need new brakes as they’ve been vibrating for a while - at some point I must have overheated them. Before I buy OEM ones, I was wondering if there any cross vented alternatives available that might prevent it in the future.

 

It's surprising that the truck would need new brakes (assuming you mean rotors) this soon. Not sure it's even possible to overheat modern rotors such that they would become untrue. What might be worth looking at is to see if the rotors are glazed from the brake pads. This can happen with performance cars. The glazing can make the pads grip unevenly when applying the brakes, This can be fixed by lightly sanding the rotors and pads surfaces and then going through the pad seating process. Might be worth a try before what I imagine is going to be a big bill for new brakes.

 

I would stick to OEMs personally.

Rears usually go first.

They don’t last long you’re stopping a lot of weight.

 

If rears go first it’s only because you are driving on the edge of high-speed traction and the traction control is stepping in with judicious rear braking as appropriate to bring the rear-end back into line while cornering. I wouldn’t think most SUV drivers would invoke that condition very often, and therefore most people would see fronts go first because such an inordinate amount of stopping force is generated in the fronts due to weight transfer under load.

That said, I drive the Defender hard in the sinuous North Carolina mountains of our second home, often causing the TC to activate on the rear, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I do need rear pads before fronts. But I doubt I’ll own the Defender long enough to need rotors; I haven’t had to replace rotors on anything in a lot of years.

 

I have a similar issue. 32k miles completed and vibration through the steering wheel. I can remember when I first noticed it coming down a very steep ridge when I was fully loaded. Dealer says that I have front disc thickness variation, and I probably overheated the discs. Will cost me AU$2400 to replace pads and rotors. I have the 18" wheels as standard that came with 349mm rotors. I think the reason that the 18" wheels are no longer offered is because with such a heavy vehicle there is insufficient metal on the rotors to cool them down and this could lead to warping, especially if wading or hitting water after steep descents. I tend to use my gears on descents more now, but still ...the issue remains that these rotors either have been impregnated with pad material or warped and can't be turned. Like you, I have been looking for an aftermarket slotted solution. This is where it gets complicated.
For 18" wheels, the front rotors are 349mm, for 19" wheels, 363mm and for 20" wheels, 380mm. I can find slotted, high carbon rotors for the 20" wheels but I can't find anything for the 18". I have considered going up in size to 363mm which I think will still fit inside the 18" wheels but will need to swap the 2 piston floating caliper for the 4 piston fixed. Then I started searching for aftermarket discovery 5 slotted rotors and I can find 349mm front rotors that look similar but I don't know if there is any part sharing between these models. All I know at this stage is that if I replace the rotors with the original land rover part then I will likely overheat those as well at some point.

 

I just hit 50k miles and started getting some vibration as well when applying the brakes at higher speed. Front rotors were slightly warped but pads still had some life, happy with the duration I got out of them. Swapped all rotors and pads with OEM, came with a hefty price tag though. At a third party Land Rover shop here in the Bay Area it cost about $2800 with labor. If I went to the dealer it probably would have cost ~$4k. Once I blast through the new brakes I will try and find an aftermarket setup that will save on cost.

 

18” wheels are no longer offered???

 

Question: Are you P400 with 20 or 22 wheels? Or P300 ?

 

You can option on a 90 but not available on a 110 anymore. Used to be standard on D250 base models up until MY21 but the D250 is no longer offered in a 110. Aftermarket swap is the only way in a 110 now as I understand.

 

2800 bucks for brakes and rotors?
That's quite the Land Rover tax.