My wife started hearing a weird noise while braking. I took it for a quick drive and could hear a noise from the rear left brakes. I took a quick look and couldn't see anything obvious. I put the car on the lift, took the wheel off and looked at the brakes. The inside pad was just starting to be metal on metal. The other 3 pads have plenty of meat on them. Seems like a weird scenario considering they are single piston brakes. Same pressure is applied to both pads with floating caliper design. Maybe defective pad material on the one pad? Luckily AutoZone had a set that fit the car in stock and it took an hour from start to finish (including running to the store. They are easy to work on. The car has 53000 miles on it. Not bad either way.

To put in service mode, press ignition but do not start the engine. Release the parking brake. Then hold the parking braking release lever, continue to do that but after 2 seconds press the gas pedal to the floor. While continuing to pull the brake release and pressing the gas turn the ignition off and back on quickly. Still holding the brake release lever and gas pedal until brake service mode is displayed on the instrument cluster. To exit brake service mode, repeat the process, but push the brake release lever to activate the parking brake instead of pulling to release.

 

How did the guide pins look? That can happen when the guide pins get bound up.

 

Hmm. Have not tackled this on my L663, but that's a caliper issue I'd say. (or pins, etc) Kind of weird.

 

The guide pins seem fine. Nothing felt like it was binding. A seized guide pin is the only way I think this could happen (other than pad material defect).

 

Must have been a bad pad then. I bet the entire slug of material separated from the backing plate.

I guess that's the best possible outcome. Worst would be a front pad catastrophically failing in an emergency braking situation.

 

Thanks for the reference to the Service Mode tips. I’ve saved them for my next brake job. On my 2012 Range Rover Evoque I set out to replace the front and rear pads and rotors, just like I have on numerous vehicles before. Only thing I didn’t anticipate was that once I manually released the parking brake by activating the release button and I had pulled the calipers and pads, after a set time, the parking brake reapplies itself. So as I’m holding the caliper, I hear the sound of hydraulics being applied and the caliper piston pops out into my hand. After much gritting of teeth I was finally able to work the piston back into the caliper and complete the job. This service mode probably existed on the Evoque but I wasn’t aware of it at the time. Won’t make that mistake again.

 

Humm. Might be sticking piston that doesn’t release thus causing premature pad wear. In any case a brake specialist can diagnose cause.

 

The issue is with a single piston floating caliper, this would wear out both pads and it applies even pressure to both pads at the same time as they are each used to apply pressure against each other. This would only be possible if the guide pin was stuck, which isn't the case here.

I genuinely think at this point the pad material separated from the backing plate. It makes the most sense.