Recently purchased Disco ll, 2001. Hill from my home to the highway has a long 17% downhill grade. When the brakes are cold, the stopping distance on this hill is 15-20 feet from about 5 miles per hour with the pedal pushed down hard. ABS will not engage. Same problem on the flat for a few miles but not as scary as the hill. But, if you warm them up for ten minutes or so, stopping distance is OK and the ABS will engage, and you make a panic stop and brake feel is still soft but you can get it to stop. When hot, they stop on downhill acceptably and there is almost no fade. I replaced the six brake lines with crown SS, so rubber is not an issue here. And two guys bled it twice and carefully on the computer, so it is not the bleeding issue.
The rotors look good with minimal scoring and no lip. Obviously, with 100K miles, they were replaced. Do you think it is hard brake pads?
I do not care about dust or wear issues. What brake pads can I replace with that will stop when cold and not fade badly when hot?
Thanks!

 

Different brake compounds have different cold characteristics, the closer you get to the performance end of the spectrum, the worse the effect. The PO may have installed ceramic pads which aren't very good until they warm up.

 

OK, looks like Bkreutz is correct, these are ceramic pads. Question is, during extended freeway driving, say you are on our Route 5 here in California, you set the cruise control for 70 and don't touch the brakes for an hour, then have to jam them on. Will the ceramic pads be cold, meaning you are not going to get a good stop? Or do the pads have a little drag on the rotors and stay warm, ready to use?

 

I think your pads will be warm after 20 min of driving I replaced my pads not too long ago with akebono pads and so far they are great

 

the pads have a little drag on the rotors and stay warm

 

One thing you could do is drag the brakes on your downhill drive instead of waiting until you get to the bottom. I have ceramic pads as well and the first couple of stops are "leisurely" I've gotten used to it but I don't have a big hill to go down first thing in the morning.

 

Thanks to all the posters, we are now getting used to the fact the first five minutes, you are not going to have any panic stops. On the other hand, I took this thing out to the hills, heated them up, and made repeated stops downhill from about 50MPH, engaging the anti-lock, and no fade, straight line every time. Another Disco I drove recently with factory type pads was all over the place after a few stops. So maybe this is not such a bad thing, and there is no break dust all over the wheels.

 

Riding the brakes can cause you all kinds of problems. From experience I think I would downshift the transmission into a lower gear and let the trans and engine keep the truck at slower speeds.

 

Good information. This helps explain some of the stopping excitement I have at the first two stop signs on with just a very slight downgrade going out of my neighborhood when towing my trailer which can be exciting in a bad kind of way

 

On cold stopping, I've found that the extended distance to stop at low speed has more to do with the elevated idle of the engine pushing the truck than anything. Obviously this is more often noticed in the winter.

To test, I stopped short from 10 while in gear with a cold engine idle speed, and then did it again in neutral, and the distance was substantially less.

This might not be the issue in your case, but it wouldn't hurt to try.