Ive been running TerraFirma CDG Rotors and Ferodo Pads for 4 years. No complaints here, and the price is nice.

Front Brake Rotors : Front Brake Rotor TF Allmakes

Front Brake Pads

 

I end up buying the Atlantic British rear brake rebuilt kit for the $319 - that includes the OEM rear rotors & pads. FYI, the independent mechanic took off(with lots of hammering to remove it) the original rotor @96K miles - it was very rusted!

It seems I will need to replace rotors sooner than 7 years and less than 96K miles. The whole rear brake project cost me 1/2 what the cost would have been at the dealership. I am so thankful I took it to the independent mechanic.

One issue we ran into - he did not lift up the car as he was hesitating about the air suspension. He jacked up one side at a time. He was looking for the suspension sensor switch to turn it off? Any LR expert knows where this sensor switch is located?

Thanks,
Mai

 

The "switch" is fuse 26 in the fuse box by the battery.

 

How often do you folks change the rear rotors and front discs?

Thanks,
Mai

 

While it appears all of you are successfully redoing your brakes with no difficulty, you may find the 36 page pdf per the link below of great value.

DISCO3.CO.UK Photo Gallery - Bodsy's Brake Bible


Download the latest version; v1.6a. As of when I last looked, there has been over9 ,500 views/downloads of this free 36 page pdf.

The black art part is probably towards the end, (page 27/36and following), re the electronic parking brake.

Rather than perhaps black art stuff, it may better be called leading edge, or maybe bleeding; also the set and unset procedure applies when doing just a normal rear pad change.

If you ignore the set unset procedure, then a few miles down the road, the squealing will almost assuredly start.

The good news is the fronts are more normal, but the rears, not so!

In total, for the vehicle, you actually have three pair of brake assemblies to deal with: (1), the front pair of rotors, and pads, (2), the rear pair of rotors and pads, and then (3), the parking brake pair of drums and shoes – yes, drums and shoes sitting behind/inside the rear rotors.

That is why you can use the parking brake as a “dynamic”system to safely slow the vehicle from highway speeds. The owner’s handbook explains the procedure as below.

Dynamic operation: In an emergency, the park brake can be applied dynamically: i.e.with the vehicle travelling at more than 3 km/h (2 mph). Pulling up on the lever and holding it up gives a gradual reduction in speed. The brake warning indicator will illuminate accompanied by a harsh sound and “Caution! Parkbrake applied” appears on the message screen.

The stop lamps also will illuminate. Releasing or depressing the lever will cancel the parkbrake application.

 

I would in no way recommend these yet as I have only put a couple hundred miles on them. But I installed rotors and pads from Brake Motive. Its an eBay store so I was very skeptical. I tried to find bad reviews on their products but couldn't find any. I'm all about quality and paying for that quality but money has been tight and its hard to beat $300 for pads and rotors all around. The rotors are drilled and slotted, and the pads are ceramic. Set even came with wear sensors which I was not expecting. I installed them and they went on fine. Broke them in and they were squishy at first but I was expecting that. Right now they are wore in nicely and performing great. Brakes better than the originals. Again I wont recommend them until after I wear them out and change them, but so far so good! And I hope it stays that way. If it helps I was originally going to go with the EBC rotors.

 

I just called my [very trustworthy] independent LR mechanic. I tow a travel trailer with my LR3 that weighs about 5,750 lbs, and was interested in more stopping power, so I asked his opinion about slotted/drilled rotors . He recommended against it, saying they dissipate heat faster but "chew up" pads much faster. He says he knows other LR owners that upgraded to slotted/drilled and are unhappy. That is not the opinion I expected, as he could have easily upsold me on the more expensive slotted/drilled rotors.

As far as cost, he quoted be low $600's for the front only (pads, rotors, sensors). Dealer quoted me $763.96 for front only.

 

You have a good mechanic. He realizes that while the 3 is a race truck, it is not a LeMans open wheeler; also that you do not plan to install new rotors etc after every outing.

I did consider the dimpled variety of rotor as I figured they would not hurt the pads much and the round dimples filled with black dust look good thru the wheel spokes.

Yes, but the black dust does not look good on the actual wheels - hence I installed Akebono ceramic pads on solid vented rotors. Since there would be no black dust, dimpled did not make any aesthetic sense and besides, the aim was to stop the 3, not show it off, hence I came to the same conclusion as your mechanic.

One thing you might do is choose rotors that have a rust resistant coating. I did not, and hence had to later pull the wheels, clean up the rotors and paint them with silver heat resistant paint. Thru the spokes, the non wear portions were getting to look like old railway tracks.

 

I completely agree with your mechanic. You might be able to dissipate heat a little bit faster due to the increased surface area (I don't mean brake surface area, but total rotor surface area) of the rotors, but those gains would be minimal since you are not getting airflow through the cross-drilled holes. Not much air flow at any rate... And what you gain in heat dissipation rate, you lose in brake surface area which is now reduced due to the cross drilling (not as much pad on rotor contact) and in heat absorption capability. Your rotors have less mass due to the material that has been removed for the cross drilling, so you have less ability to absorb the heat that your pads create.

Cross drilled rotors had their uses on the race tracks when pads suffered from out-gassing issues, but in today's age with the new pad materials that are available, they are really all marketing and hype.

 

Oh, and FWIW, I believe the OEM brake pads on the LR3 were Ferodo semi-metallic pads. In all honesty, these would probably be the best option for your needs since semi-metallic pads handle heat so much better than other types of pads. However, they will eat up your rotors much faster and create loads of brake dust. A compromise are the ceramic pads that people like myself and bbyer have switched to (e.g. the Akebono pads). These pads will probably have a little more fade than the OEM pads, but will be much more forgiving on your rotors, will be quieter, and will create almost zero brake dust.