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I first saw this on a FB page in a Discovery 5 FB group, apparently, this is a relatively popular upgrade going back to earlier Discovery's, as well. I got the calipers on Ebay, advertised "like-new" in the aspect that they were certainly new, old-stock, just not in any sort of original packaging or what not. One of them wasn't packaged very well and it showed when it arrived, so I decided to paint them with VHT caliper paint which they say is supposed to be good up to 900°F. In retrospect, I would just suggest that make sure you allocate plenty of time to properly mask off and paint your calipers, before attempting to install them. It's a lot easier when they are new and off the vehicle.
Now my truck had just 750 miles on the odometer, so I really didn't need new screws for the splash shields or even the rotor bolt was fine to reuse. I expected to replace the washers on the banjo nut on the brake line, but the washers on my banjo nut looked better than the copper washers I had ready to replace, so I just reused them. The splash shields are the same ones that the petrol or gas D5's get, and are rather exorbitantly overpriced if you're coming from a diesel Td6, but I really wouldn't not want to have them there. I used new caliper bolts as that is what JLR says to do, (TTY) but the ones that I took out looked fine. Notice that the correct torque spec for D5 caliper bolts is 100 ft.lbs. + 60°. My advice, turn your wheels on each side all the way so you have as much access to those caliper bolts, so you can get as long of a breaker bar on those bolts to get them off.
The calipers are genuine Brembo with Land Rover stamped on them. Looks better and when those big front Brembo's clamp down, the truck just stops. I also swapped the rear pads real quick before I did the fronts, with the same Power Stop Z36 line (1692) for the rear, to eliminate all brake dust. A thin 17mm wrench here will help a lot. The LR service procedure for putting the electronic parking brake in service mode was easy to use and worked well. Otherwise easy as pie to swap the rear pads.
Great job!!! Always great to have some pictures.
What front calipers did you have before?
I have a 2019 Si6 that come with 4 piston front calipers. Seems the TD6 still ships with the floating front calipers??
Great job!!! Always great to have some pictures.
What front calipers did you have before?
I have a 2019 Si6 that come with 4 piston front calipers. Seems the TD6 still ships with the floating front calipers??
Yes, exactly, the two-piston TRW floating calipers. Had I at least the four-piston Brembo's like the gas/petrol variants come with, I'd been a lot less eager to have swapped them out. No Sd6 or Brembo calipers here in the US on my March 2020 built D5, and I still bought it! JLR must think I'm a chump! Haha!
I just noticed that there is indeed separate LR part #'s for the wear indicators, although I just used a zip tie to help hold the wire in place on the new Brembo caliper. Per Y/T videos, it looks like the wear indicator for the Brembo caliper has a rubber grommet that goes around the inside bleeder valve.
Is the braking system and pedal travel still balanced with the larger caliper? Curious if it upsets ABS or braking balance front to rear. Otherwise looks like an awesome mod! I have 36k miles on my 2018 TD6 and this mod is on the top of my list.
Is the braking system and pedal travel still balanced with the larger caliper? Curious if it upsets ABS or braking balance front to rear. Otherwise looks like an awesome mod! I have 36k miles on my 2018 TD6 and this mod is on the top of my list.
I don't believe so. I looked up the part numbers and they appear to be universal through gas, diesel 3.0L engines, as well as the 5.0L V8 which I believe only comes with the larger brakes. The Y/T video below they are installing the big Brembo calipers on an older D3 I think it is. He briefly mentions this but doesn't believe it to be an issue. My truck drives the same, but when you get your foot in the brake and those big pads bite down, the truck just stops. For as much money as I paid for the truck, they really should have had these goodies (as well as the Sd6) on it from the beginning. (Not to mention the Toyo A/T tires, too!)
I'm looking to do this project but am having trouble sourcing the right caliper on ebay. There seem to be plenty left calipers but limited right. Does anyone have a good source that's not from a dealer? Thanks in advance!!!
I had not looked into something like that but those specific ones would not work. They only work up to 330mm and the upgraded rotors are 380mm. Plus if I'm patient enough I'm confident I can get the brembos for around $1,000 anyway. It's just weird that there are a number of left front calipers available but no right front.... weird....
I first saw this on a FB page in a Discovery 5 FB group, apparently, this is a relatively popular upgrade going back to earlier Discovery's, as well. I got the calipers on Ebay, advertised "like-new" in the aspect that they were certainly new, old-stock, just not in any sort of original packaging or what not. One of them wasn't packaged very well and it showed when it arrived, so I decided to paint them with VHT caliper paint which they say is supposed to be good up to 900°F. In retrospect, I would just suggest that make sure you allocate plenty of time to properly mask off and paint your calipers, before attempting to install them. It's a lot easier when they are new and off the vehicle.
Now my truck had just 750 miles on the odometer, so I really didn't need new screws for the splash shields or even the rotor bolt was fine to reuse. I expected to replace the washers on the banjo nut on the brake line, but the washers on my banjo nut looked better than the copper washers I had ready to replace, so I just reused them. The splash shields are the same ones that the petrol or gas D5's get, and are rather exorbitantly overpriced if you're coming from a diesel Td6, but I really wouldn't not want to have them there. I used new caliper bolts as that is what JLR says to do, (TTY) but the ones that I took out looked fine. Notice that the correct torque spec for D5 caliper bolts is 100 ft.lbs. + 60°. My advice, turn your wheels on each side all the way so you have as much access to those caliper bolts, so you can get as long of a breaker bar on those bolts to get them off.
The calipers are genuine Brembo with Land Rover stamped on them. Looks better and when those big front Brembo's clamp down, the truck just stops. I also swapped the rear pads real quick before I did the fronts, with the same Power Stop Z36 line (1692) for the rear, to eliminate all brake dust. A thin 17mm wrench here will help a lot. The LR service procedure for putting the electronic parking brake in service mode was easy to use and worked well. Otherwise easy as pie to swap the rear pads.
I just got around to completing this upgrade. Thank-You! Air Ryan. This post made the sourcing super easy, Took a while to source the parts as I wanted NEW components. I ended up getting some open package display parts, new but at a better price. It is all OEM - Calipers, Rotor, Splash Shield and all Bolts. Everything went in super smooth and you could tell it was all OEM components. No messing to make anything work. Why the TD6 didn’t at least get the SI6 brakes I won’t ever understand. But this upgrade even one ups the SI6 with the 380MM rotors. We tow a lot and the brakes have been the only negative when compared to our prior German SUV’s. No longer! These have terrific braking power, great pedal feel. I am sure they will do wonders with 7k lbs in tow!
Last edited by Seattle TD6; Apr 18, 2022 at 12:54 AM.
Hi Seattle TD6,
I did my brembo upgrade on my 2014 D4, that upgrade includes Calipers, Rotors, splash guards and one wear sensor wire. I am about to buy a 2017 D5 which came with a 4 piston brake, of course I would like to do the same brake upgrade, appreciate if you can share the sources of all components with me , Many thanks.
I retained the Brembo from my D4, it looks the same like what AirRyan posted, unfortunately the part number differ ( LR 016661 vs LR 039524 ), well I guess I will have to buy another pair of calipers then.,
Brembo big brake upgrade for Td6 Discovery
