By Bill on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 04:24 pm: Edit

As the subject says....is this way out of line?? I don't have the resources now to do the job myself, and the shop says I need brakes and rotors. In 3 weeks I have a 1700 mile drive and want to be safe. Should I get a 2nd opinion on this??

Please answer ASAP as I need to make a decision by tomorrow morning....thanks very much for your help.

By Jorge P. Gutierrez, Jr. (Jpg2esq) on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 04:29 pm: Edit

I would. I was told I needed a complete brake job and only needed pads. I went to dealer, bought the pads and kept going. That was at 60k miles. I have 80k miles now and still ok.

By Axel Haakonsen (Axel) on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 04:37 pm: Edit

Don't sound right to me. How many miles on the truck? Have you looked at your pads and rotors to see if you actually need this work? You can also do the pads yourself, it's easy.

By jim on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 04:40 pm: Edit

buy the parts yourself and take them to your mechanic. I needed all new brakes. I purchased the rotors and pads and took them to my mechanic. Cost me 650 total. New rotors and pads and repacked bearings.

By Leslie N. Bright (Leslie) on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 10:58 pm: Edit

This is an easy job to do, nothing fancy at all... Rovers have some of the easiest brakes to work on. Labor shouldn't be too high, parts aren't made of gold.... I'd think the total price should be at least $1000 less.

Go to Midas, or your local mechanic.

FYI... you don't need much to do this job yourself, it's an easy fix....


-L

By Bill on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 11:11 pm: Edit

Thanks guys...the problem is, I live in downtown Chicago right now (soon to change that!) and don't have the resources to do it myself. I will check with a Midas in the morning.

The truck has approx 33,000 mi on it. I am a newbie to "do it yourself car maintenance", other than changing the oil and air filter. How can I tell if the rotors are shot? Thanks again.

By F.J. (Rovercon) on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 11:19 pm: Edit

I have the Land Rover Shop Manual and I wanted to paste the instructions on how to do the entire brake job for Bill, but for some reason the manual doesn't cover the replacement of the rotors. They only talk about the pads, abs, calipers, servo, etc. What gives? This is just sad!!!!!

Anyway, Bill if you want the intructions for what I do have, let me know and I will scan them and post them here.

By MTB on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 11:33 pm: Edit

Bill unless you ran the pads down to the rivits and they made grooves in your rotors or they are warped. Just replace the pads. When you buy these
$100K+ rovers everyone thinks we can afford to be screwed. I assume they offered to give you a reach around while they were going to screw you.

Michael B

By Leslie N. Bright (Leslie) on Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - 11:34 pm: Edit

Unfortunately, Rover rotors are pretty close to the allowable tolerances when new. If they're scored at all, odds are that if you put a micrometer on them you'll find that if they were turned that they would be too thin to be reliable with a vehicle as heavy as a Disco. If you've only got 10k or so on 'em, a pad change alone may suffice, and if you had 50k on 'em, they'd about have to be changed. Since you've got 33k, it could go either way, might be okay but quite possibly not.

You could probably just change pads and all would be okay.... but brakes are one of the things where I think it's better to play it safe.

Talk to the tech at Midas... not the manager, but the guy who's got his head in the wheelwell. Get him to show you if the rotor is significantly grooved, or if it is still fairly smooth. See if he thinks you'll be okay on just having pads installed. Hopefully so, that way it'd be cheap... and get them to let you see how they change the pads... you'll get a kick out of how easy it is...

Literally, after taking off the wheel you pull out 2 cotter pins, pull out the two long pins (boing will go the two springs!), and pull out the old pads. Compress the pistons, and insert the new pads. Reinstall the long pins (through new springs), and put in the new cotter pins. Then put the wheel back on!

Changing the rotors, a bit more involved, but doable.... a bit more involved than an oil change, but along the same skill-level required.

Good luck!

-L

By jim on Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 12:06 am: Edit

should be 250 for front rotors 170 for rear rotors and 100 for a set of pads. www.roverconnection.com I am sure you could probably find them cheaper. so you shouldn't pay the 1000 in labor they want. it shouldn't be that long of a job for them. I had all rotors and pads and bearings packed completed in three hours. 300+/hr for labor is quite expensive to me.

By Shane C. (Qsiguy) on Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 12:30 am: Edit

Tool list to do pads...

1. Jack- (comes with your LR)
2. Lug wrench w/breaker bar- (comes with your LR)
(wheels off)
3. Water pump pliers- to pull out retaining pins & compress the caliper pistons & then to reinstall pins
Super easy and you only need three tools, two of which come with your LR, you supply the pliers.

By AL on Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 01:07 am: Edit

BILL, go to Z&R auto on Sheffield and Lincoln and ask for Sam. Tell him Al sent u.
He is one of the most honest mechanics in Chicago.
Phone # (773)871-4555
It took him 1 1/2 hour to do my lift on the DiscoII and barley charged me anything, LR dealer wanted $500.00 to do it.
GOOD LUCK

By Tom P. on Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 04:44 am: Edit

Bill,

At 33k miles you are probably looking at pads only unless there is damage to the rotors.

Take a look at the top of the brake calipers. You will be able to see how much brake pad is left. If there is less than 1/8 inch of pad material between the rotor and the pad backing plate, you are in danger of scoring the rotor when the rivits make contact.

While you're looking, measure the thickness of the rotor and look for grooves or scoring on the rotor surface. Scrape off the rust to get a true measurement of the rotor. Best bet is to measure the thickness where the pads contact the rotor, but you will need a caliper to do this.

The minimum thickness for the stock rotors is 12mm. New ones I beleive are around 15mm. If the surface is smooth (no deep grooves) and the thickness over 12mm, you should be OK only replacing pads. I just replaced my rotors at 75k miles - fronts were down to 12mm and the rears were over 12mm but had grooves.

That's the thin and thick of it. What you do is up to you, but I'd check Al's lead on that mechanic... Parts alone (pads and rotors) for my job were $382.

Tom Proctor
96 Disco

By Ali on Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 05:40 am: Edit

Bill,

If you want to DIY, then email me off list. You can bring it over to my house and I can help you work on it. This way you can see what kind of stuff you'll need to purchase for future repairs on your rig. I live in Bolingbrook (western suburb of chicago).

By Ron on Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 05:43 am: Edit

Thats the spirit Ali!

Cheers
Ron

By Tom P. on Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 11:58 am: Edit

Ali, Ali, Ali!

hehe,

Tom Proctor
96 Disco

By Moe (Moe) on Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 12:00 pm: Edit

Yes, that is the spirit. Nice offer Ali.

Total cost just went from $1600 to $400!

By Discosaurus (Discosaurus) on Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 12:08 pm: Edit

Ali, invite the rest of the usual Chicago crowd and we'll have his rig looking like it's ready for Moab !

I'll come by...

keith
discosaurus

By jmon on Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 09:52 pm: Edit

if you need rotors..order them from england if you have the time...pick up a landrover mag and order them...i have a friend that just picked up four from "paddock" it came to about 24.00 dollars a rotor..shipping was really cheap ..said he saved over 150.00 dollars...from the dealer price...

By Ali on Sunday, October 14, 2001 - 09:07 am: Edit

I bought my Rangie rotors from XKS.COM for a decent price. They always seems to have the best prices for me thus far. Occasionally I can get brake pads at a local foreign auto parts place for a little more but the lack of S&H and lead time makes it up. It's in Downers Grove on Ogden, Sparomobile Auto parts.

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Sunday, October 14, 2001 - 10:24 am: Edit

I agree with Ali about XKS.COM on price, but be careful with them. They will often screw you over by shipping things at a different price than you were ordered. By exhaust manifold went from $115 on the day I ordered it to $275 when it showed up. They did take it back, but did not refund return shipping. Quite honestly, what they pulled is against the law.

Giving them another try, I ordered a steering dampener. It has shown up, but it is in horrific condition and looks like somebody else actually had it on their truck and returned it. Therefore, I am done with XKS.COM and will see fit to use their web site only for their nice online parts manual.

Tom

By Ali on Monday, October 15, 2001 - 10:37 pm: Edit

Tom,

That really blows. I don't blame you for dumping XKS! I'm not pleased to hear that they screwed you...again!

By Kingfish (Kingfish) on Tuesday, October 16, 2001 - 07:53 am: Edit

The LR dealer in my area charges $250 labor for replacing 2 discs. Thats $500 for both sets. The cost for Lockheed discs is $60 each. That brings your total to $740.

I would recommend you buy original LR pads - mailorder about $100. And change them yourself. Total= $840. So I guess your being hosed. Also, that price of $250 per axle is a high LR Stealer price. You could find cheaper somewhere else.