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FC · 11-20-2016, 11:22 AM

LR4's are notorious consumers of brakes, and LR parts and dealer fees are comically high ($2k++ for a full job). I bought a full OEM LR brake kit (all pads and discs plus 2 sensors and sacrificial hardware - $900 - cheapest I could get) figuring I'd do discs and pads in the rear now and discs and pads in the front in the spring. Pads looked pretty bad in the back and I had heard conflicting reports as to whether or not you could get two pads out of one disc or they had to be changed at the same time.

Started with rear left and outside pad was in sad shape, but inside one was better (and that's why the sensor had not yet tripped). Measured the new rotor and it's 20.00mm on the nose and it is stamped with a min thickness of 17mm. The worst measurement I can get on my existing rotor is 19.51mm. As a result, I left the rotors alone despite some slight grooving. Car has 23.5k miles on factory brakes. Looks like I'll be holding on to those discs for a couple of years at least.

As for the brake bleed (3 years in, per LR schedule), the old fluid came out looking orange, which is new to me. My experience with European cars is that new fluid looks like vegetable oil and old fluid looks like olive oil (thicker and with a distinct dark yellow/green hue). The new stuff (Castrol DOT 4 synthetic) looks like all other new brake fluid I've seen - vegetable oil-like. But the old stuff came out looking very orange. Weird. Anyway I flushed it with the Motive bleeder using the dry method. Worked reasonably well though I was surprised by the low flow rate. Test drove car and all is well.

Oh yeah, and my F'n lift rocks. The LR4 is a PITA given the weight and the outrageous amount of wheel travel (prior to my lift, I had to put my floor jack on two 2x10's to get a wheel/tire to clear the floor by 1/4"). To be able to have all for wheels out at the same time and at comfortable height is just awesome. I think my wife has seen me use it enough by now that I have never gotten grief for buying it and never makes snarky remarks other than to remind me how lucky I am.

11-20-2016, 11:22 AM	#1
FC Solving problems Join Date: Oct 2003 Carmudgeonly Ride: M5 / 718 GTS / Cooper S / GTI / LR4 Location: Metro Boston Posts: 25,264	LR4 brake work LR4's are notorious consumers of brakes, and LR parts and dealer fees are comically high ($2k++ for a full job). I bought a full OEM LR brake kit (all pads and discs plus 2 sensors and sacrificial hardware - $900 - cheapest I could get) figuring I'd do discs and pads in the rear now and discs and pads in the front in the spring. Pads looked pretty bad in the back and I had heard conflicting reports as to whether or not you could get two pads out of one disc or they had to be changed at the same time. Started with rear left and outside pad was in sad shape, but inside one was better (and that's why the sensor had not yet tripped). Measured the new rotor and it's 20.00mm on the nose and it is stamped with a min thickness of 17mm. The worst measurement I can get on my existing rotor is 19.51mm. As a result, I left the rotors alone despite some slight grooving. Car has 23.5k miles on factory brakes. Looks like I'll be holding on to those discs for a couple of years at least. As for the brake bleed (3 years in, per LR schedule), the old fluid came out looking orange, which is new to me. My experience with European cars is that new fluid looks like vegetable oil and old fluid looks like olive oil (thicker and with a distinct dark yellow/green hue). The new stuff (Castrol DOT 4 synthetic) looks like all other new brake fluid I've seen - vegetable oil-like. But the old stuff came out looking very orange. Weird. Anyway I flushed it with the Motive bleeder using the dry method. Worked reasonably well though I was surprised by the low flow rate. Test drove car and all is well. Oh yeah, and my F'n lift rocks. The LR4 is a PITA given the weight and the outrageous amount of wheel travel (prior to my lift, I had to put my floor jack on two 2x10's to get a wheel/tire to clear the floor by 1/4"). To be able to have all for wheels out at the same time and at comfortable height is just awesome. I think my wife has seen me use it enough by now that I have never gotten grief for buying it and never makes snarky remarks other than to remind me how lucky I am.