April 23

2017 Range Rover Front And Rear Brake Repair

Land Rover/Range Rover

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Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience. 22 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver and celebrating 30 years of serving the clients of all makes and models of cars, all kinds of repairs in Vancouver, British Columbia, and we're talking Range Rovers. How are you doing Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing very well. 

Mark: So what was happening with this Range Rover SUV?

Bernie: As this vehicle had just been in the dealer for service and they noted the front rear brakes were worn out and needed to be replaced, and he brought it to us to have the brake work done. 

Mark: So it's a 2017, which is three years old. That's seems a little bit early, isn't it? How many kilometres did it have? 

Bernie: The vehicle only had 23,000 kilometres on it. 

Mark: Well, why would it need brakes at such a relatively young age? 

Bernie: You know, most of these large European SUVs need brakes done at a very low mileage. We've had, you know, like I'm thinking that Audi Q7 for one. Their brakes don't last much more than 30,000 kilometres.

Range Rovers typically are about good for about 30 K's max. And I'll be honest with you, I sometimes puzzle over it myself because the brakes in these vehicles are absolutely massive. They're huge. They're made out of good materials and yet they don't last.

And, you know, a lot of it I think is just, it's a performance vehicle. There's a lot of weight and you know, that's likely the cause. 

Mark: So what sort of materials are the brake pads made of that they don't, and the rotors, I guess too, that they don't last?

Bernie: Well a lot of them are actually made on a really good solid materials like semi metallic or carbon, sorry, ceramic or semi metallic, which are good, generally durable materials.

The rotors wear equally with the pad. So when you get these into your, replace the pads, the rotors have big, deep grooves in them where they've worn the material away. So the pad material is clearly a very hard material. The only thing I can conclude is just, it's a high performance vehicle with a lot of weight, you know, with the wheels and of the actual vehicle itself, so that, that would be I think what would cause it.  Let's have a look at some pictures here. 

2017 Range Rover Front And Rear Brake Repair
2017 Range Rover Front And Rear Brake Repair
2017 Range Rover Front And Rear Brake Repair
2017 Range Rover Front And Rear Brake Repair
2017 Range Rover Front And Rear Brake Repair

So there's our beautiful Range Rover Supercharged. I mean, it's just absolutely gorgeous car. Of course, one of the things that I mentioned, you know, the wheels. I mean, if you look at the wheels in this vehicle, and I should really look at the tire says, these have gotta be, you know, at least a 20 inch or larger wheel. So there's a lot of weight to this tire and wheel, and you know, that'll cause you know, brakes to wear at a much quicker rate. Let’s have a look at some pads and things here.

So let's look at the front. So there's our, there's our front brakes before about three millimetres left in these pads. So not a whole lot. You can kind of see an edge here. This is that the edge where the old age of the rotor, and it's difficult to see in this picture, but there's a definite, there's a lot of material worn away in this part of the rotor that requires it to be replaced.

It's not machineable because there's just not a lot left. We look over here, we've got, these are the new brake pads. You can see much greater level of material. These aren't the thickest pads in the world. I mean, compared to like VWs often use very thick pads to start with. These are probably about 12 mils I think. So there's a pretty good amount of material to wear. And you can see the new clean, absolutely flat rotor surface. So that's the, those are the front brakes, kind of a close up view. 

Let's get into the rear here. Those are the old pads. You can see there's very little left on these pads. Less than two millimetres on these particular pads. And then we look at the replacement rears, which you can clearly see. There's a lot more meat on that. So there's kind of a view of the brakes. It's a common job for, you know, as I mentioned, 23,000 kilometres, I mean, this is, I hate to say it, but this is kind of normal for these vehicles.

Although we have had some vehicles in the past where, you know, with the aftermarket parts we use, the pads and rotors will last much longer than the original. So it may be that they also use a slightly softer material from the factory just to prevent any squeaks and squeals. 

Mark: So is there anything that a Range Rover owner can do to improve brake life other than not driving the vehicle?

Bernie: Yeah. That is one thing. And that kind of defeats the whole purpose of having such a nice car. But, you know, I guess it's like and this is the key for any car. I mean, use your brakes as little as possible. You know, don't come flying up to a stop and jam the brakes on. If you're going down hills, pump the brakes, that helps the brakes last longer. Those are some just sort of normal things you do in any car and that's really kind of the key to one of these too. I mean, it's hard not to go fast in this vehicle and really move it. It's a Supercharged V8.

It's got a hell of a lot of power and you know, and that's just kind of part of the ride. But it really, I think it's all in the engineering and design of these vehicles. The brakes just tend to wear heavily. And, you know, say if you just a little gentler on the brakes and avoid slamming them on, that'll probably give you a little more life.

Mark: So there you go. If you need service for your Range Rover, brake system or anything, they repair it all at Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, British Columbia. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to call and book ahead. They're going to speak to you. Check out the website pawlikautomotive.com hundreds, literally over 600 videos and articles on there on all makes and models of cars and repairs. The YouTube channel, we're approaching 400 videos on there of repairs of all makes and models of cars, Pawlik Auto Repair. Thanks so much for listening and watching the podcast. We really appreciate it. Leave us a five star review wherever you watch your and get your podcasts from. Thanks, Bernie. 

Bernie: Thanks, Mark. Thanks for watching. We really appreciate it.

About the author 

Bernie Pawlik

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