Changing rear brakes now - some questions

[Quijote]

I bought a full OEM LR brake kit figuring I'd do discs and pads in the rear now and discs and pads in the front in the spring.

I have the car up in the lift now. Started with rear left and outside pad is in sad shape, but inside one doing significantly better. 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'm inclined to leave the rotors alone despite some slight grooving. Car has 23.5k miles on factory brakes.


QUESTIONS:

All rear pads are not identical. one pair has a white outer lining. I want to assume that is the inside pad (against piston) but can't be sure. Also, should I use anti-squeal paste? The pad plates seem coated with something slippery already.

 

[Quijote]

I noticed the white stuff just peels away to reveal a black tacky surface with no text. From the factory the pads with text were on the inside so I did the same and applied anti-squeal paste I had from another job. Doing a full brake bleed now.

 

[Quijote]

Update: Rear right brakes were the same deal as rear left. Fronts, however, read min thickness of 27mm, but discs in both cases measure 29-29.1mm. Pads look a lot better there with at least 3mm left to the sensor, so I left them alone and will re-asses in spring when the winter tires come off. I just put on the Hakkas despite being a couple of weeks early because, what the heck, the wheels were already off for the bleed and it's close enough to winter.

As for the brake bleed, the old fluid came out looking orange, which is new to me. My experience with premium 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). I bought the brake fluid recommended and sold by Atlantic British along with their full brake kit. The new stuff looks like all other new brake fluid I've seen - vegetable oil. But the old stuff came out looking very orange. Weird. Anyway it's all flushed out now. I'm about to lower the car and take it for a test drive.

EDIT: All is well after test drive. Car feels fine, just as before. Was expecting a (slightly to significantly) firmer brake pedal as is the case with my previous sportier cars but that wasn't the case.

 

[Surfrider77]

I don't have the setup here in the Middle East to tackle my own brakes, but kudos for posting info for others!

 

[Quijote]

I don't have the setup here in the Middle East to tackle my own brakes, but kudos for posting info for others!

Yeah, I'm pretty fortunate. I built a detached garage and designed it around a 10,000, 2-post lift, so it makes it very easy to work on a tricky car like the LR4 (heavy, with a lof of suspension travel).

Here are some photos of what I I mentioned. On the comparison of (rear left) pads, the most worn is the outside pad, with the inside pad having the sensor and not having tripped it yet. Obviously on the extremes are the new pads for comparison. Again, 23.4k miles about 65% highway driving.

View attachment 6711

 

[ryanjl]

You mind taking some pictures of your garage? I'm looking at building a detached garage sometime in the near future and would like to see some ideas.

 

[Quijote]

You mind taking some pictures of your garage? I'm looking at building a detached garage sometime in the near future and would like to see some ideas.

Even though it was down 2 years ago, my 300+ photos are a mess. Here are a couple of the garage in various states of completion. I have not yet taken a photo of it totally done because there is always a project going on making it messy.

For your purposes, you may benefit more from my electrical schematic, which shows the location of the lift and the coffer (it's missing a 2nd 30A circuit I installed on the other post, so that I could plug in a 240V heater). Note that the lift is set 20' back so that the garage can be used as a 2-car garage with room left over for projects, but when the lift is needed there is plenty of room to get around. I only have 3 cars (and two live in the 2-car garage attached to the house), so typically there is only one car there.

The garage is 22' wide by 34' deep on the outside.

 

[Waterndirt]

Nice shop!

 

[ryanjl]

That is fantastic. I'm worried I might not have enough depth for a 33' deep garage, though--I have the width for a 2.5 car garage.

 

[jaguardoc504]

Back to the brakes... That is a significant difference in pad wear from the inner to the outter pad.
Make sure the caliper guide pins are thoroughly lubed. Also did you inspect the caliper piston boot for rips?

I have done (myself) the brakes a total of 3 time. I always get consistent wear, within 1mm, for the inner and outter pad (front or rear).
Seems that there may be some others factors going on here.

The fluid can range in color from green, to orand, to reddish, to outright brown. As long as there isn't any signs of water, then you are OK.