Brake upgrades?

I'm thinking how to upgrade the braking on my early 300 V8 (single hose per caliper, solid disc)

The brakes are borderline at best. I've heard of the RRC having vented disc and I'm sure that IF they could be fitted then they would give better braking at speed due to the increased cooling. However, I can drag through the brakes on the winch when stationary - this suggests a lack of clamping force rather than problems with heat dissipation. How have people upgraded their brakes and what has had a meaningful effect?

Oh and if anyone mentions crossdrilled or grooved discs, I'll slap 'em

Better pads. You wont have heat issues on a discovery cheap brakes are **** get green stuff pads and enjoy all the braking you need. Offroad vented will fill with mud. The newer defender front calipers are the better upgrade if you really do. As you said it's not heat its clamping power!

I wouldn't touch greenstuff if my life depended on it. I have never experienced such an inconsistent, poorly made, fade prone, limited life pad in all the hundreds of pads I've tried. Generally all better pads do is more efficiently convert kinetic energy into heat energy. If anyone can recommend a set of pads that has a demonstrably higher coefficient of friction than standard pads I'll use them but I can't see how even a very good pad will sort my issue as it's a mixture of too low a clamping force and too small a distance from the fulcrum (too small a diameter disc)

agreed, if your having brake FADE then you need vented... but then your an idiot for racing a 2 ton 90's LR.
As stated above, pads are a good move.

I'm not getting brake fade....
Pads will do very little to increase the clamping ability when stationary...

Mintex have served me well

Why use Defender vented disce when vented are listed in the disco parts book, they are fitted to disco in some markets.

I have always used Genuine pads but at the moment on the front i'm using EBC Ultrimax which do grab and I think better than Genuine.

Greenstuff and Redstuff which I have used in the past on another car I own do need to be warmed up to get the best from them, the first couple of presses of the peddle is not that good but after that all is ok.

discool said:

Why use Defender vented disce when vented are listed in the disco parts book, they are fitted to disco in some markets.

I have always used Genuine pads but at the moment on the front i'm using EBC Ultrimax which do grab and I think better than Genuine.

Greenstuff and Redstuff which I have used in the past on another car I own do need to be warmed up to get the best from them, the first couple of presses of the peddle is not that good but after that all is ok.

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If my research is right defender fronts are bigger. The op is after a higher contact friction and has his heart set on caliper upgrade. Imho for racing a disco I would 16 piston apc's with 388mm discs but would require larger wheels that would in turn give better surface contact to the black top and less flex in the side wall. Lowering it will allow for that set up to make a difference possibly a new engine because lets face it the rover v8s aint a fast lump. Maybe x5 running gear as that is more performance based but then again could just buy an x5 or m5 for a real performance vehicle and sell the landy to someone who wants a work horse not a racing van.

I hadn't mentioned defender discs? I mentioned RRC discs as they're essentially the same car and I'm told that it's a fairly common modification.

I actually think Ultimax are a better pad than the greenstuff.

I guess another question I should have asked is "how bad are D1 brakes?" as compared to a D2 mine are effin awful.... Is it normal to be able to pull through the brakes when winching?

@ snowman so how fast do you go when you're winching? I haven't mentioned fade or high speed braking...

What part of " I want to increase the clamping force" isn't clear?




If I want to go fast I'll use my daily driver. I'm after help based on experience, nota keyboard warrior. Ta.

PS it's coefficient of friction, not contact friction....

It could be that your pads have become saturated with oil of some kind and obv less effective

There is that, however the brakes have never been very good and it's had a few different make pads in...

sidewaysste said:

@ snowman so how fast do you go when you're winching? I haven't mentioned fade or high speed braking...

What part of " I want to increase the clamping force" isn't clear?

If I want to go fast I'll use my daily driver. I'm after help based on experience, nota keyboard warrior. Ta.

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I've had redstuff on 2 track cars assumed green stuff was just as good. D1 brakes are good. Just replaced rears as they had decade rather than wore out. New discs and pads will make one hell of a difference a 300tdi couldn't move mine with the foot on the brake. Caliper upgrade really ain't worth the money better discs and pads was my choice. I drive at 77 on the public highway had a tonne on private roads wouldn't do that often imo disco 1s are too unstable!
Btw I mentioned defender calipers as the rrc isn't that much of an upgrade over standard!

I use Apec discs and pads.
Changed to Apec brakes with every car ive owned including my disco and they are brilliant. And they aren't extortionate either price wise

I replaced my front brakes with Defender 130 parts, as bigger calipers , pads and vented discs.

Here is my old post with all the parts i bought to complete the conversion:-

StuRox said:

Found the receipt of when I did the conversion..

Got my stuff from Island 4x4 (Kent) Ltd - 01622 693884 - were really helpful in sorting out everything I needed, and this is what I got..


1 x Front Brake Pads 110/130 86- - Part No STC2952 - £12.49
1 x Front Brake Discs (2) Drilled & Grooved 110/130 1994 on - Part No DA4602 - £44.16
1 x Front Brake Pad Fitting Kit (Vented Discs) - Part No STC8575 - £2.49
1 x Caliper Front LH 110/130 94- (Vented) - Part No SEB500470 - £49.99
1 x Caliper Front RH 110/130 94- (Vented) - Part No SEB500460 - £49.99
5 x Front Brake Caliper Bolt Metric (Double Hex) - Part No FTC3375 - £2.15

Total £161.27 plus VAT £32.25 = £193.52 (plus free delivery)

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Might help with ideas of what you can do.

Hi Stu, thanks for that! That's the kind of info I was after I don't suppose you know how much bigger the diameter of the defender discs is vs the D1 discs?

sidewaysste said:

Hi Stu, thanks for that! That's the kind of info I was after I don't suppose you know how much bigger the diameter of the defender discs is vs the D1 discs?

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To be honest, I am not sure that they are much bigger in diameter, if at all bigger, but they are vented. I only got the Defender ones, as I needed to change the calipers to accomodate the wider vented discs (which was what I was initially after), but the calipers and pads from the 130 are bigger - I would say about 30% bigger from memory, so made sense to fit them than the standard disco vented setup for better stopping power

Oh... have you checked the vacuum part of you master cylinder is working... it Will cause weak breaking

Yes, sadly it's not such an easy fix as that

Stu - what are your impressions of the def 130 brakes vs standard ones?