Defender td5 upgrade to vented front brakes

A few (several) months we bought this kit of fleabay and finally looking to get around to fitting. The solid discs really do get hot and we don't really race around, often the discs are smoking - probably not helped by the 33x12.5R15 tyres shrouding them. The upgrade kit comes with red "EBC" brake pads. If these are those racing ones I have read these are not that great for normal driving as they like being hot to work properly, if I had seen they were EBC (not mentioned in the advert) I would not have had them and gone for something else. How can I tell what other pads can be fitted with this discs/callipers? Or will these be ok?

edit: apparently these are the "standard ebc pads" and will be ok

I ran 35/12.5/R15 tyres on standard discs, genuine pads and drums on the back. I ever had problems with them getting hot and certainly never had them smoking. Are you sure you "don't really race around". What pads are you currently running?

are your calipers working properly? ie releasing after braking

mick the builder said:

are your calipers working properly? ie releasing after braking

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They seem to be but I’ve not changed the front calipers or discs since I’ve had it 6 years, just the rear calipers which were done about 4 years ago. I think the pads are mintex but cannot be sure.

Drove around our little industrial area earlier for a few mins and the discs were reading 70 degrees! Maybe the calipers are knackered or rubbish pads . I’ve got this kit now though anyway

In that case, are the rear calipers working? maybe all braking is on the front

Good point! We first noticed they were getting hot on a run last year from Bedford to Devon but put it down to all the roundabouts, certainly never noticed it before.

What’s the best way to test what it working and what’s not?

An obvious starting point is to jack up the back and see if the back wheels are harder to turn with someone pressing the brake pedal. Or if it's wedged down with a piece of wood if you're single handed. When I refurbished my brakes a while ago, I discovered that the pistons were more or less rusted into the back brakes and they weren't doing much. With new seals and pistons they actually work and the front brakes don't have to do everything, so the front is less apt to lock up under heavy braking. 70C for a brake disc is nothing to worry about. When they start to glow (700C) you might be in trouble. I've not tried the red EBC pads but the green ones seem fine. I put some in in 2013 and then put some more in last year just before the MOT.

Brown said:

An obvious starting point is to jack up the back and see if the back wheels are harder to turn with someone pressing the brake pedal. Or if it's wedged down with a piece of wood if you're single handed. When I refurbished my brakes a while ago, I discovered that the pistons were more or less rusted into the back brakes and they weren't doing much. With new seals and pistons they actually work and the front brakes don't have to do everything, so the front is less apt to lock up under heavy braking. 70C for a brake disc is nothing to worry about. When they start to glow (700C) you might be in trouble. I've not tried the red EBC pads but the green ones seem fine. I put some in in 2013 and then put some more in last year just before the MOT.

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Thanks, yes was thinking I’d have to do it single handed so wasn’t sure how that would be done.

I thought 70 sounded a lot but nothing like 700! I’ll have a good look at the rear brakes too. They were done at a time when everything was done on the cheap

tom1979 said:

Thanks, yes was thinking I’d have to do it single handed so wasn’t sure how that would be done.

I thought 70 sounded a lot but nothing like 700! I’ll have a good look at the rear brakes too. They were done at a time when everything was done on the cheap

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Well, it's less than the temperature of boiling water, so not much at all really. Brake discs used hard can get red hot, on everything from racing cars to London buses. The problem arises when the heat from the brakes starts boiling the brake fluid, as the vapour is more compressible than the fluid so makes the brakes spongy. But it sounds like you have a long way to go before you get to that point.

if something has been spilt on the pads like oil/wd40 etc I wonder if it’s the pads smoking

tom1979 said:

What’s the best way to test what it working and what’s not?

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Take one of the props off then get it on the brake test rollers at your local friendly mot station.

There is a faint imprint of the pad on the disc on the side that smokes (NSF), is that normal or a sign of it sticking

I've had a few of those marks too. I'd always assumed they were from where the wheel had come to rest when everything was wet and it's an oxidation mark.

I do have a set of mintex pads I can chuck on to rule out the pads.

I was doing some measuring earlier and looking back at some of the photos there is a fair bit of oil about, possibly hub seal flicking onto the pads?

If the pads are oily that would make them smoke, It would also make the set that isnt oily work harder and get hotter. As said after a spirited drive I would expect to burn myself on brake discs in a similar way to taking a pan out of the an oven (ask me how I know that ) But that is to be expected. Brakes work by turning kenetic enrgy into heat energy. Until they glow there is nothing to worry about and that is only a problem becasue of the other things it causes.
I would start by cleaning everything and making sure everything you have is working properly. There is no point fitting new pieces to potentially still have the saem problem. Once everything is working you can then fit the upgrade kit in confidance.

(although as an aside if you do lots of off roading vented disks quickly pack with mud removing all advantages)

dag019 said:

(although as an aside if you do lots of off roading vented disks quickly pack with mud removing all advantages)

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This, I had not even considered

Well we decided to fit them because we had them. Unfortunately lots of blue boxes and guess what, on one of the calipers one side the brake pad doesn’t fit.

Seriously Britpart, can you make anything of decent quality?!!! If I’d known it was Britpart I wouldn’t have ordered it but thought we’d at least give them a go. How wrong we were!

The kit came with standard EBC pads, but even the Mintex ones don’t fit in that place

Worth a check, master cylinder rod adjustment.

tottot said:

Worth a check, master cylinder rod adjustment.

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How does that work? The pads don’t fit, it’s not the width