This past weekend I did a bit of a lengthy drive (from Portsmouth in Hampshire, to North Somerset, going via Cheddar Gorge). Everything was fine until I'd almost reached the destination when I braked on reaching a narrow bridge.
Although the brake pedal was the normal action, it suddenly made a noise like I'd got 'gravel' in the brakes or under the pedal and the pedal stopped at about half it's travel movement, with no brakes. Initial panic over (I was only going slowly and there was no traffic) I tried again and all appeared to work normally, with the pedal movement normal and normal braking resumed. I drove on carefully.
A couple of miles later the same thing happened again - sort of crunching noise/sensation through the pedal, pedal movement restricted and loss of brakes.
On reaching the destination I checked all the fluids and visual check of brakes (as much as you can see without removing wheels etc) and everything appeared to be ok. Nothing leaking and fluid levels ok. I did a few emergency stops in the carpark and only managed to reproduce the problem once out of about 5 or six braking experiments.
I left it for the weekend, then gave another visual inspection before driving all the way home again on Sunday (yesterday). Driving home (about 3 hours, averaging 50-60mph) the brakes were fine and there was no repetition of the problem - although I was more aware of it so was driving 'carefully'.
I'm wondering if possibly the long drive down there had heated things up and made a latent problem somewhere more apparent, or possibly the drive through Cheddar/Mendips put more strain on something - although I do always tend to use the gears appropriately for steep inclines so the brakes hadn't had excessive use during the journey.
Does anyone have any ideas where the problem may lie - before I start taking things apart, or book it into a garage for a once over? It's a 1997 Discovery TDi ES.
TIA. cheers, Paul