I've got a problem with the rear brakes on my 2000 Discovery TD5 that's reared it's head again and I'm hoping that one or two of the learned here might be able to shed some light on the best way forward. I only do about
3k miles per year in it now and it's only done 42k in total.For the last couple of years the rear left brake has developed a tendency to "stick" just a little on. Not all the time, but when it does it's just enough to feel it as you roll to a stop and let your foot off the pedal, kind of a faint residual retardation. It's also enough to make the disc hot and on a couple of trips it got hot enough to discolour the disc slightly blue with attendant hot pong and tinkly cooling noises.
The original solution (carried out thrice) was to put in new pads, forcing the piston right back in and working it over a good measure of travel before bolting everything back up again. This would work for a few months and then the problem would reappear. This would only happen on the rear left, not the rear right. I thought I was playing for time but that inevitably the caliper was on the way out. However, the problem has now appeared on the rear right in addition to the rear left and, although there's no play (softness) on the pedal at any time, there's just something about it that feels "different", even if I just move the vehicle to the end of the drive. The different feel can't be heat induced after only 10 yards! There's no ABS action going on, no grinding, no juddering, no pulling left or right under braking or anything. Occasionally the rears make a squeal if I brake lightly when moving quite slowly (more prone to do so if I'm reversing) and I know when one (or both) of them is getting hot because it makes a persistent faint squeal between about 30 and 60 mph.
So, is it likely to be both calipers now farked and time for replacements? Is there some balance/return valve thingy that's gone bust or at least failing to operate correctly or is it likely to be in the brake distribution block? I don't want to get replacement calipers to find that it's some other probably even more expensive component, or shell out for something expensive when (relatively) cheaper calipers would have solved it. It's a mystery and I hope someone here can shed a glimmer of light on it. Perhaps someone has experienced similar and knows how it was solved.
TIA, Steve