Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

GTiJohn wrote:
I'm pretty sure the discs from R8 carried-over without change onto R3 at 96MY

The solid disc is quoted as 13mm thick but with a 'height' of 44.6mm - so they are probably using 'height' as the dimension between the mounting face and the centre-line of the rotor

I still can't see why this of would have changed by 2.5mm for the vented disc and be different to the solid disc, even by only 0.1mm . .......

The sliding piston caliper should compensate anyway but I'm still confused.

The height is the height if you lie them on a flat surface i.e includes both the disc thickness and the offset of the hub dimension.

There are two offsets of vented discs. The early R8's are different from the R3, lord knows why!
I'm not sure when they changed over but I suspect it was when they discontinued most of the R8's and replaced them with R3's. I think the remaining tourers/cabriolets sold after this used the later R3 offsets to simplify parts inventory. Not 100% sure on the changeover exactly but the height and whether the disc is vented or not is all that is needed to make sure you get the right ones for replacing them.

I have fitted R8 (early) discs to an R3 before, but as I was swapping the calipers and carriers it all swapped over without any issue.

Okay so I'm going to attempt this at the weekend assuming it actually stops raining for more than ten minutes. Are there any pitfalls/gotchas I should be aware of? Any top tips? Any special tools that I'm going to find difficult to source on a Sunday lunchtime when the car is half dismantled on the driveway?

If you can get some penetrating oil in the caliper pin bolts beforehand it might make it easier. Having some brake cleaner and Copperslip handy would be a good idea too.

I usually find getting the pistons back in awkward and having a suitable broom-handle/length of wood/crowbar to hand saves stamping around looking one when it won't go back in easily

But apart from that it's pretty straight-forward.

Good luck

If the pads are well worn, the piston may well have a ring of crud/rust around it where it has been exposed to the elements as it comes out of the dust boot. If so it will have to be pushed out of the bore, once the calliper has been separated from the carrier.
I push the piston out using the brake pedal[not completely]. Then assuming you haven't fitted braided hoses I clamp off the rubber brake pipe using mole grips, put a piece of rag around the pipe first. This prevents air getting in, i would flush the system through using new Dot Four brake fluid afterwards anyway. If you have a local friendly trustworthy garage they may well have a flushing kit to do this job that fits over the master cylinder reservoir with a pipe and non return valve fitted to each wheel station.
This pressure bleeds the whole system. Keep the top on the fluid as it absorbs moisture.

The pads should have a full set of shims [one behind each pad] plus carrier spring plates, or pad spring plates that fit top and bottom in the carrier. These can quite often be missing. Needless to say the pads should be a close but sliding fit in the carrier.
I would clean everything up and rebuild with a LIGHT smear of copper slip between pads and springs/shims. There should also be a circular shim that fits on the business end of the piston. The guide pins should slide smoothly in the carrier bores and not snag. A carrier repair kit should be available that will contain a silicone type grease for the pins, plus seals, guide pin boots, piston seals and dust seals etc. If you replace the brake pads you may well need to file the pad plates top and bottom edges to achieve a nice sliding fit in the carrier. Depending on wether the shims are there or not you can get a cheaper set of pads from ECP, but you don't get the shims and spring plates. Rimmers can supply a pad and shim kit, but at a price.

Clean the piston using very fine wet and dry emery paper using plenty of spit. Reassemble using a smear of clean brake fluid, always remembering that it's hygroscopic so keep the tin stoppered.

An impact driver is useful to get the little pozidrive screws that retain the discs out in one piece. Even then they sometimes don't come out and you need to drill the head off of them (easy as they are soft).

If you haven't got any spare screws then they aren't essential as they just hold things together before you bolt the wheels on.

All done... and all pretty easy. Test drive seemed good - no squeaking or vibrating anymore, although they're a little spongy at the top - which I assume will improve as they bed in. If not I might attempt a fluid change another weekend (the discs are enough for one Sunday!)

I think the fluid on mine was last changed in 2010. Had it done while she was MOT'd inJan' and it has made a noticeable improvement to the peddle.