Serendipity for Wille the Freelander
Since no one ever posts about Freelanders I might as well (and perhaps I am the only owner of one in the club)Everyone knows about the Freelander front brake problem and my brakes were overdue for a change. I was told when I had it inspected and also at my last service for scheduled maintenance that they were pretty bad. It was making the squealing sound and shaking a bit when stopping, it was time. So, on Monday during lunch I was just about to pick up the telephone and call the dealer and set up an appointment to have the front pads and rotors changed, when for some strange reason I decided to check my personal email. I saw a message from Atlantic British that said "tired of paying high prices for dealer brake service on your Freelander( I was), want better performance (yes) and longer brake life (sure) then buy EBC brakes and do it yourself. On sale now." I mean things like this happern for a reason.
I called Atlantic British and ordered the EBC brakes. That night I also bought a Freelander shop manual and downloaded it on line. ($20.00) It has over 900 pages of information and you just plot out what you want. The next day I had to travel to Spokane, WA and when I got back in the office on Friday, my package from Atlantic British was sitting on my floor. (along with my package from Lands End) On Friday night I printed out all the pages from the manual I would need. I also bought a disk brake spreader for $7.00 at a local auto parts store.
On Saturday afternoon I installed the brakes, the first set took one and a half hours and the second set took 45 minutes. Anyway the point is the car runs great, no shaking or shuddering when I stop. Much smoother at speed. It even accelerates faster because the front wheels don't shake.
All in all I saved about $200.00 based on dealer prices from Dec 2005 when I had the same thing done. So, I saved a bit of money, but I think I made an improvement over the factory brakes.
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