Probably a dumb question but would pulling the manual parking release under the engine cover work to release the EPB? It disengages everything to facilitate a tow. Should work in this situation too. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

@johnz330 - You are a Prince amongst men! The hard rocking, funk loving, Prince of the Purple! Well done and thank you for the community add. Then again, you can be an unknown symbol from a Defender fault code if you don't like Prince....

 

This sounds like a good idea. Didn’t know about this.

I tested this out today and here’s what I did before.

• put the car in park and the ebrake turns on
• foot on brake pedal and hold ebrake lever up to turn ebrake off
• keep the lever up and stop the car
• this allowed me to open the door and get out without the ebrake turning back on

 

@sarek and others - my indy Land Rover mechanic did the swap but is getting a brake fault no matter what they try (clearing with LR tool, battery disconnect). Any other ideas before we tow it to the dealer?

 

Thanks for the tip and all who contributed to this thread. Followed these steps today when doing the caliper swap. Only thing I did differently was that I left the door open while going thru these steps to disengage the ebrake. Once I confirmed the ebrake was not engaged, I pulled the lever under the hood to put the trans into neutral and then I disconnected the battery before touching the rear caliper. After reassembly, the car
did not throw any faults.

​

 

Hi all,
I just found the following in the service manual. (https://www.lrdefender.org/electric_...ation-542.html)
I haven’t tried it yet, but it seems to get the parking brake out of the way for the swap.

Land Rover Defender: Electric Park Brake Service Mode Activation and Deactivation

Land Rover Defender 2020-2022 Service Manual / Chassis / Brake System / Parking Brake and Actuation / Electric Park Brake Service Mode Activation and Deactivation



GENERAL PROCEDURES

ACTIVATION

CAUTION: This procedure requires the vehicle in the Park or Neutral position, with the ignition turned ON (the engine must be OFF) and the parking brake system released.

NOTE: This procedure allows the parking brake to be released when removing and installing new rear brake pads or brake discs.

1. Press and hold the parking brake switch in the release position.

2. Wait 2 seconds.

3. Press and hold the accelerator pedal in the wide open throttle position.

4. Wait 2 seconds.

5. Turn the ignition Off and back On immediately.

NOTE: An audible noise will be heard to confirm that the parking brake has been released in Service Mode.

6. Release the accelerator pedal and release the parking brake switch to the neutral position.

DEACTIVATION

CAUTIONS:

• This procedure requires the vehicle in the Park or Neutral position, with the ignition turned ON (the engine must be OFF) and the parking brake system in Service Mode.
• Once the rear brake pads or brake discs have been installed, the Service Mode must be cancelled.

1. Press and hold the parking brake switch in the apply position.

2. Wait 2 seconds.

3. Press and hold the accelerator pedal in the wide open throttle position.

4. Wait 2 seconds.

5. Turn the ignition Off and back On immediately.

NOTE: An audible noise will be heard to confirm that the parking brake has been released from the Service Mode.

6. Release the accelerator pedal and release the parking brake switch to the neutral position.

 

with this simple “grind” will the original 18 inch white steelies fit?

 

I followed the pioneers and had NO trouble with my Evo Corse Dakar Zero's.

The key is: grind as far as you are comfortable. There's no scientific limit. Do a search on "grind" and there are a lot of folks who report on it. I even measured how far I went on mine. The key is: Grind - Mount the tire LOOSELY - check the gap. Rinse and repeat until you get the gap that you want. I wanted enough so that the wheel weights didn't get pulled off. If it fits, tighten the lug bolts slowly & recheck the distance you want. People with aluminum rims should be more cautious as mounting them may gauge the inner wheel if you haven't ground enough if you really tighten the wheels. In your case, with Steelies it will just be metal on metal. You can easily peek from underneath to the outside of the vehicle to see the distance. It may be a pita or time consuming, but it isn't precision engineering. You are definitely entering what is typically called "redneck engineering". If you have any reservations, concerns, uncertainty, think this is totally safe or totally (fill in the blank) then go with either caliper replacements or pass. Not saying you do or don't, but that was just my lame "legal disclosure".

Oh and I found best results with an 80 grit. 60 was too aggressive and I didn't mind going slowly. On the second side it was much more speedy because I had a better sense of how far I needed to go.

Here was my thread on it. I go into this in more detail. I fully give a nod to John for his invaluable pioneering (or at least documenting) the approach. Link

 

I believe spacers are required. Lucky8 can advise.