I just purchased a new discovery and drove it 4 hours home. It went well but does have a brake light and abs light with blink codes 2-12, 4-15, 6-15. But I assume that's unrelated? Breaks took a lot of pressure to get the car to slow down. And even then i couldn't stop very fast. So I went to bleed the breaks before doing anything else. 2 person method. Starting with passenger side back. Everything was going well. I bled a pint through each line. Pedal was hard when the line was closed and soft when open. Not much air in the first three lines. However when I got to drivers side front the pedal lost all break pressure when I started bleeding it. I can hear noise (what sounds like bubbles in the break system) and am getting a lot of air coming out. This should be the shortest line in the car but I've ran about a pint through and am getting mostly air still. Now the pedal has no resistance. And the reservoir has not ran dry while bleeding either. Can anyone help me figure this out?

 

I would guess it could be a leaking hose, or a bad master cylinder. I had issues with a shop replacing my Master Cylinder when they didn't use an official Land Rover unit. they bled brakes and the next day they worked once, then went to the floor. Used a LR replacement and it worked fine ever since.

 

I waited 15 minutes then it bled like normal for a little less than a pint before it got soft again with bubbles. I can even hear from under the car gargling like something is swallowing air.

 

Thank you jimvw57 I'll check for leaks. Does it have to be from land rover or are proline parts from rovers north or TWR good?

 

I don’t know Proline but I don’t buy any parts directly from Land Rover.

 

Last one I got said Land Rover on the casting

 

double check all the hardlines for leaks. They may be rusted and stomping on them during bleeding them could have been enough to create a hole.
Mine rusted out at the base of the firewall just before the lines are coupled to the rear portion of the hardlines.

 

I recall driving 45 miles with brake fluid leaking out just below the drivers side floor, (It only leaked out the rear brakes) only had to use the parking brake once (pull it real slowly and don't let it latch on) Put in all new rear lines from the firewall back.

 

yes, just below the drivers side footwell is the area where the rear lines are coupled to the portion in the engine bay. My hole was in the portion coming from the ABS prior to the coupler. (not the portion you replaced) while it may only leak out the rear brakes, the system as whole cannot retain pressure and you will draw air into the system with a hole present. - I suspect you still have a hole in a hardline and several attempts to bleed has brought air into the entire system - hence air in the front lines.
Also if you made your rear brake lines, make sure you used the proper type of flare and ends (if you didnt reuse the orig.ends - I sourced my ends from NAPA). Further, if you replace the lines up to the ABS (or like I did - replaced all the hardlines - it was 65'...) be sure to retain the 13mm end nut at the ABS - I could not source that one.

 

After replacing the master cylinder I noticed the same problem. Both rear breaks bled fine then this time both front only had air. I didn't realize that the fluid resivor has a divider in the middle! So one side was empty while the other was full.

On a side note I still have to push quite hard to get the vehicle to stop. Pumping the breaks doesn't help. As I'm now pretty sure I got the air back out of the system. I have 15" of vacuum on the line to the break booster. Done a few pedal tests. (Putting my foot on the break then turning the car off to see if it rises) blew into the check valve. It still works one way. So I still have no idea why it doesn't want to slow down.

For anyone else out there like me, When you add fluid to the resivor you're adding it to the rear side. The wall that divides the two sides goes really high up. So if you're not keeping the resivor filled really high the front side will run low. Even if your keeping it topped off double check that the fluid is making it to that side of the resivor because it very slowly siphons to the other side even when it's full.