I can't believe this happened to me! ...I mean, of course I can (after lurking around the forums for years) but it's sorta surreal at the moment.

Okay so here's a background on my brake "situation" which isn't exactly healthy, but I bought this car as a "beater" (even though I'm now in love, and am buying an LR3 in the next few weeks) - so I'm not being as crazy proactive with maintenance as I usually am. If it's broken I'll still fix it, but if I THINK it's breaking.. I'll wait.

* Since I bought it, when starting the car.. the brake pedal always pulsed a second. Not sure if this is normal or not, seemed odd. No problems though.

* Sometimes, when backing out of a parking spot or depressing brake pedal for first time after a start, I'd get the *bing bing bing* with 3 amigo lights on. Restarting the car cleared this.

* (probably unrelated) Once I had ABS only light come on. Hit brakes on gravel to test it out, and ABS engages AND cleared the light

* My driver rear hub seal is leaking onto the rotor.. I know this hurts braking performance because I've almost taken the DII for a swim at the boat ramp when putting the boat in (that wheel will spin when others lock up, however this was also on a wet ramp with unbraked trailer... pushing HARD eventually stopped that wheel). Daily driving seems fine to me.

* When towing the boat, and decelerating quickly (say stop and go traffic) since the boat trailer is unbraked (total is around 3500lbs) I need to depress the pedal more than usual. A few times, just before coming to a stop, I'd get the *bing bing bing* sound with the 3 amigos. Again, restart cleared this.

* My brakes have always squeaked. Again, chalk it up to the beater car / 12 year old rover image and it doesn't bug me one bit Especially considering how I hear brake jobs are a royal PITA on these, and I'm selling her after I secure my LR3 in a few weeks (CRAPPY time for the amigos.. )

? 1 - My question relates to this.. some say that after replacing their squeaking brakes, they don't get speed sensor faults again? Some mention harmonic signals that trigger the fault code? I thought these were the usual magnetic pickups with the dimples on the inside of the hub, so how is that even possible? I wouldn't think ANY pad related problem would impact this, UNLESS a malfunctioning pad is causing one wheel to spin / lock up before the others.. which would.

? 2 - Will 3 amigos clear themselves under CERTAIN fault code situations? I've had them on a few times in the past and it never came back. It's been on solid for the past few days now, which implies a different culprit.

? 3 - I've got a used hub from one of the rover parts sites, if I throw that in there (semi easy from what I hear) that pad is still shot from gear oil, correct?


I guess *new pads and rotors* will sound good on my car listing when I sell this thing in a few WEEKS. GRR. Or worse, new ABS modulator. In which case my $$$ return for the car sale just got cut by like 20%!

So.. those are your hints. I'm going to get my codes read in a couple days (sorry, I'm insanely busy at work.. I know you all will tell me to read the codes ASAP) I'm sorta going through scenarios at the moment, since I have a trail to follow already, unlike some other amigo cases.

 

you don't have to buy a new modulator you can rebuild yours. sounds like you need new brakes, not sure about rotors, bleed them properly might get rid of what sounds like air in the lines. when you get the abs codes come back with them. then you can figure out if you need to replace a hub or sensor or rebuild the modulator.

 

Thanks, yeah that's probably the cheapest route to take before I sell it. I can get te parts for cheap buy obviously it's a lot of time haha. Oh well, it's been a while since I messed with car brakes... might be good practice.

 

if you need a hub or sensor buy it used. Will Tillery has a 1 yr warranty on his used parts. www.rovaguy.com or try Paul Grant at paulgrant@mac.com his prices are great and shipping is fast.

As for the modulator look for the link to the the US Virgin Islands land rover club website where it goes into detail on how to rebuild the modulator. it's not that hard.