Hi Guys,

Long time reader, first post.

I recently bought a 2000 Disco 2 TD5 GS (7 seater with SLS) and Im lovin it! Its done 90k but you cant tell. It drives like new, no engineleaks, and only a little rattle near fuse box that was resolved with some duct tape. Off road its blown me away, keeping up with my mate's Defender, even on road tyres! Best thing is, I only paid £4500GBP! I practically robbed the dealer. Same vehicles on AutoTrader going for £7-8000!

Anyway, my handbrake light is intermittently flashing. It might stay on for 2 minutes, it might not come on at all. It might spend a whole journey flashing a bit, then nothing, then on, then off. Its very annoying. Plus, Ive always got one eye on it, and I prefer both on the road, as you can imagine. It appears to me (lots of car experience, none of it disco) that it looks like a loose or faulty sensor as there is no pattern to its behaviour. Please can you give me some idea of what might cause this or any checks that I can make? I read in the owners manual that the light is also linked to the braking system, which is obviously a concern. Any help on this subject will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

That light will come on if the e-brake is not completely released and also when your brake fluid is low. Go fill you brake fluid and you might plan on replacing some brakes soon.

 

Thanks for the quick response! Muchos gracias.

WTH is an e-brake? Im assuming its an american thing for handbrake? Its definitely 'down' enough, but how do I check the other end has released properly? Its not like normal cars where the handbrake is a cable attached to the rear brake is it? Im sure I heard the handbrake uses the diff or something? Is that right?

Brakes squeal a little, but I will give them a proper check over when it stops pissing it down outside, checking levels etc.

Thanks again.

 

I just had the same problem on my Disco TD5 - and stupidly, it didn't occur to me to check the fluid reservoir before Googling the problem. Where the light was flickering for me, it was flickering and and it's behaviour was changing as the car was being driven, and I eventually noticed that when we were driving up an incline and giving it some wellie, the light would come on permanently until the road levelled off and then it went back to a flicker. Going downhill, the light went off. Logically, this is the behaviour of fluid moving around and causing a sensor to react.

I checked the resevoir, and it was low. Below the "seam" of the reservoir in the engine bay, so I popped in what little fluid I had left (which wasn't enough to bring it anywhere near the max line on the reservoir) and re-checked it. Light had gone out. For me, it was simply a very useful reminder and warning to check.

Our mechanic advised us that the brake lines that feed to the rear brakes were pretty crusty and needed replacing sooner rather than later. My suspicion is that I have a small weep from somewhere in the piping which is telling me to get those damn pipes replaced asap!