(DISCO 2004 120k miles)

I've been doing shocks/springs and brakes for the past 5 days on my disco. I got all the shocks and springs in (rides much more comfortably now), but the brakes have been giving me the hardest time of my very short lived mechanical life so far...

So, the rear caliper pistons were rusted through almost all the way when I took them off, didn't move an inch.. So I had to buy new ones and install them. I bled the system starting in the back left (i know, it's out of order) and then back right. That's all I did because I didn't replace the front calipers so I didn't see a need to bleed those. Anyways, some air starts coming out of the back right rear caliper and I tell my brother to stop pumping. He gave it about 1 or 2 more pumps too much and the damn MC filled with air, at least I think it did. There were bubbles upon bubbles coming out. Eventually, I got all of the bubbles out and now it comes out a nice clear fluid.

So this whole time I've been borrowing a friend's car lift. I had to get off of it so he can use it tomorrow and I drove the Disco back home (like 1 mile away) and the pedal was extremely soft but would harden after 1 or 2 quick pumps before loosening back up again. I didn't tighten the bleeder valve when my brother had the pedal to floor so maybe I messed up there?

What adds the f***** icing on the cake for this story is that when I started the car the three amigos turned back on. Same EXACT F***** SVS FAULT error codes that I had previously fixed with OPTION B literally two weeks ago. I was having absolutely ZERO issues with the three amigos after option B beforehand. So I re-checked all my connections and they seem 100% fine unless the air in the master cylinder is somehow throwing an SVS fault...

What adds the cherry on top of this damn cake is I did some research into how to bleed the master cylinder. I saw this video on a "closed loop" system where this guy connects his front driver's side bleeder valve to the MC and pumps like 20x to get the air out. Well, upon further inspection of my bleeder valve on the driver's side, whichever moron owned it last totally striped it off. So now I have to replace the caliper... Anyways, does anybody know how I can remotely tackle getting better brakes and fixing the three amigos again?

 

Burn the truck to the ground?

 

 

I've had the same soft pedal issue with mine since I got it. The bright side is that it saved my *** one day when I blew a brake line since I was pumping the brakes everytime I wanted to stop. I also noticed that I have one odd caliper which is bigger than the others which might be my issue. Here's the thing that got mine back to close.... do it right the second time. The hill descent system seems to have a play in this whole thing which might be alerting some of your amigos. Bleed the brakes the way the manual says... drive it around the block and do it again. you might even want to click on the hill button and drive it a little before you bleed the second time. Mine are no where near where they should be ( or I think they should be) but, it definitely made an improvement. hope this helps.

 

Engage the HDC in low range, HDC only works in low range... go to a parking lot or non busy street, get up to 15mph or so and then activate the HDC to slow you down... and then bleed again... Repeat until pedal is stiff.

 

Great suggestions. But what's the reason for engaging HDC and driving 15mph in an empty parking lot? Does that bleed the lines or the ABS modulator or the MC?

 

Yeah it is a safe DIY way to bleed the ABS system without using the proprietary Textbook computer system the LR dealers use to do the same thing... Parking lot being safety related... quiet street, whatever, just anywhere you can safely execute the maneuver without impeding traffic.

 

Going 15mph and hitting HDC has seemed to do nothing. I didn't hear the ABS modulator kick in at all and still have a soft pedal. No air is coming out at all I'm extremely confused. I still have 3 amigos even after option B (went away for two weeks until did the bleeding and air got into the system) and doing the HDC thing.

 

Did you shift into low, then hit the hdc button?

 

Yeah so I tried going down this insane hill I have in my backyard in low gear and HDC on. I then bled the valves and had more air. I think the pedal stiffened up slightly... Three amigos still on (Shuttle Valve Switch failure) and brake still pretty damn soft.