As if fitting a new radiator and bits was not fun enough for one weekend, I finally tackled my valve cover gaskets. I have been chasing lean codes for quite some time to the point that I have four MAF sensors on hand - LOL. Anyway, I think my suspicion was correct that the passenger side was leaking. Long ago I was pretty sure I could hear hissing from that side even though I had blocked EVAP (the purge valve is right back there). But spraying starting fluid did not present an RPM increase. I am sure a smoke machine would have been a great help. If you notice, the passenger side is pretty dirty, like I have been suing old conventional Dino oil. I was surprised. Then when I got to the driver side and found things to be pretty dang clean my suspicions I feel have been confirmed. I wont know for sure, cant drive til tomorrow once the Reinzosil cures on the valve covers.

 

What and where was the leak?

 

It was the valve cover gasket near the EVAP purge valve, so the back side facing the firewall. Usually my codes come up pretty quick. Been several starts and a couple days, no codes! Also it idles down a lot quicker after cold starts and feels a lore more responsive.

 

Well, this is kinda nice! Not a single dash warning. For the past 50k miles I have not had a parking brake. So between the check engine for lean codes (fixed) and teh amber BRAKE warning for removing the EPB fuse, I have always had something on my cluster. Today I finally got around to tossing on the parking brake hardware. I was goin to replace the entire EPB module, but decided it was too much work - that is why the hardware never when on after the rebuild, wanted a new module. Guess I will keep my spare module on the shelf until the original fails. So no more lights, at all!

 

Sold it. Sad to see her go. But, it was time.

 

The brakes on the Rescue Rover are definitely soft, so I checked the pins on the rear calipers. The good news is that the pads still have some life and the pins are fine. The bad news is that there is a leak in the brake lines in the back. Man I hate doing those rusty crusty brake lines in the rear.
Before I moved to Michigan I never had to replace a hard brake line. This place is ferocious for rust.

 

I did mine preemptively not too long ago. I spliced in near the large resonator (turtle). Bought decent brake pipe from Amazon from a reputable seller, The Stop Shop. But a union spit on me and leaked out all the fluid! Happened on my way home after work but I had just taken my LR3 on a 1,500+ mile trip from Wisconsin to Bismarck, ND to pick up a huge load of computers - in winter. I was really lucky.... Anyway....... Overall it was not a difficult project, not as annoying as I thought it would be. I did pick up several type of those plastic brake line holders. They all snapped on me as expected. A good flaring kit helps a lot too. And you want the smallest pipe cutter you can get.

 

It's a job I've done before, last time the leak was right behind the compressor, right here the little plastic clip appears to have rubbed a hole right through the steel line-and my recollection is that those factory lines are hard and not fun to flare!
My plan is to run a new line to the right rear, since it's leaking from the middle I'm thinkin it's that line, and splice it as close as I can to the left wheel well .
The weird part of this is the right rear wheel thing. The wife's old LR3 did that, and a Jeep Rubicon I owned breifly also di that, as well as rusting the caliper pins. It stopped like a whole new vehicle once I sorted those issues.

 

Since I live where rust is king, I had a selection of brake lines with fittings left over from other brake line adventures, found the perfect one and was ready to flare off the old line and hook it up only to find that my flaring tool kit was missing the parts to flare that line.
Well crap.
It did occur to me that I'm doing all this to a $500 LR3 instead of last time, where I did all this (and more $$) to the wife's $13K LR3. I ended up selling the wife's LR3 to company I work for as a down payment for my Bronco, Bronco is gone but the LR3 is still here and still eating parts like she always did. Christine will outlive us all. Or at least she'll make it seem that way.

And while I'm thinking about it, has anyone gone through and run a new line from the ABS module to the corners of the LR3?

 

Simple thing done to my LR3 today, replaced the throttle body connector. Seems they often break. In my case, that was over four years ago, maybe five. Bought just the housing from Amazon and the fix took just a few minutes.