Parking Brake Horror Story

[Gael]

Just back from a vacation trip to San Diego...

The good thing is that I did not use a lot of gas, because my rental jetta was doing 45mpg.

The bad thing is that I took a rental because my Land Rover had some serious issues with the parking brakes, and mid way to San Diego, I had to have it towed to the nearest dealership in Fresno, who happily charged me $2900 for a full rear brake + parking brake + actuator change.

Here is the full story :
- purchased a LR3 2005 V8 2 months ago, with 140k on it.
- got some noise at low speed, determined it to be from the parking brake (I am used to engage parking brakes all the time, as I mainly drove manual in my life, I am coming from Europe where we mainly drive manual).
- tried a parking brake adjustment
- was fine for one week, but was back after my first trip to Santa Barbara
- then I tried a full cleaning/Lubrification of the parking brakes. Removed all the parts, cleaned everything, put grease between the brake shoes and the back plate, put everything back together, adjusted the parking brakes again.
=> Everything was fine for one week, no noise, no issue at all.

Then we left for one week, with my family and all the camping gear.
After a few hours on the I5, driving at 70mph there was a lot of vibrations. First I thought it was the road but then I was not quite sure if it was the road or the car. Then I heard what sounded like a mechanical noise and everything was fine. No vibration anymore.

I parked at the first exit, and checked the car. The left rear wheel was super hot, and it was smelling vey very bad. Tried to operate the parking brake and got the message "Parking Brake Fault". Moving the car was then causing horrible metallic noise and the parking brakes lights (red+orange) were On. Looked like I was not able to disengage the parking brakes. It looked locked and the switch was not causing any action.

Had then my car towed to the dealership, where they found the parking brakes locked on the right side, with the shoe worn to the metal. Rotor was warped because of the heat. They think all the issues are because of the parking brake actuator.

So they proposed to do the following :
- parking brake actuator (part $900)
- parking brake kit (left side was destroyed)
- rear rotors kit (because of the warped left one)
- rear pads kit (because of the new rotors)

Total with labor ($1200) was $2900.

So now the good news is that my parking issue is for sure gone as they changed basically everything. But I am still not very sure what the root cause really was....

One thing I noticed doing the parking brake cleaning is that the left and right were not the same brand. Left was OEM, right side was a Centric brake shoe. And design was a bit different because the springs were not the same.

Could it be the cause of the issue ?

Or maybe it is a clue that something was already attempted to fix these brakes, but that the root cause was actually the parking brake actuator.

Or maybe I screwed up the adjustment ? (I used all documentation available, including workshop manual, and "brake bible")

Guy at LR dealership thinks that the actuator was not releasing the cables properly, causing the problem to adjust the brakes reliably and the lockup on highway. But he was not able to explain how the actuator is actually working. He told me the diagnostic was done using the computer.

I think they used the safest option and changed everything. What is reasonable in this case maybe, as I almost put my car on fire on that one....

 

[toddjb122]

That sucks. Sorry to hear that. Nothing like a break down fully loaded up with the family and gear.

I'm over 200K now and no longer use my parking brake. I suppose I use it very minimally, when I'm parked on a hill, but I have forgone my old habit of engaging it every time I parked.

It started to act weird on me about 40K miles ago, random errors, wouldn't always engage. My mechanic told me it was that electronic parking brake module. It is that hard to get to box that sits under the car between two rear wheels. (actuator, I guess) I got the same part quote, plus some ugly labor, and he said when they start to fail they just keep getting worse and all you can do is replace the EPB. Best to just not use it. So, as I have no urgent need to use it, I don't.

My parking break also locked up on me a while back (before I had these issues) but I was local and I smelled it. Took it in and it was an easy replacement of the parking brake assembly.

 

[Bostonian]

My EPB went at about 80k miles. The sound you're describing is discussed in other threads here - it's a 'howling' sound. Look at the bright side, you should be good for a long while with the new module and components. Like todd, I only occasionally use my EBP now - I don't want another $1200+ bill.

 

[mattypV50]

This just happened to my wife on Friday night. 2011 LR4 ~ 56,000km (34,000 miles). No prior warning. Parked at a grocery store parking break on. Came out horrible noise and Parking Brake fault. Couldn't move the car. The manual release under the cup holders did nothing. Had the car towed the next morning to the dealership. It's a long weekend here in Canada so will have to wait until Tuesday to talk to the shop.

I have a extended warranty which basically covers everything under the sun expect routine maintenance so judging by the prices I'm happy I have that!

I will let everyone know the outcome.

 

[Houm_WA]

You should have been able to clear the fault and the condition by cycling the engine but it sounds like you are on your way to having it fixed. It's weird I got my actuator replaced a long time ago and it's been fine. I thought maybe the newest units are better. Maybe not.

 

[djatkinson]

OK, so I'm in the habit of always using my parking brake when I park (imagine that!).
Is this not a good idea, if one wants to delay having issues???

 

[roverman]

I think there are two separate issues, the shoes and the module itself. I can't see how rare usage could mess up the module. But it's probably a good idea to 'exercise' the mechanics of the system once in a while. I probably only used my parking brake 6 times in 10 years. My EPB module failed at 105,000 or so. That adds up to a couple hundred bucks per use, LOL.

 

[jptruck]

Wow, this brings back lovely memories. This happened on my 2005 LR3 with less than 30K on it (back in 2007). Mine locked up multiple times. The worst was when I was on a mountain pass and had to burn the brakes getting of the mountain.

It was the brake control module that was the culprit. Not sure what afflicted that item in the 2005s. I think I still have it in the garage. I was ****** that they made me pay for new brakes (mine got scorched).

If your ECB locks on this model, that' probably the culprit.

 

[jptruck]

There was some useful information in this thread when it happened to me long time ago. . .

http://www.landroverworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18408

 

[mattypV50]

Update...

As it stands right now my extended warranty is covering the actuator and labour to the tune of $1500 but in the process my rear rotor and pads got scorched. So that's going to set me back another $1500 and that's not covered under warranty. ($CDN)

So not awesome.