Chaps

Just thought this worth posting, given there's been a few threads about the EPB of late. Bit of a long post, so apologies for the wordyness.

As you'll all know (because I bang on about it ad nauseum ) my RRS is due to be shipped out to Oz, in fact it leaves for the container tomorrow. Prior to taking it down to the shippers, my independant LR specialist has had it in storage and he's gone through it servicing / renewing everything and to be honest, I'm getting a new car such is the work he's done. At 75,000 miles it essentially needed every fluid changing, all the filters, spark plugs, you name it, it needed it. I've also had him change the gearbox oil & pan even though in the UK they're not service items, it's also ended up having 4 new suspension struts so it's been a very very thorough going over.

Part of that 'service' has involved completely rebuilding the rear brakes, as I'd been having no end of grief with them for the couple of months prior to my leaving. Warped a new set of discs, tried new calipers, screechy handbrake, occasionally a seized handbrake, that kind of thing. I'd got to the point where I didn't put the handbrake on, such was the grief I'd been having. I could be driving down the motorway when 10 miles into the journey I'd suddenly end up with rear brake sticking on for no apparent reason, creating a *whump whump whump* noise from the back and a pile of heat & brake dust. Stamping on the brakes would usually free it back off again, however we couldn't find anything wrong with the calipers. Being incredbly busy in the couple of months prior to leaving the UK I decided to leave it & Stu could fix it once I'd left him with the car, as apart from the handbrake sticking on, the brakes worked fine. It's worth saying here that the usual suspect of the EPB failing and leaving the handbrake stuck on wasn't the problem here, the EPB could be heard to be working (albeit quite loudly).

On stripping it all down he found the main cause of the warped discs was the handbrake shoes, one had seized onto the backplate on each side in the 'on' position. This in turn had then heated up inside the disc and the friction material had broken off in pieces, each piece spinning round inside the disc and wedging itself in between the drum & the friction material of the other shoe. This was the overheating *whump whump whump* noise I'd been getting and had happened on both sides of the car, taking out the rear discs and the handbrake shoes. Whether it was the heat generated or the rust on the backplates he's not sure, but the shoes needed a chisel to get them off the backplates. This rust may or may not be an issue in Australia, I'm not sure if it's related to the salty roads we have in the UK or what. Both backplates have now been stripped, cleaned up and copper grease applied to stop this happening again (copper grease away from the friction material of course).

The EPB actuating mechanism was working to a point, albeit quite noisily, so that's been stripped out, cleaned up & the mechanism lubricated and now (apparently) works silently as it should. New discs, handbrake shoes & pads along with new pins for the (replaced in the past 12 months) calipers and a complete fluid change (service item at this mileage and thought it worth doing due to the overheating) has seen the problems go away, as he's now covered about 300 miles in it to make sure all is well.

This handbrake was meant to have been serviced by the main dealer who maintained it whilst under the extended warranty, I specifically requested it be done everytime it went in. In my naivety, I followed Bodsy's brake bible off D3 and changed the rear discs & pads myself about 8 months ago, so 4 months before I left the UK. What I didn't do though was check or strip out the handbrake shoes and in hindsight, perhaps I should've done, as it's now cost me a new caliper, all new shoes, pads & discs and a fair few hours of labour. Lucky for me the EPB hasn't failed and is now restored to 100% operation. And I have a much better knowledge of how to check it all out, after receiving quite a long earbashing from my mate

For anyone else with a squealing handbrake, or about to change discs or clean out the handbrake after an offroading session, PLEASE check the shoes, check the backplates and make sure the EPB is clean / lubricated, you could well be saving yourself a massive bill further down the line. It's been a salutory (and expensive) lesson to me as I'd relied on the main dealer to check it over every few months during the service, god only knows how much bigger the bill would've been if I'd waited until the car got here and had it all sorted by a local specialist or the EPB had failed properly. The only reason I hadn't had my specialist mate do the service work was the LR extended warranty, the terms of which mean it has to be done by Land Rover.

Hope that (very long) post is of help to someone further down the line.

Cheers
Mike