Thread: Sqealing Brakes & three amigos

G'day All,

just thought I'd post an update on my quest for the ideal D2 brake pad. In the past I've followed the conventional wisdom (peddled by "experts") of only fitting original land rover discs and pads - this led to constant brake squeal, excessive dust and the dreaded "three amigos". For those who aren't familiar with the amigos they are the three amber ABS/TC warning lights which come on and stay on if you have ABS issues. I was told way back when the amigos first popped up that it could be a number of things - I had the sensors cleaned, adjusted and finally one of them replaced; all to no avail - the amigos remained (or came back very quickly after a code reset).

In a rush of blood I cast about for a solution - and was informed by a LR insider that squealing brakes could set up a frequency that tricked the computer into thinking that there was an ABS fault, and trigger the three amigos (apparently everyone else already knew this). So I tried replacing the pads - nothing, I tried coating the pads with "non-squeal" goo - nothing.

As a final experiement I tried fitting non-LR brake pads, first to the rear (as they needed replacing first) - and as K Rudd might say, guess what? No squeal and bugger all dust. When I finally needed front pads (and rotors) I replaced the LR ones with the same brand I used on the rear - I also got the code reset at the same time. Guess what? No squeal, bugger all dust, and best of all no three amigos.

Interestingly, when I had the codes reset (by a Sydney Northern Beaches based "guru") I was told that the only way to stop the problem was to fit LR pads - the very source of the problem! So much for gurus.

Its only been 2 weeks since the codes were reset and the amigos went out - but that includes daily Sydney driving by my wife (hard on brakes) and a Sydney - Armidale - Sydney trip by me. No brake squeal, no three amigos.

What manner of magic is this? EBC Greenstuff. Not cheap but bloody good.


Oh, and they are nice to whales and trees and stuff too, apparently.

I'll update if there is any need to. I hope this saves someone else the pain I've endured.

Cheers,

Wow, talk about lazarus with a triple bypass, this thread is seriously resurrected! I'd plumb forgotten how much trouble the Amigos used to give me...

I'm still using the EBC Greenstuff pads, I have had a couple of Amigo returns, but only temporary ones (key off and on resets). I did discover another brake problem a while ago that may have been contributing: the slides on the calipers on the right hand side had been very slightly bent at some time in the past. The RHS caliper was siezing in the "brakes on" position and causing a lot of heat (and pad wear). Once that was fixed about a year ago I have had no more problems at all.

The other advantage of the EBC Greenstuff pads is a marked reduction in pad dust build up on the alloys.

Cheers,

Adam