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About John Robison
Expertise
I own J E Robison Service in Springfield, MA. We are Bosch Car Service for Land Rover, BMW, Mercedes, and other European lines. I can answer most questions about Land Rover service or repair. I'm known as a car enthusiast, machine aficianado, photographer, writer, and speaker. I've been around Land Rovers and British cars most of my life. Visit me at my car business, www.robisonservice.com or my author website, www.johnrobison.com. Check out my autism and writing blog at jerobison.blogspot.com or my photos on www.pbase.com/robisonphoto John Elder Robison

Experience
I have been a Land Rover service manager since Land Rover returned to North America in 1987. My company is a four-star Bosch Car Service facility, known nationwide for Land Rover service, overhaul, customization, and restoration. We're a dealer and service agent for APCO, backer of the Land Rover Assured and Certified dealer service contracts and Easycare independent service contracts. In addition to Land Rover our company services BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls_Royce, and Bentley motorcars. We have factory-plus-level service capability for all makes. Visit my company online at www.robisonservice.com > service > land rover Also visit my blog at robisonservice.blogspot.com

Organizations
ASA IATN NPPA PPA

Publications
In the Land Rover world, my writing can be found in Land Rover Lifestyle, Land Rover Monthly, The Rover News, The Rover Log, The Rover Reference. In the wider publishing world, my work is published by 20 publishers in over 50 countries. Look Me in the Eye is a New York Times bestseller and an international bestseller.

Education/Credentials
I am ASE certified, Bosch Trained, and trained by Omnitec/T4 and Autologic on their Land Rover test systems.

You are here: Experts > Home/Garden > Auto Repair > Land Rover Repair > 1996 Disco brakes

Land Rover Repair - 1996 Disco brakes

Expert: John Robison - 11/4/2009

Question
QUESTION: John-
1996 Disco I, 177,000 miles. Disco started pulling hard left when I stood on the brakes. Not too bad when I brake gently. I bled the lines all the way around (in this order: RightRear, LR, RF, LF). I put in new pads. I rebuilt the front calipers with British Atlantic's rebuild kit (new pistons, new seals), replaced the front flex lines (I was avoiding the rear seince they are more rusted in place and seem to see less motion than the fronts)- seems to pull worse than ever. I replaced the reservoir/master cylinder assembly with a used one (I have a parts Disco) but no change.

I am out of ideas - anything you can suggest would be great - did I bleed incorrectly, do I have a screwed RF caliper that's not grabbing? Help!

ANSWER: We always bleed under pressure. Did you do that? If so, the next thing I'd do would be to swap the calipers and rotors.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Bleed under pressure - do you mean having someone stand on the brake pedal while opening the bleed fitting, the closing the bleed fitting and releasing brake pedal pressure - or do you mean some pressurization device that fits onto the reservoir backed with compresed air? I bled with the "push the pedal down" method, I didn't do a gravity bleed.

I will buy new calipers and rotors and try them next.

Could I have a failed rear flex line, or is this highly unlikely. If like most other cars, the RF and LR brakes are on the same circuit. If I split the inner flex-line liner, and am dumping pressure in between the inner and outer liner, would I notice the flex line swelling?

Thanks, John-

Greg

Answer
I can't say that you do or don't have a bad flex line. It would be unusual if you did. Either way, a rear line or caliper problem will not cause a really hard pull to either side. If the truck dives really hard you have a problem in the front brakes or possibly the whole front axle is moving because of broken bushings or something like that.

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