Sunday, I changed my rear brake pads and discs so had to re-adjust the handbrake shoes. Did all this following the LR procedure including the bedding-in bit.
So far so good!
Yesterday, raised car to off-road height just before stopping outside the house (had something on roof bars I wanted up higher out of any thieving scrote's reach), applied EPB, key out, locked up and went inside.
Half hour later, came out, started up, released EPB and got EPB fault indication. The orange warning light came on accompanied by a flashing red light. EPB released but is not working at all now. Later in the day, started up outside garage, pressed EPB switch down out of habit (fault still there) and got a transmission fault - limited gears only available (very, 3rd gear only) .
Today, came out of house resigned to go to stealer. Can live with EPB not working but a daily commute to work in 3rd gear would be very tedious. Started car, EPB fault still there but transmission fault gone .
Has anyone any ideas what's going on? Why would raising car to off-road height cause an EPB fault?
Will I have to go the the stealer to get this sorted and can anybody else come to my rescue Now an ex-D3 owner after 7 happy years. Miss the car but not the big bills
25th Feb 2009 10:48 am
Gareth Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26708
When you say limited gears were available, do you mean it was physically stuck in 3rd? What happened if you tried command shift, and what was showing in the LCD?
No, not physically stuck as such. There was a large F showing in the LCD and it seemed that only 3rd gear was available going by how sluggish it was to pull away and the revs showing around town (never really got above 40 mph with about 2500 revs indicated).
Command shift didn't do anything at all.
Fault was not there this morning though when I started up so that's a relief (hope it's not a temporary relief).
EPB still not working though Now an ex-D3 owner after 7 happy years. Miss the car but not the big bills
25th Feb 2009 11:39 am
stapldm
Member Since: 11 Sep 2006
Location: Swine Town
Posts: 2330
I'm sure someone with a real working brain will be along later; but this is similar to when I did my failed EGR blanking experiment.
I lost special programs, suspension controls, DSC, ETC, EPB, ABS and gearbox control (stuck in fifth, F on the display). The dash was like Christmas at a charity fundraisers house.
Talking to the techs at the garage the 'fault' was that the CANBus was providing unreliable data (EGR blanking forced "EGR flow too high" and "Mass Airflow too high" faults at the same time) so the car decided the CANBus was shot and dropped (literally!) into safe mode.
My theory for you is that either you disturbed the harness when you did your brakes (if you jacked the chassis, then the suspension would have been at full extension) or that you have a chaffed/corroded harness and raising to off-road overstretched it and caused CANBus faults leading to the fault displays you're seeing. Also, I don't suppose you damaged/stretched the wires on the the wheels ABS sensors? You did hang the calliper from a bit of rope/strap to stop it hanging from it's hose/wires right?
Again, I'll let bigger brains than mine assist later on, but hopefully that will be some food for thought until the cavalry arrive.Dr. Ian Malcolm:
"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Transgenic tomato anyone?
I blanked my EGRS a couple of weeks ago and there didn't seem to be any issues. I understand that blanking them on 07/08 MY cars can cause problems but mines an 06MY and they're 'supposed' to be OK.
Don't know about stretching harnesses etc. Yes, I did jack the car and put in on axle stands and it seemed to go into super-extended mode (or whatever it's called) as I jacked it but didn't notice if anything had been strained. I was very careful to tie-wrap the calipers up so they wouldn't dangle and strain any wires and as far as I am aware, I didn't damage the wheels' abs sensors.
After changing the discs and pads, all seemed well. I drove the car about a bit though never used the height change control (apart from lowering it from off-road height after letting the car down off the axle stands). In fact, I didn't do the brake bedding-in procedure until the following day so it had a few miles under its belt by then and again, all was well.
The transmission fault seems to have been a one-off (I hope) as it's not shown up again. It's just the EPB now - that's not working at all so there is a definite fault there. It was OK until I lowered the car from off-road height yesterday morning but don't know why that should have triggered the fault Now an ex-D3 owner after 7 happy years. Miss the car but not the big bills
25th Feb 2009 12:40 pm
stapldm
Member Since: 11 Sep 2006
Location: Swine Town
Posts: 2330
When did you purchase your car? Mine's a 56 plate but is MY2007...
Edit : Sorry, hit the button too quick. My EGR blanking woes could be immediately re-created by getting up to 50MPH then turning on cruise control and letting go of the pedals. It would always die within seconds of this.
Yours may be unrelated to this of course, and it's just coincidence that you've just blanked yours.
Edit Edit : Twice! I can't believe I did that twice! OK, other thing - after I did my first ever bedding in procedure I broke the EPB switch; it didn't like the rhythm of 4 on 3 off and needed replacement after that. Been fine since though. Again, never be afraid to explore coincidences, they do happen!Dr. Ian Malcolm:
"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Transgenic tomato anyone?
I use my cruise control all the time and it's absolutely fine so I don't think it's EGR related.
Could be a broken EPB switch though it feels OK but system description says there's a couple of microswitches tucked away beneath it so it could be one of those.
It's beginning to look like a trip to the stealers might be needed Now an ex-D3 owner after 7 happy years. Miss the car but not the big bills
25th Feb 2009 1:01 pm
stapldm
Member Since: 11 Sep 2006
Location: Swine Town
Posts: 2330
It was definitely the cruise control that kicked mine off, so I think you can indeed exclude EGR blanking.
You protected the cables to the callipers so there was no strain there (other than being in super extended), so I think you can probably discount this too.
Thinking about positions, the harness doesn't actually move at all when the car raises/lowers; my mistake (sorry!), so unless you're unlucky and it is harness rot then I think you can discount this too.
My money is therefore on the switch - there was no difference in feel/action to my switch when it broke.
There are two micro-switches in there; if they don't both report the same position then the EPB stays off and you get warning lights on the dash. If mine hadn't been replaced in warranty I would have dismantled the old one to see what could be fixed in there. If you're feeling brave you could check the switch circuits with a multimeter to see if they are working correctly or not?
I still think it's ironic that the EPB can so easily fail at both ends of that length of copper wire that joins the switch to the brake Dr. Ian Malcolm:
"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Transgenic tomato anyone?
Many thanks for the pointers stapldm. Thinking about it, I had a couple of transient EPB faults some time ago (well, back in January). The epb jammed on once accompanied by lots of squealing as I operated it whilst coasting (very slowly, <2mph) to a halt just inside our allotment gates! Could have been a bit embarassing, 3 tonne of Disco stopping our keen gardeners from getting to their plots . It sorted itself out though once I'd switched off, given it a rest and started up again. It happened once more about a week later then all's been well until this episode. I'm beginning to think something was on its way out then and it failing totally after me servicing my brakes is just an unfortunate coincidence. Think I'll ring Les Potts 4X4 in Sunderland tomorrow, I'm sure they'll sort it for me. The transmission fault has not recurred so that's a relief anyway.Now an ex-D3 owner after 7 happy years. Miss the car but not the big bills
25th Feb 2009 8:03 pm
stapldm
Member Since: 11 Sep 2006
Location: Swine Town
Posts: 2330
No problem; I was hoping some of the clever guys would have jumped in at some point though!
Good luck, let us know how you get on?Dr. Ian Malcolm:
"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Transgenic tomato anyone?
Yes, I thought perhaps Disco-Mikey might have had something to say but perhaps he's on holiday or something.Now an ex-D3 owner after 7 happy years. Miss the car but not the big bills
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.
but transmission fault gone 
.
. It sorted itself out though once I'd switched off, given it a rest and started up again. It happened once more about a week later then all's been well until this episode. I'm beginning to think something was on its way out then and it failing totally after me servicing my brakes is just an unfortunate coincidence. Think I'll ring Les Potts 4X4 in Sunderland tomorrow, I'm sure they'll sort it for me. The transmission fault has not recurred so that's a relief anyway.
