Hi guys.

I need your opinion on a matter which has troubled me for a few months. I have a friend's MY13 Freelander 2.2 TD4, manual gearbox and when I declutch and start accelerating from standstill the car immediately brakes on it's own for a few seconds. The intensity of the braking varies: when I start accelerating hard the the braking is violent even stopping the car if I release the acceleration but if I floor it then eventually the braking stops. Also sometimes after releasing the clutch and accelerate slowly I can still feel and gear the ABS pump working and applying a liitle bit of braking.
Meanwhile I have tried the following repairs but without results:
- changed the brake pedal sensor
- changed the front impacts sensors
- changed the accelerometer sensor (inside the cabin, between the seats)
- reprogrammed the sensors and accelerometer and initialised it
- checked the abs sensors - all ok but did not replace them
- verified with the SDD while running all the abs sensors- they all read the same value
- taken off the ABS pump and tried to replace it with a pre-2012 model - they are different and do not work
- transfer the elctronics from the ABS pump to the mechanics of another pump and the car does the same
- taken apart the 2013 ABS pump and tried to delete the EPROM but with to success, also the EPROM is different from an old pump and not compatible.

My friend said that about an year ago his wife was driving and an about 60 mph he hit a large dog. The car stopped violently after applying the brakes hard hitting the dog. The radiators and fan were broken and replaced. Since the the car started to brake on it's own, at first barely feeling it but now it is very hard to drive it considering at every start the car brakes hard. The car has done about 200.000 km on the clock.

Any opinions/ advice/ help is welcome as I can't possibly imagine what is wrong with the car. I was thinking of buying an ABS pump but a new one is awfull expensive and cannot guarantee that will solve the problems.

Thanks!

Last edited by octav on 26th May 2020 11:09 am. Edited 2 times in total

Is it something to do with GRC,Gradient Release Control. See Handbook.

Possibly the electronic parking brake ?

It is definetely not the parking brake, the car is braking and pushing forward on it's front exact as braking hard with the footbrake.
I have tried all the Terrain Response modes and it does the same in all the modes. Also with the ESP/ DSP deactivated it also applies the brakes.
The GRC I haven't studied but it has something to do with hillstart or downhill assistance so technically it needs to be activated from the terraiin response or the descent hill button.
I suspect it has something to do with the giroscopic/ electronic stability control because the harder I push the card when I accelerate the harder the car applies the brakes.

Does the car have front parking sensors ? 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

No, it doesn’t have parking sensors in the front.

Has the previous crash damaged one of the Acceleration Sensors thus bringing the Stability Control into play (in error). This will cut power and apply one or more of the brakes automatically.

Have you any Error Codes showing. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

The last accident did not trigger any airbags but deteriorated the wiring of the front left impact sensor. I have repaired the wiring and replaced the sensor and there were no faults that the tester could detect. I will try to replace the wiring for this sensor again to see if there is any change.
Today I will also replace the ECU and reconfigure it.

Any update? FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

The ECU I tried to reconfigure was a pre MY13 so it was not compatible.

Just a thought and probably irrelevant but worth mentioning. A colleague of mine some years ago experienced something like this after he had put some new tyres on his company car (a Vauxhall Omega) he took it to the dealer who discovered that one of the tyres was the wrong size and the different rotation speed was causing the ABS and stability control to cut in at certain times. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

It is worth checking out but it does the same both with summer and winter tires, 235 65 17.
Today I got some errors while driving a little hard on a corner: Stability Control fault, Emergency Brake fault and Park





Brake fault.

When the car brakes can you tell if it’s all of the brakes coming on or just the EPB? Does anyone know if it’s possible to disconnect the EPB and still drive the car. (Or perhaps can you drive with the EPB in service mode ?) 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

It’s not the parking brake. The car brakes hard applying the brakes as usual, the front having the biggest load.

Have you disconnected the steering column, steering wheel recently?