ABS Fault. Three Amigos evicted!

2002 P38 4.6 V8 petrol/lpg 180000 miles.
I have had the three amigos pop up every time I brake for about a year now. Brakes still worked so what the heck.
Last week I was driving along and the message "ABS FAULT" flashed on the panel and the yellow light came on and stayed on. Brakes still worked. Pulled over and switched off and back on again and the fault went away. Whew. Next morning same message apart from when I switched on the three amigos stayed on. Had no brakes for about two minutes but then worked OK. Three Amigos stayed on all the way through the trip.
Read the forums and watched some videos which pointed to the ABS pump (Accumulator/ Regulator). Sure enough this either made a horrible noise but the brakes would eventually work, or it would make NO NOISE AT ALL. In this case the ABS FAULT would appear and the three amigos would stay on and I would have no brakes at all, ever.
Ordered a secondhand pump and accumulator. Fitted it OK and went through the bleeding procedure OK until I came to the part that required me to turn the ignition on. BIG PROBLEM. No pump noise and ABS FAULT on the dash. Had a quick fiddle with the fuse and ABS relay and found that if I pushed the ABS relay in just the right place it would run the pump. Couldn't get a relay locally so I took the top off it and cleaned and dressed the contacts. This worked so I carried on with the full bleed.
Complete success. Three Amigos now banished. The pedal feel is perfect and the brakes are really powerful. In fact it has never worked this well and I have had this car 5 years. Got an new OEM relay on its way as I don't trust the old "repaired" relay.

welcome to the forum

Hi Landyzoner. I have actually put 35 posts in a couple of years ago but nothing recently so I was excluded from posting in the tech tips section. Thanks for the welcome all the same.
I don't usually put up a post for well known faults, but this was such an easy fix for a serious problem I thought it was worth sharing.

andymalham said:

Hi Landyzoner. I have actually put 35 posts in a couple of years ago but nothing recently so I was excluded from posting in the tech tips section. Thanks for the welcome all the same.
I don't usually put up a post for well known faults, but this was such an easy fix for a serious problem I thought it was worth sharing.

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post your questions in the range rover section youll get more replies and help mate
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/forum/range-rover.10/

Like I said. I was excluded from posting on the usual forums, presumably because I haven't visited for a while. I am guessing that I will get full privileges back the more I visit.

andymalham said:

Like I said. I was excluded from posting on the usual forums, presumably because I haven't visited for a while. I am guessing that I will get full privileges back the more I visit.

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im not sure why mate, best to ask a mod or admin for help

Welcome back to the forum

Unusual to have a P38 owner who's happy with his heap.

Start a new fred int range rover section to see if it works. Would be good if yer could also put a copy of the first post above int there for other P38 sufferers to know they're not alone.

Hippo said:

Welcome back to the forum

Unusual to have a P38 owner who's happy with his heap.

Start a new fred int range rover section to see if it works. Would be good if yer could also put a copy of the first post above int there for other P38 sufferers to know they're not alone.

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"Happy" is probably overstating the case. Will try to copy the post over to another section. I know a lot of people are sick and tired of the Three Amigos.

Hippo said:

Welcome back to the forum

Unusual to have a P38 owner who's happy with his heap.

Start a new fred int range rover section to see if it works. Would be good if yer could also put a copy of the first post above int there for other P38 sufferers to know they're not alone.

Click to expand...

Update. The new £38.60 relay arrived today. Fitted and working. For reference the part number is PRC9566.
Just to recap on the fault.
I think I actually had two faults. The first was a mechanical one with the ABS pump and Accumulator. The symptoms were an inability to build up pressure and excessive pump noise. The second was electrical. Basically the ABS relay didn't work due to burnt contacts.