Sounds like 2 different problems to me.
First of all, is your Patrol a 4.8 litre petrol? If it is then your handbrake works directly on the rear brakes. Any other engine and your handbrake is on the back of the gearbox. Either way it's completely unrelated to your front hub problem.
As the others have said, the auto hubs can be a bit problematic at times. Cheapest fix for auto hubs is to remove the auto locking mechanism so they operate as manual hubs.

Tony