Suspension fault on D3

[V8 Disco]

The suspension fault light came on the dash of the D3 recently and a message saying ; 'Suspension Fault, Normal Height only' . Has anyone else had this happen? I suspect it is nothing major, rather a faulty indicator or switch.
Any ideas?

Cheers,
V8 Disco

[Africampers]

Hi V8 Disco - same started to happen to my D3 V8 about a week ago. Will get it checked out next week. Doesn't seem to be serious, but I also have a LLAMS fitted so can still adjust set it to off-road height for a visit to Stockton.

[Graeme]

Africampers, your fault could be caused by a poor connector contact if the fault started soon after the Llams was fitted so I've sent you a PM that might help.

[gghaggis]

The suspension fault light came on the dash of the D3 recently and a message saying ; 'Suspension Fault, Normal Height only' . Has anyone else had this happen? I suspect it is nothing major, rather a faulty indicator or switch.
Any ideas?

Cheers,
V8 Disco

It probably isn't anything major, but if the message is generated more than a certain number of times (number dependent on the specific fault), the system may escalate the fault to a more serious level and the car will be lowered to access height or even the bump stops. Have you tried a hard reset to see if it clears the fault?

Cheers,

Gordon

[Mully]

I got this quite regularly over about a month until the alternator began to fail just before Easter... the suspension warning came up for weeks prior and then the alternator started to light up infrequently and then stayed on... died on Easter Friday just for good measure. Anyway, alternator replacement on the following Tuesday and it hasn't come back to haunt since.

Cheers.

[Graeme]

I got this quite regularly over about a month until the alternator began to fail just before Easter...
There's a real advantage to being able to read fault codes to get advance warning of a pending significant failure. For anyone who either physically or financially can't just drop the vehicle off at a dealer, a suitable code reader is a good tool.

[Scary]

When my light started coming on it turned out to be the air compressor was slowly failing.

Started every few days until finally it was every time the car was started.

[Peter]

Regretfully I have to agree with Scary. I have just had the alternator issue and from the corresponding thread it fails within days and does give you a suspension error for a while then shuts down the radio and just about everything.... Really quite impressive to think about a car prolonging its own life by shutting systems down. Bit like Terminator.

The compressor on the other hand does die slowly and will reset the fault with an engine restart and give you a faulse sense that it is healing itself. Then it fails with an overheating fault light and you are on your bump stops.

Based on personal experience and hope I am wrong in your case.

[Neil P]

Time for a new compressor dryer canister . $158

[Mully]

@Graeme. Yep.. got a Faultmate now! :)

[V8 Disco]

It probably isn't anything major, but if the message is generated more than a certain number of times (number dependent on the specific fault), the system may escalate the fault to a more serious level and the car will be lowered to access height or even the bump stops. Have you tried a hard reset to see if it clears the fault?

Cheers,

Gordon
Hard reset?, you mean disconnect battery and reconnect? Will try over the weekend. What else needs to be reset if I do this?

[bbyer]

Yes, the Hard Reset includes disconnecting the battery, but per below, there are a couple of other steps.

In brief, to start the hard reset process, open the hood but close all doors and let your 3 go to sleep - no radio display etc.
It is often a good idea to have a window rolled down and the key in your pocket.

Disconnect the ground battery terminal from the battery.
Disconnect the positive battery terminal from the battery.

Connect the negative cable to the positive cable. (NOT the Battery.) You will need a short length, (a foot or so), of light gauge (14 to 18 gauge, AWG, stranded copper), wire to do this as there is not enough slack in the two cables for them to touch each other.

Hold them together for about a minute or so, (some say 5 to 10 minutes); you are discharging memory modules within the engine computer and elsewhere.

Reattach positive terminal to the battery.
Reattach negative terminal to the battery.

Start engine; hopefully error messages gone.
Reset time on the radio - note that the station presets are still there. Nothing much else gets messed up.

If the error codes stay away for a week or so, the concern may just have been a Land Rover thing.

This is a link to a thread in disco3 re hard reset.

http://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/topic19547.html (http://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/topic19547.html)

[V8 Disco]

Got to spend some time with the beast today, being Saturday, and checked out all the obvious... there are no less than 4 fuses related to the air suspension on the D3 (1 in the glove box compartment fuse box and three in the fuse box under the bonnet). I checked all and all were good until i got to the yellow 60 amp fuse, bottom row second from the right (see attached picture). This fuse had blown. As I had no spare, I removed the fuse. The clear plastic cover on the fuse unclips and removes easily. With a pair of pointy-nose pliers i moved the burnt out fuse ends together so they were touching, replaced the cover and reinserted the fuse. Started the engine - fault gone!, compressor started its normal routine and suspension is now active again. Not to get ahead of myself I drove into Repco to get a fuse, took to fuse out again to show the guy. Long story short , they had none in stock so had to order. The fuse is $8.30. Reinserted the fuse again, started the engine, still all good! drove about 50-60 kms today to do shopping, picking the kids up etc, stopping and starting engine several times in the process and still all good!! I hope this this is all it was shall keep you posted. Hope this info is also helpful to others who have the same fault message. Cheers, V8 Disco.

[Graeme]

A blown compressor fuse is sometimes caused by a sticking compressor relay which causes the compressor to keep running and eventually overheat. Hence it might be worthwhile replacing the relay too.

[bbyer]

I'm impressed, not so much at you finding and solving the compressor problem, but knowing that a fusible link could be "fixed".

It never occurred to me that one could unsnap the clear plastic lid on the big fuses and kind of put the fuse back together - what could be called "manual self resetting" and certainly a valuable field fix tip.

I was not surprised however that you could not just go and pick up a replacement fuse at the local parts store. Some time back, I decided to add those fuses, (fusible links), to my parts stock as I discovered that they are not that easy to get ahold of.

Also, even if the fusible links were available at a parts store, I found that the fuses were cheaper at my local Land Rover dealer - running from 3 to 4 dollars each at LR. The part numbers of each size are as follows:

30 amp part number YQG100410L pink in colour
40 amp part number YQG100420L green in colour
50 amp part number YQG100430 red in colour
60 amp part number YQG100440 yellow in colour

[V8 Disco]

Glad to be of help with the fuse fix, another one for the bush mechanics manual.
Thanks also for everyones contributions and further tips, I may get the compressor relay looked at / replaced if it seems to be working overtime and have noted the fuse part numbers. A good Disco day to all! Gary

[Truck69]

Got to spend some time with the beast today, being Saturday, and checked out all the obvious... there are no less than 4 fuses related to the air suspension on the D3 (1 in the glove box compartment fuse box and three in the fuse box under the bonnet). I checked all and all were good until i got to the yellow 60 amp fuse, bottom row second from the right (see attached picture). This fuse had blown. As I had no spare, I removed the fuse. The clear plastic cover on the fuse unclips and removes easily. With a pair of pointy-nose pliers i moved the burnt out fuse ends together so they were touching, replaced the cover and reinserted the fuse. Started the engine - fault gone!, compressor started its normal routine and suspension is now active again. Not to get ahead of myself I drove into Repco to get a fuse, took to fuse out again to show the guy. Long story short , they had none in stock so had to order. The fuse is $8.30. Reinserted the fuse again, started the engine, still all good! drove about 50-60 kms today to do shopping, picking the kids up etc, stopping and starting engine several times in the process and still all good!! I hope this this is all it was shall keep you posted. Hope this info is also helpful to others who have the same fault message. Cheers, V8 Disco.

Yep you are dead right .I have had all sorts of light coming up along with suspension amber and normal height only.Pulled and replaced all 3 fuses until i checked the yellow 60 amp fuse which was blown. A lot of blogs here tell horror stories about new Compressors and ride height sensors ABS sensors hehe when all along it was a blimy fuse .Not many blogs dose one read that mentions this 60 amp fuse so worth while checkng that .I have had no issues since replacing it . Thats my pennies worth hehe .

[PerthDisco]

Yep you are dead right .I have had all sorts of light coming up along with suspension amber and normal height only.Pulled and replaced all 3 fuses until i checked the yellow 60 amp fuse which was blown. A lot of blogs here tell horror stories about new Compressors and ride height sensors ABS sensors hehe when all along it was a blimy fuse .Not many blogs dose one read that mentions this 60 amp fuse so worth while checkng that .I have had no issues since replacing it . Thats my pennies worth hehe .

Exactly what happened to me Normal Height Only and looking like a complete disaster. Clue was no compressor noise so maybe seized or cooked.

In the end 60A fuse blown so suspicion is after 12 years the relay gets sticky and amps go up eventually blowing fuse.

New relay and fuse and all good.

So carry a new compressor relay or replace proactively at 8 years or so. Put it in same category as the LCAs.

Note that you get a new relay when buying a new compressor.