D3. Wheel balance. Now EAS fault???

[Markus1]

Gday guys. Just had a tyre balance done. Straight away upon driving off up pops an Amber light suspension fault. Normal height only. Then after comes up with fault -will raise once cooled. Now the front is sitting down and neither front nor rear will raise or lower.

I wouldn't have thought tyre joint can really screw it up so I'm putting it down to coincidence....hopefully...haven't had codes run.

Left the car to cool.....didn't fix....unplugged battery.....didn't fix. Tyre guys don't know.

Only thing non stock is steel rims so more weight on suspension but those have been on now for a few hundred km without any issues.

Will get it read tomorrow. Just thought to ask for any ideas??

Mark.

[cjc_td5]

Gday guys. Just had a tyre balance done. Straight away upon driving off up pops an Amber light suspension fault. Normal height only. Then after comes up with fault -will raise once cooled. Now the front is sitting down and neither front nor rear will raise or lower.

I wouldn't have thought tyre joint can really screw it up so I'm putting it down to coincidence....hopefully...haven't had codes run.

Left the car to cool.....didn't fix....unplugged battery.....didn't fix. Tyre guys don't know.

Only thing non stock is steel rims so more weight on suspension but those have been on now for a few hundred km without any issues.

Will get it read tomorrow. Just thought to ask for any ideas??

Mark.Check all height sensors at each corner are plugged in and not damaged?

[loanrangie]

As above possibly damaged a sensor by not jacking it correctly or over extended an airbag.

[Ean Austral]

Check they never damaged the air compressor..

cheers Ean

[Markus1]

Thanks for replies.

The airbags appear to hold pressure and the plastic cover of the compressor appears intact, unscratched etc. Not sure if that proves anything without taking the cover off and inspecting inside. Tomorrow's task.

Not sure how they can overextend a bag????When the car rolled off the hoist it was down very low near access height which seems odd as everytime ive jacked the car off the rails the suspension is always left sitting really high.

Just picked up my kid. The Amber lamp is gone but now system says 'will raise suspension when system cools'. Keeps saying that but will only occasionally raise up a touch really slowly. At one point I did get it into off-road height before foolishly dropping it to access. Now it's somewhere between access and normal. Stuck again. Ha ha. Crickey.

I'd say this points to something compressor area related. Annoying that it happens right at tyre joint. I have to be careful about blame and jumping to conclusions. Car has 150k and is 10 years old. How long are these compressors good for?

[discojools]

Have you tried a soft reset? That is disconnect the battery and leave for 30 mins. Worth a try.

[Ean Austral]

If it's the compressor you will hear it running . Once it builds pressure it should stop but if it has a leak it will continue running till it gets hot. If you start the car then walk to the passenger side rear wheel you should be able to tell if it continues to run or not .

could be coincidence, but they sometimes crack on the cap between the 2 airlines . Some soapy water sprayed onto the cap will soon tell you if it's leaking or not at the compressor end cap

Cheers Ean

[DiscoJeffster]

My suggestion is that through the raising of the suspension to remove a wheel unfortunately you’ve gained an airbag leak. The compressor is endlessly running to maintain pressure and cannot, hence can’t get it up to normal height and flags over temp.
Clearly theoretical but would explain it. Can only guess that the stretching of a bag as its extended to raise the sus to get the wheels off (droop) has opened a hole?
Failing that the compressor has failed at the same time and is not pumping effectively with the same outcome.

[Markus1]

I think you have it Jeffster. I opened up the compressor cover. Looks fine in there, no damage. Started the car, compressor ran for about 2 min then shut off as per normal without any overheating error code.

Took it for a short spin, rear is properly up but front only came up a little. After 5 min the overheating message is back. Now it's parked with battery disconnected. Hopefully by morning I can see which front bag is pooped.

Will post update.

Cheers
Mark

[Eric SDV6SE]

Started the car, compressor ran for about 2 min then shut off as per normal without any overheating error code.

Sounds definitely like an air leak. The compressor should not run for 2 minutes to raise the car. About 20-30 seconds from access height to normal height is the norm for mine, same for normal to off road height.

also check that the air receiver (tank) has not been damaged. This is located under the drivers side right next to the chassis rail and is a long cylindrical tank.

cheers,

Eric

[Markus1]

Short update for those interested....or not :)

Overnight the car lost a couple of mil on all corners with battery disconnected. Dunno if airtemp has anything to do with that. Canberra gets cool overnight.

Afterwards I managed to get all 4 corners up to full normal ride height. No hissing from the airsprings that I can determine. 3 hours later the car (battery disconnected) is sitting at same height. Just now talking to a reputable local LR mechanic he believes it's very unlikely to be an airspring and more likely the compressor pumping too slow based off his experience. He reckons the airsprings are very robust from a failure point of view and the shock inside the bag limits overstretching the bag when up on a lift. I'll check the ride height later today to see if anything's dropped. Nothings been proved yet.

Car goes in the shop tomorrow morning.

I guess this begs the question. If you get stuck with a similar suspension problem when out of town would it make sense to pull the EAS fuse and keep driving? Not much else you can do I assume. Ending up stuck in access mode is crap.

Will report back tomorrow. D3 is 10 years old with 150k. I guess offroading this weekend will be out of the question.

[Eric SDV6SE]

Also should check the air dryer in the compressor, these can get saturated and overheat the compressor. There's replacement kits available on line, see below

Just need to check which compressor you have

For Land Rover Discovery 3 4 Range Rover Sport Air Compressor Filter Drier Kit 632963354595 | eBay (https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0'mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2 F221627323144)

Cheers

Eric

[Markus1]

Thanks Eric.

[DiscoJeffster]

So to comment on all that the expert said. It’s a common fault that the tag that stops the shock overextending a bag fails. This is evident when you raise the car - the failed one will drop lower.
Secondly it can still be a bag leak. Happens in the folds. Soap and water at extended height will help you find one if it exists.
Thirdly, yes the compressor probably has had the desiccant turn to dust and has blocked the filters so it’s struggling to fill. I suspect you have a combination of faults including a small leak somewhere (valve block, bag, anywhere) plus a tired compressor that needs an overhaul. Combine the two and you’ll be where you are.

Attack it methodically. [emoji106]