EAS misbehaving in Cape York

[Macadamia]

I've just finished a four week trip to the tip and back - I'll do a bit of a write up separately if anyone is interested - but I started to suffer some strange behaviours from the air suspension towards the end of the trip.

While on the old coach road the car went into extended offroad height multiple times 1) by itself 2) on relatively tame sections of the track (certainly done far worse without extended height), that we weren't stuck on and were making fairly easy progress. After doing this a few times I plugged in the IID tool, no EAS faults but the compressor was cooking at 130 degrees C.

in regards to 1) - is this normal behaviour for the car to go into extended height by itself and I just haven't been paying attention? I thought the car *offered* extended offroad height but I had to press the brake and hold the raise/up switch for 3 seconds to go into it? At least that's what I thought I'd seen in the past. I've never had the car go into extended height by itself before this trip. The first time was actually when I was floating it across Nolans.

in regards to 2) I'm suspecting, and would love to hear people's thoughts, that my shocks are cooked after the corrugations on the PDR and it was perhaps contributing to some poor traction on later tracks leading the car to think it needed extended height despite making progress.

[Graeme]

Extended height only occurs if the vehicle appears to be grounded, ie some wheels are spinning. If wheels are bouncing and loosing traction a lot due to useless shocks then that could be causing the system to think that the vehicle is partly stuck.

[John_D4]

Agreed. I’m wondering if a new set of shocks might fix the problem, but I’m not a mechanic

[Eric SDV6SE]

I think your height sensors may need recalibrating before you do anything else, they have been known to lose their reference point over time, and severe corrugations don't help.

[Graeme]

Maybe some mounting screws have worked loose.

[Macadamia]

unlikely to be a sensor problem. I've measure all the corners and they're unchanged. it has no problem raising to off road and lowering to access. The problem was when on a track it frequently went into extended height despite not being grounded or stuck and my thinking is that because the shocks are cooked after the corrugations, it would get a little bit of a bounce causing some wheel slip and tricking the terrain/suspension ECUs into thinking it was stuck or grounded.

is it normal for it to go into extended offroad hight automatically when grounded. I aways thought I had to hold the raise button for 3 seconds in these situations but maybe I haven't been paying attention. usually when I'm in these situations I'm concentrating on not rolling the car and the message flashes up on the dash and dissapears before I have a chance to change my underwear and see it!

[scarry]

is it normal for it to go into extended offroad hight automatically when grounded. I aways thought I had to hold the raise button for 3 seconds in these situations but maybe I haven't been paying attention. usually when I'm in these situations I'm concentrating on not rolling the car and the message flashes up on the dash and dissapears before I have a chance to change my underwear and see it!

Correct,extended off road height has to be selected by the driver,following a message on the dash,and it drops off at around 8 Km/hr from memory.

Can’t help with your issue,but there are loads of creek crossings up there so maybe water has got into something?
Even a plug in the wiring,if so it should eventually dry out hopefully before any corrosion starts.

[Graeme]

Extended height is automatic, but once in extended mode super-extended mode is enabled by holding the raise button while pressing the brake pedal for 3 seconds.

[scarry]

Others including myself are calling ‘off road height’,the normal off road height,drops down automatically at around 50Km/hr,initiated by a switch on the center console.
Extended being ‘off road height’extended higher,driver initiated by following dash read out,as Graeme said,hold button down and brake pedal,and drops down automatically at around 8 Km/hr.

I think that is what the OP means.
But maybe not.[biggrin]

[Graeme]

Extended mode is an automatic additional height that can occur in any height mode from access to off-road if the vehicle fails to move appropriately while wheels are turning. When extended mode occurs while in off-road height mode, the driver has the option to go to super-extended height. Extended mode raises the vehicle a little from the current height mode rather than to a set height.

[Melbourne Park]

Agreed. I’m wondering if a new set of shocks might fix the problem, but I’m not a mechanic

neither am I, but worn shockers would not cause wheel slip on the roads and your description of when it happened IMO. Good ones would improve the ride though.

I had a weird occurrence, when dropping in my off-road caravan at the maker's establishment, I dropped caravan's jockey wheel, and lowered the D4 (I have the LLAMS kit) but the vehicle was not lowered enough. So being a smart ass, I lowered the vehicle all the way - via the lowest setting in the D4, plus extra lowering via LLAMS (which was not set as low as it can go either). I drove forwards, and switched off. Then, the vehicle would not gain any height. So a service guy from the caravan maker (Australian Off Road) put his notebook onto the data reader, and found a fault on one of the height sensors. He then re-set the sensors, and shortly after, the D4 rose and seemed to be back to normal. I thought a sensor was faulty, and took it to a QLD LR Indy, who checked it out and refused to charge me (fairly close to Caloundra). They said the sensors were in spec and not worth replacing. I have had no issues since.

So, the first thing I would do would be to reset or get your Indy to reset electronically the sensors. Worth a try IMO.

[Graeme]

The height sensors can't be reset as they're dumb devices, sending out an analogue voltage from a 5V and ground supply but height sensor faults can be cleared.

[Melbourne Park]

The height sensors can't be reset as they're dumb devices, sending out an analogue voltage from a 5V and ground supply but height sensor faults can be cleared.

Hi Graeme,

Hope you are all well in your lovely home and property! My best regards to you and your charming wife.

I now do not lower the vehicle all the way ... Instead, I'll wind up the jockey wheel a bit higher. So I'll use your control to lower it all the way, and leave the Disco height switch in its middle setting. Or, I'll have the Disco on lowest switch setting, and I'll have your control one off the lowest setting. Incidentally, you set it up to not be at its lowest capability, as my need started at being able to drive on bush roads at over 50 KMH in a higher mode.

The height adjust for putting a van on and off though, has been priceless. I often have driven up to the van in reverse, and walked back to check the van, and everything is aligned and I then just rise the vehicle. I'd get it right every time but for the camera being off centre, where parallax error results in the D4's tow tongue being sideways from the van's attachment pin.

I wonder why after having lowered it the whole way down, it would no longer rise up ... yet with the faults cleared, it resumed to normal behaviour? I could not see any benefit from a software viewpoint, in leaving the Disco stuck in its lowest position.

I suspect that if I lowered it all the now, without the van attached, it would rise up without any issues. But I've not tried to do that, as I don't have a faults scanner, so I would not be able to clear any faults. I guess I need to get one.

Doug and Helga

[Macadamia]

I wonder why after having lowered it the whole way down, it would no longer rise up ... yet with the faults cleared, it resumed to normal behaviour? I could not see any benefit from a software viewpoint, in leaving the Disco stuck in its lowest position.


at one time I had programmed, with IIDTool, a lower height for some reason or another and without thinking *also* lowered the car to access height which trigger a height sensor fault (presumably because the car was on the stops or was far lower than it expected to be at access). The fault meant the car was stuck at that low height and the EAS would not respond. But after setting the height offset back to normal and clearing the fault all returned to normal operation. so potentially something similar with LAMS?

in any case - the car is going in for a service in a few weeks so will get the shocks looked at then.

[RichardK]

Doug,
If you get a faults scanner then get a IID, they are very comprehensive and will cover anything that you will need to do. I got one as we often go remote and I want the assurance that unless it is catastrophic I have the information I need to understand the problem. As a bonus if you change vehicles you will get back a substantial amount of the cost as a second hand unit.

Cheers
RichardK

[Graeme]

I wonder why after having lowered it the whole way down, it would no longer rise up ... yet with the faults cleared, it resumed to normal behaviour? I could not see any benefit from a software viewpoint, in leaving the Disco stuck in its lowest position.LR had some not very user friendly programming in the D4 and my MY12 L322 is worse! A logged fault can often inhibit normal operation but keep an eye out for the raise and lower switch LEDs flashing as this shows an error state, but pressing the raise or lower button usually resumes normal operation. My L322 won't make any suspension changes, whether changing height modes or levelling, if a message is showing in the instrument cluster, regardless of whether the message has anything or not to do with the suspension system.

All well here thanks, even if a little waterlogged from all the springs that are running, some from spots not seen before in the 25 years that I've been here. But its green and gold time so the countryside looks a treat.