Thread: D2 Rear Air suspenion issue.

From what ive read over the last few days regarding SLS disco's; pump it up to "off road" height, and spray the bags with soapy water. around the bag and around the air fitting.

The fabric fails over time or there is a hole. If it is dropping over night, then replace the bags ASAP. The pump has a 5% duty cycle so it will fail as well. Soapy water at off road height should reveal a hole. Take the bag out and inflate with a hand pump to full length to show fabric failing. As the airbag changes height the fabric at the fold line "rolls" and eventually starts to separate.

Having gone through this myself (quite a while ago now) 98% of the time it's the airbags. They will fail after approx 10 yrs. the hardest thing to believe is sometimes they stay up, sometimes they deflate. This leads to the belief that it's something other than the bags. Soapy water is your friend😁 spray then cycle the suspension up and down.
Dave

Hi, those bags have the ability to seal themselves from time to time and they act quite randomly...if they have more that 100000km "on board" it's very likely to be a leak...the most certain way to rule out if it's management or leak issue is to let the car with battery disconnected over night if it's in a safe place or ask somebody to crawl under and unplug the two air supply valves in the compressor hpousing(be aware that they have retaining clips at the bottom)...if with battery disconnected/unplugged valves it drops as well it's certain that it's a leak...if not then it's some management issue as the system stays under power 1.5 hours after the ignition was off.

do not drive it with valves unplugged or better remove the compressor relay(R5) too from the beginning to be on the safe side...as said with a leaky bag you have the chance to overwork the compressor and loose it in no time

Same symptoms on mine this week. Sometimes it would stay up, other times it drops. Turns out it most likely very slowly drops until the weak/porus part of the bag starts to fold under then it drops more quickly. I sprayed some diluted dishwashing liquid and eventually found a series of pin holes on both sides, where the bag generally folds.

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RKB101200 are 55£ at paddock spares.

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Mine are a little talkative after pulling up at times (pending ground levels etc). At 13 yo, might this be a likely possibility for me too? Or should I grab the local compressor thats for sale second hand ...
Land Rover Discovery 2 Rear SLS Compressor | Brakes & Suspension | Gumtree Australia Bendigo Surrounds - Huntly | 1053946485

Or both...

the bag splits around the position that the roll sits the majority of the time (standard height). The rubber perishes, 10-13 yrs is a fair run KM has no bearing (climate effect them more), my experience from heavy industry is that they actually don't last as last long if the vehicle sits idle.

My '99 lasted 13 years, but they went from dropping overnight once or twice to complete failure within 2 weeks. The compressor can be rebuilt as long as the bore is not damaged, it is the same unit that's in the L322, about $40 gets a kit with new piston ring and seals, took about 1hr to remove, rebuild and refit.