Thread: Discovery 4 jacked up on air suspension reservoir, messed up suspension.

Originally Posted by schuy1

If you are taking it into the dealers I would tell them exactly what happened and the behavior of the suspension system afterwards. If they are on the ball it will be obvious as I bet this is not the first occurrence of incorrect jacking procedures on D4's.
Cheers Scott

Your probably right. Not hard to do correctly but not paying attention probably happened a lot. Im going to tolk to the dealer
Is the air compressor where I marked it on the last picture?

Yes that is the air compressr at the back. Idiots A very easy thing to damage if a jack is placed under it, it is only mounted on an alloy bracket which WILL break.

JC

Originally Posted by schuy1

....... I bet this is not the first occurrence of incorrect jacking procedures on D4's.
Cheers Scott

I'm sure the suspension component location is much the same for D3/D4/RRS, and there's been more than one thread on here about jacking incorrectly, including (if memory serves me correctly) one by garrycol

Oh, and The_J_Man, just to be pedantic, the model designation here in Australia is Discovery 4 or D4 for short. LR4 is what our North American brethren get, presumably because if they bought something with a "Discovery" badge on it, they would expect a space shuttle, and then would sue the dealer for not getting what they expected.

Before anyone chips in, I do know the real reason behind the different model designation in the US, I was merely painting the usual stereotype.

Originally Posted by justinc

Yes that is the air compressr at the back. Idiots A very easy thing to damage if a jack is placed under it, it is only mounted on an alloy bracket which WILL break.

JC

Thanks
Good to know. I don't think they jacked it up there, like I said I will check. I would have heard it break though right? and woudl the car have staid up like that for nearly 1hour if jacked up on the air compressor?

Hope they didn't, thats a big repair I guess

Yes, huge idiots. I hate it when people believe they know better but have no clue and then s*** happens and then
That place is getting s*** from me later tell ya that.

Originally Posted by sheerluck

Oh, and The_J_Man, just to be pedantic, the model designation here in Australia is Discovery 4 or D4 for short. LR4 is what our North American brethren get, presumably because if they bought something with a "Discovery" badge on it, they would expect a space shuttle, and then would sue the dealer for not getting what they expected.

Before anyone chips in, I do know the real reason behind the different model designation in the US, I was merely painting the usual stereotype.

Thanks for that. I get confused with all the shortcuts in different countries And it being America they would win and get millions
LR4 doesn't make sense really, care to share why they call it that. Land Rover 4?? I always call it discovery 4 or Disco 4. But wasn't sure about what to write here

I checked the rear left part.
It appears the rubber block was partly placed under the air compressor shielding.
maybe a third of the block was under the compressor, rest under the chassis.
Could that have caused any damage?? I dont know how far the shielding can be pushed in / flexed etc.

Right hand side of the picture is that block. You can see how its partly under the compressor on it.
second pic, you can see about 5cm of the bloc on that corner is under the compressor. As the chassis bend around it at that spot more of the block will be under the compressor on the other side.

Thanks for your help so far everyone

I found that many tyre dealers are not aware of the requirement to set the suspension in a special mode ("Tight Tolerance" mode) before performing a wheel alignment. I feel confident in predicting that the people who did this to you car would have no idea about this.

There are three options. Ask the LR dealer to select the mode and then take the car yourself to the tyre dealer. After wards the LR dealer needs to restore normal suspension settings.

Or: Take the car to LR after the tyres fitted to get the alignment done. (I chose to do this)

Or: Buy your tyres through LR which may limit choices and affect prices.

Edit: 4th option. You might be able to locate a tyre dealer who has the equipment to be able to select the correct suspension mode.
I like to talk to the tyre dealer and find out what they know about Land Rover suspension and how receptive they are to hearing my advice. A good dealer may not be aware of the issues, but is prepared to jack the car properly and learn about the alignment options. If I feel they are bluffing about their experience or knowlege I go somewhere else.

And finally, don't forget to tell them if you have tyre pressure monitoring fitted.....

I have painted the chassis bright yellow where the correct jack placement positions are located. Helps others help you.

Originally Posted by The_J_Man

The air compressor is on the left side in front of the rear wheel correct?
In the picture I took is does indeed look like it is on the plastic shielding to the left of the chassis at the back left. However I checked all the other spots and they were all on the chassis. Just not sure about the rear left one. I will check under car to see where the marks are the rubber blocks left. The car was very dirty and you can now clearly see where the blocks scraped away the dirt when the car was resting on them. I will check the back left if it may have been fully or partly resting on the plastic and not the chassis.
The two blocks on the right side were definitely placed correctly, then again the right side only has the chassis where they can be placed under. No other components on that side.

Hey J Man,
In the photo that accompanies this reply, you can clearly see the jacking point.
It is the hole in the chassis basically next to the air compressor tank. The other is the one next to the air compressor itself again in the chassis.

As I work for a dealer this is a common complaint, that "I have just had tyres/alignment done & now I have a suspension fault".
Mainly due to inexperienced people either being lazy &/or just not caring.

I also see in the photos that there is enough room on the lift to locate the rubber mounts under the chassis where they are supposed to be.
In either case they should NOT lift the vehicle via either the tank or compressor. Both of either will cost the shop a lot of Deutschmarks.

Hope it works out well for you.

Sent from my iPad using Forum Runner

Originally Posted by Fred Nerk

I found that many tyre dealers are not aware of the requirement to set the suspension in a special mode ("Tight Tolerance" mode) before performing a wheel alignment. I feel confident in predicting that the people who did this to you car would have no idea about this.

There are three options. Ask the LR dealer to select the mode and then take the car yourself to the tyre dealer. After wards the LR dealer needs to restore normal suspension settings.

Or: Take the car to LR after the tyres fitted to get the alignment done. (I chose to do this)

Or: Buy your tyres through LR which may limit choices and affect prices.

Edit: 4th option. You might be able to locate a tyre dealer who has the equipment to be able to select the correct suspension mode.
I like to talk to the tyre dealer and find out what they know about Land Rover suspension and how receptive they are to hearing my advice. A good dealer may not be aware of the issues, but is prepared to jack the car properly and learn about the alignment options. If I feel they are bluffing about their experience or knowlege I go somewhere else.

And finally, don't forget to tell them if you have tyre pressure monitoring fitted.....

I have painted the chassis bright yellow where the correct jack placement positions are located. Helps others help you.

Thanks for the extensive and detailed reply.

What do you mean by tyre alignment?
I had my tyres changed to a new set. So they took the tyres of the rim and fitted new ones. They put them on a machine which turn them and fitted small weights on the inside of the rim to balance them.
Never heard of tight tolerance suspension mode. Doesn't say anything in the handbook about that. Should that be used when just changing tyres?

I dont have the tyre pressure monitoring system installed. What would be different if i had?

Thats a good thing to do, im thinking about doing that if I end up buying the car. Its a leasing vehicle so im affraid im not allowed yet.

Could this incorrect lifting have caused any structural damages of any kind? 3year leasing ends in december and maybe ill buy it out. Safe to do so if its repaired or might there me issues arrising from this that we might not know about yet?

Cheers mate.

Originally Posted by sniegy

Hey J Man,
In the photo that accompanies this reply, you can clearly see the jacking point.
It is the hole in the chassis basically next to the air compressor tank. The other is the one next to the air compressor itself again in the chassis.

As I work for a dealer this is a common complaint, that "I have just had tyres/alignment done & now I have a suspension fault".
Mainly due to inexperienced people either being lazy &/or just not caring.

I also see in the photos that there is enough room on the lift to locate the rubber mounts under the chassis where they are supposed to be.
In either case they should NOT lift the vehicle via either the tank or compressor. Both of either will cost the shop a lot of Deutschmarks.

Hope it works out well for you.

Hey Sniegy
Yes I know about the holes Shop didnt I guess. They are not entirely incompetent as I have had my tires exchanged there 4 times so far. Who knows maybe they did it wrong every time but nothing broke.

Its interesting that its a common thing.

There was enough room yes. And if there wasnt, they have 3 more lifts in various sizes, they should make it fit. Its no excuse saying it wouldn't have fitted otherwise.

Do you know how far the air compressor shielding can be pressed in before causing damage? As the rear block was partly placed under the air compressor shielding. At the moment im basing the faults due to the lifting at the tank. And thats what i have written to them. I obviously need to change that if its due to the rear being done incorrectly as well.

Some thing I forgot to mention.
When I first tested the suspension once I was home, where I noticed something was weird, I saw quite some liquid dripping down from under the car. about 40cm further into the centerline of the car parallel to the tank. I presumed it was the aircon. Could it have been a leak in the system, damage from the lifting? The tank is the accumulator and from what I understand it has a liquid inside aswell?

That car has warning lights for everything but not for a suspension fault. Weird I think