Thread: Upper control arm, Disco on hoist for a few days

Originally Posted by Oohsam

Hey Guys,
I recently bought myself a D3 V8 HSE. I love it.
Took it in for a RWC and it has a few issues which are not too major to rectify but will take me a few days to sort out.

One of them is that I need to change the RHS upper control arm as the bushing is worn. I will have the Disco on the hoist in the garage for a few days and just wanted to validate a few things.
Firstly - I understand that I should raise the air suspension to the off road position, open a door and then put the car on the hoist.

Will it be OK to suspend it for a few days while I work on the car (there's a few other things I'm doing and am waiting for parts to trickle in)
Secondly, when replacing the upper control arm, I understand there is a air suspension position rod that I need to be aware of - do I need to do anything in particular. I fear that the air suspension will need re-calibration after I'm done, which I don't have the means to do.


Anything else to watch out for?
One of the bolts on the upper arm looks a bit tricky...

I have jacked mine up plenty without opening a door or going to off-road height first. The car will recognise the height and try to let air out of the bags. No big deal.
After changing the arm or bush the sensor won't be affected so you won't need to recalibrate the suspension. Bit of silicon spray on the sensor arm will help it come off easy. Don't worry it's obvious you won't miss it.
You can leave it up for as long as you want without causing harm

My D4 was off the ground on stands for a week whilst rebuilding the valve body and flushing trans fluid etc. In between work commitments. No dramas and no recalibration needed. You could take the wheels off to reduce the weight, but wont affect the suspension. Remember the suspension supports thr weight of the vehicle normally.

I also see no point in raising or lowering beforehand, the suspension height will change as soon as you lift it.

So the offical manual procedure when jacking is to raise to off-road height then jack. Presume this is to minimise the delta between the raised corner and the others.
This has no relevance when using a 2-4 post hydraulic lift.

Thank you guys !
Very much appreciated!!

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

So the offical manual procedure when jacking is to raise to off-road height then jack. Presume this is to minimise the delta between the raised corner and the others.

I found it was more to reduce the amount you have to jack the thing. The suspension is already extended that way. Getting all 4 off the ground with a decent jack and stands is hard enough at off road height. I'd hate to have to do it from the stops.

Originally Posted by BradC

I found it was more to reduce the amount you have to jack the thing. The suspension is already extended that way. Getting all 4 off the ground with a decent jack and stands is hard enough at off road height. I'd hate to have to do it from the stops.

Well maybe. But the angles of the vehicle are far better if the other corners are at off road height. I’d hate to see the standard jack angle if you jacked from bump stops to wheel lift on one corner.

3t low profile high lift trolley jack and 2t stands at each corner, get the car fully off the ground in under 10min.

Originally Posted by Eric SDV6SE

3t low profile high lift trolley jack and 2t stands at each corner, get the car fully off the ground in under 10min.

Well if we’re talking floor jacks and not the awful factory scissor jack then I’m looking at three minutes max. Under the centre front Jack point and rear diff and we’re done. That wasn’t what I was implying though.