Thread: Murphy's Law, catastrophic failure in a very bad place

Originally Posted by Dougal

From experience.

Experience is of course gained from bad experiences.

Hopefully other's bad experiences, which it why it is a) good to tell others about your bad experiences and b) good to read about other's bad experiences.

Originally Posted by GregMilner

Maybe this: an overheating alarm that comes up on the dash display. With so much other tech in the car, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch technically.

I was already thinking that one day we may see temperature sensors in at least the rear shocks. However just some, or more, allowance in the calculations to cater for increased temperatures from prolongued rough road usage albeit with a slight degredation in ride quality could be all that it takes to prevent excessive temperatures.

Manual over-ride of perhaps only the rear shocks to provide a set rather than a variable damping rate would result in a more usual non-CVD ride (dis)comfort level but perhaps better than totally failed shocks. However the possibility of being useful would depend on the shock's standard valving with the bypass valve at various openings. LR document that the valve opening varies from 0% to 100% in CVD's operation so even at 100% there must still be damping to a useful degree.

It is conjecture that different settings will prevent overheat.

At least your in Broome, I can think of worse places to be stranded.

We had a catastrophic engine failure in a Landcruiser on the Cape Leveque road a few years ago and ended up getting towed back to Broome, ended up pushing the car into a wreckers yard here and buying another car from Broome Toyota to finish the trip.

Key point here, part of any trip planning is that you need to envisage and have a workaround for any catastrophic event. Satphone & a spare $10,000 usually will suffice.

( A shocker salvaged from the rear of a dumped Commodore looks a close enough fit to have got you on the road again)

Originally Posted by goingbush

Satphone & a spare $10,000 usually will suffice

oh so true!!!!

I'm not suggesting that different settings might prevent overheating per se, only that by using a fixed setting the driver will be less insulated from, ie made more aware of, deteriorating shock operation because the valving wont be changed by the ecu trying to accomodate the decreasing damping caused by excessive heat. I've found that most drivers will feel the ride deteriorating well before they get so hot that the pressure gets high enough to blow the seals, unless an ecu keeps adjusting the valving to mask the situation.

Why can't shocks in a top end vehicle like this be able to handle any thing thrown at it...I run defenders in the bush for work and they do it, why can't my rangie do the same thing...no it's nothing to do with air suspension, the technology is there..

In time I suspect they will but at this stage of CVD development it seems that JLR's desire to have "exceptional levels of ride comfort with excellent and posed body control (Land Rover and Range Rover products)" (extract from Active Ride Simulations at Jaguar Land Rover Vehicle Dynamics using SIMPACK and MatSIM by Amir Alemohammed, JLR) that more development is necessary to ensure the shocks don't overheat.

Its has a lot to do with air suspension as the height sensor signals are inputs to the algorithms that set the bypass valve effective aperture.