I tested the new valve block on the car today but it doesn't leak. The rate of air leaking from the porous air-spring when fully extended would be hundreds if not thousands times the rate of the leak from the old valve block.
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I tested the new valve block on the car today but it doesn't leak. The rate of air leaking from the porous air-spring when fully extended would be hundreds if not thousands times the rate of the leak from the old valve block.
I had some small cracks on my front struts. But they didn’t result in suspension drop. That’s disappointing given it’s a 2012 model. I would expect at least 8 years out of them. Although there seemed to be quite a few Discos that were failing at about 6 years.
These holes aren't from cracks - the rubber is full of pin-holes all around the lower part. I doubt the rubber has been cooked by the shocks because the other side doesn't have any holes so must be faulty manufacturing. The section is only exposed at super-extended height so is normally flat against the shock and nowhere near the moving fold. It was leaking by 65K kms and the other one hasn't failed in another 20K kms so appears not to suffer the same fault.
I intend to live with the problem until the shocks don't work well enough then replace them with Bilsteins. The Arnotts MY10-12 replacement air-springs (only) are US$300 each plus shipping - far too much considering new Bilstein complete struts are $900 plus shipping ex UK. I doubt that I'll pay LR's price to get the warm climate version which I suspect were not fitted at build time because the cold climate pack is fitted.
Graeme, whats the difference in versions, hot/cold?
is it just a cooling thing?
I expect warm climate shocks withstand higher operating temperatures providing less heat fade, probably using a different spec oil. The LR warm climate version is only slightly more expensive than the standard version so I would get the warm climate if buying LR shocks, but Bilsteins are around half the price.
Noting that both Bilstein and Koni have withdrawn their D4 shocks from the Australian market due to failure of their shocks to withstand our sometimes high shock operating temps, I wonder how well Bilstein L322 non-warm climate shocks will survive. However as CVDs effectively vary the valving according to conditions rather than use fixed valving, Bilstein CVDs might not suffer the same failures in our climate as their non-CVD do.
My RRS was drooping slowlyQuote:
Originally Posted by scarry
Fixed it by replacing the front valve assembly. The fault was due to powdered dessicant escaping from the dryer filter and contaminating the valve seals. It looks like white powder on the internal surfaces of the sytem. I cleaned all the components and airlines and replaced the the desicant and upgraded the filter sealing in the dryer canister.
Perhaps you had contamination, too, causing the replacement valve to fail so quickly
This is the cracking I was talking about (pic from before I swapped out EAS).
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a967dc4591.jpg
Neither of my front air-springs have any cracks developing on the external surface.
I replaced the pin-holed air-spring today. Small vertical cracks covering an area about 2/3rds of the way around and about 30mm wide were found that I've concluded were caused by the fold moving over sharp granite sand from the twice daily traversing of deep mud at full height during the very wet September 2 years ago. Residual mud was still stuck to the cone. No cracks exist where the rubber folds at normal height so the rubber hadn't deteriorated.
Unfortunately the shock is on borrowed time after 85K, which is not surprising as I've needed to replace D2 and D4 shocks well before these kms.