Weird as EAS issue...

**pboeuf** · 7th August 2018, 01:49 PM

Hi all,
I know they are many threads on EAS issues but I have read a lot of them and I think my issue is different to the ones tackled in those threads.
I have a Discovery 3 3.0L V6 2006 SE and it's been playing up for a few months now.
The issue is relatively complex to diagnose given it is not consistent. Neither my regular mechanic, nor a Land Rover expert in Thomastown, nor Pedders could diagnose it, let alone fix it. This is how I could best summarize the issue:
I frequently (almost daily) get the amber “air suspension problem” light come on after a few seconds/minutes of starting the car but not at every ride. Sometimes it takes many minutes if not hours to come up. Sometimes it never does. Sometimes it evolves to red with a speed limit warning on the dash and it would cycle between amber and red for hours. Sometimes the car suspension has a mind of its own at a stop (e.g. red light) and individual suspensions go up and down. Sometimes the front end is so low the headlights are inefficient. Sometimes (very rarely) the ride is rough and bumpy. But almost every time, stopping and restarting the engine fixes the issue, at least for a few seconds.
Every time my mechanic clears the fault codes and reads the new ones once the problem arises, these codes are different...
It doesn’t seem to be leaking and sometimes everything works perfectly well so I am not convinced there is anything wrong with the main components of the hardware.
Any ideas as to what could be going on?
Any advice on the best place to take it to have it diagnosed is also greatly appreciated (I'm in Montmorency but I could go pretty much anywhere around Melbourne).
Thanks all!!!

**Graeme** · 7th August 2018, 02:15 PM

Most of the problems noted could be attributed to the compressor not filling the reservoir quickly enough, possibly due to a worn-out compressor, a blocked dryer or the compressor having to work excessively due to a leak or a faulty height sensor.
Does the vehicle lower overnight?

**pboeuf** · 7th August 2018, 02:38 PM

I need to properly check if the car lowers overnight but I have a feeling it does. I would need to check if all wheels drop down or not. I'll do that and post the measurements before and after for all 4 corners.
If it was a compressor issue, do you know where would be the best place to have this done? I don't have the time to do it myself at the moment.
Thanks!

**Graeme** · 7th August 2018, 03:28 PM

If you remove the 20A suspension system fuse from the engine bay fuse panel overnight then the suspension ecu can't level the car as 1 corner drops, allowing you to spot if 1 corner or 1 end lowers. A leaking system will work the compressor more but unless its a fast leak, the compressor should easily deal with it. However if there is a leak and the compressor is already struggling then faults will start occurring.

I'm not from Melbourne but others from your area should be able to recommend workshops, although any LR specialist workshop should easily identify the cause.

**pboeuf** · 7th August 2018, 03:32 PM

Originally Posted by Graeme

If you remove the 20A suspension system fuse from the engine bay fuse panel overnight then the suspension ecu can't level the car as 1 corner drops, allowing you to spot if 1 corner or 1 end lowers.

Will do. Cheers!

**pboeuf** · 7th August 2018, 09:52 PM

OK. Once the wife got back with the car, I put it in 4WD height, opened the bonnet, took out the EAS relay and a 5A fuse that corresponded to an EAS icon (couldn't find a 20A fuse that seemed like it was the right one) and measured the height of all corners from the centre of the wheel hub to the top of the arch, trying to be as "vertical" as possible (the car was parked on a slope - there is no flat space where I live and the garage is a bit full ATM).
So around 7pm, these were the measures:
FL: 50 cm
FR: 52 cm
RL: 52 cm
RR: 55 cm

First observations:
- not all corners have the same height
- both corners of the same axle are not at the same height
- does not seem like the expected heights for off-road

Around 9pm, went back to measure and got:
FL: 46cm
FR: 50 cm
RL: 50 cm
RR: 55 cm

So the FL has lost a lot of height (~4cm in 2 hours) and the FR and RL a bit too (or is it the car compensating for such a loss of height in the FL). The car is parked on a slop (rear higher than the front) and on the left side of the road (so possibly a bit more weight on the FL than on the other corners).

Any idea what's going on?

**Graeme** · 8th August 2018, 05:59 AM

FL is dropping and as the vehicle wont flex when 1 corner drops, the 2 adjacent corners will also partly lower.

The compressor must also be weak to be triggering the faults as the extent of the dropping wont be an issue for a compressor that is working properly, unless the leak gets worse due to the suspension moving while driving.

The 5A engine bay suspension fuse is only providing a sense line from the compressor relay back to the suspension ecu. There is another suspension fuse that is 20A - possibly #28 but is #26.

**sierrafery** · 8th August 2018, 08:19 AM

Originally Posted by pboeuf

... took out the EAS relay and a 5A fuse that corresponded to an EAS icon (couldn't find a 20A fuse that seemed like it was the right one)

For the test you have to remove fuse F26, see here 2004-2009 Land Rover Discovery 3 Fuse Box Diagram >> Fuse Diagram but wait 5 minutes after the ignition was off then leave it so over night

**pboeuf** · 8th August 2018, 09:35 AM

Thanks, both.
I'll try again tonight with the F26 fuse out 5' after I've turned off the ignition.

This morning, I measured again and got
FL: 42 cm
FR: 43 cm
RL: 51 cm
RR: 55 cm

So, clearly:
- the front is dropping but the back is not.
- the two back wheels are not at the same height.

What would be the next thing I could check?
How can I assess the compressor without taking it off and without an electronic fault diagnosis tool? Any sounds or length of operation I should keep an eye out for?

Is it worth parking the car on the other side of the street tonight so the front faces uphill so there is less pressure on the front wheels and see if that changes anything?

Thanks again for your help!

**Graeme** · 8th August 2018, 12:17 PM

You have already established that the LF is dropping after a short while. The cause could be a leaking air-spring, a leaking pipe union either at the air-spring or at the front valve block, a damaged air-line (usually causes a fast leak) or a non-sealing valve block caused by either fine particles of desiccant from the dryer (the most likely cause) or a split in the valve block (unlikely). You could put the vehicle at off-road height then spray soapy water on the air-spring and on the pipe connection at the top and on the front valve block which is located under the front bumper just ahead of the wheel looking for bubbles. Otherwise, the front and rear valve blocks could be swapped to see if a rear corner drops instead, although removing and refitting the rear valve block twice (they need to go back to their proper ends) is time-consuming and not cost effective if done by a workshop, so a new front valve block should be expected.

A fault code will be recorded if the vehicle cannot be levelled to its currently-selected height within the allowed time which will cause the vehicle to be lowered to the bump-stops. A different fault code normally occurs before this drastic stage when the reservoir pressure can't be raised quickly enough when filling the reservoir which triggers the 'normal height only' message. This will only occur once the vehicle has been raised to its current target height, resulting the fault occurring any time from just after start-up to about 5 minutes later. I expect that you have been getting both these faults so the compressor will have to be removed to inspect the dryer which may be blocked, although it is possible to remove just the dryer.

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