Air Spring Exploded 💥

[Milkshake]

Hi all I'm new to this

I've had a Disco 2 for nearly 3 years and learning all the time. My Airspring pump will operate for a few seconds when I've parked and switched off. 3 days ago we were 9 miles from home, had stopped for lunch, 1 hour later Disco left Airspring had pumped to full extension and ripped the Shock mount out of the chassis! 😯 

Viewed from rear the left side was sky high, I thought it might go down if driven but it didn't. Then 1 mile up the road with an almighty bang it exploded and the chassis slammed down onto the back axle. 

The drive home was rough every bump was felt my partner said she felt like a Milkshake, we both did. 

Why did that side pump so high? I've not worked on it or had it on a jack for months. Could it be a non working height sensor? 

The previous day we thought Disco was out of level and appeared to be sitting low on the right (viewed from the rear) 

Any ideas please? 

 

 

 

 

[elbekko]

It does sound like a height sensor that was continually under-reading. On a P38 that would trigger a fault pretty quickly, but the Discovery system is a bit different, so it could well be it just kept on inflating until things said pop.

[Snagger]

Sounds like a sensor or wiring fault initially, but the chassis shouldn’t have failed like that.  Discovery II chassis are one of the most rust prone, so it sounds like it might need a good look for hidden rust.

[Bowie69]

Perhaps it was the other way round, the shock mount/spring perch failed, putting the height sensor out of range, ecu pumped and pumped until it burst or caught on a sharp rusty piece of ex-chassis? 

Some photos would help

[dave88sw]

Had the same thing happen before, the height sensor failed, car thought the suspension was low that side so kept pumping the spring until it exploded.  Buy a genuine height sensor for replacement unless you have a diagnostic computer that can calibrate the cars height.  I've found all the aftermarket sensors have a slightly different reading to the original part so if you only change one, the car sits with a lean.

[Simon_CSK]

On 6/6/2021 at 9:29 AM, dave88sw said:

Had the same thing happen before, the height sensor failed, car thought the suspension was low that side so kept pumping the spring until it exploded.  Buy a genuine height sensor for replacement unless you have a diagnostic computer that can calibrate the cars height.  I've found all the aftermarket sensors have a slightly different reading to the original part so if you only change one, the car sits with a lean.

I had the same issue on my D2 many years ago and I wansn't fortunate enough to be 9 miles from home more like 99 miles.

Mine was the sensor and caused the airbag to over inflate at the side of the M6 at Carlilse.