q-rover Posted January 26, 2007 Share Posted January 26, 2007 Has anybody done this at home? The manual says that the system must be depressureized using diagnostic equipment. Although rangerover.net says it can be done without. Just worried about potential faults that could leave the car on the bumpstops after swapping the airsprings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted January 26, 2007 Share Posted January 26, 2007 Has anybody done this at home? Yep - I wrote it up for the tech archive, here. The manual says that the system mustbe depressureized using diagnostic equipment. Although rangerover.net says it can be done without. Just support the chassis on axle stands then drop the suspension (jumper the EAS ECU connector - doing things like this with the ECU plugged in asking for it throw a fault...). There may still be pressure in the tank, but you aren't touching that (and in fact you'll be using it when you come to fit the bladders if you fit bladders only rather than whole springs). Just worried about potential faults that could leave the car on the bumpstopsafter swapping the airsprings. Take care with the height sensors, unplug the ECU before you start messing around, make sure that everything is in order before you plug the ECU back in. Oh, and if you're planning on doing this over several days/weeks, the backup capacitor in the ECU could go flat and corrupt the calibration settings, requiring a full recalibration. I managed to turn a height sensor inside out which caused a sensor out of range error and dumped it on the stops, but as long as you don't do anything careless like that you shouldn't have any problems. It's actually not a very difficult job (if you're fitting complete spring units, should be very easy, but considerably more expensive). If you do end up on the bump stops, inflate the suspension by jumpering the connector and leave the ECU unplugged until you can get it reset at a garage (but see caution above about leaving it without power for too long). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally V8 Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 There is no need to make all this fuss about changing an air spring.All you need to do is remove the ingnition key and support the body weight of the car safely.Jack whichever wheel you need off the floor and remove the wheel .If the air spring is U/s stick a knife in it carefully and gently twist it to allow it to deflate.Remove the clips at the top and pull the spring down so you can release the pipe. Remove the clip from the bottom and the spring comes off.The bottom pin can corrode into the alloy base on earlier springs and sometimes has to be trashed - best to get new ones before you start. Fit the new spring,take care to fit the air pipe properly or they leak.When its back together,wheel on etc,lower the body a couple of inches and start the engine,when all panels are closed the EAS Ecu will direct air to the new spring to level the car back up.No need to disconnect the Ecu or height sensors etc.BTW the Ecu will not lose its calibrated settings by being disconnected from the car.I have several EAS Ecu's that sit on the shelf for months that get used as test units - they work perfectly - they also remember all the stored faults as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 BTW the Ecu will not lose its calibrated settings by being disconnected from the car.I have several EAS Ecu's that sit on the shelf for months that get used as test units - they work perfectly - they also remember all the stored faults as well. Yours must have better capacitors than mine then... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally V8 Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Want a replacement then,LH or LP ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 Want a replacement then,LH or LP ? LH or LP? 'Fraid you've lost me there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally V8 Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 LH = classic 1970-1995 LP = P38 1995-2002 LM = 2002 on. Have a look at your Vin plate. These are the factory designations to id the different models. BTW I understand what you mean about the pre soft dash models looking dated,but I still think the dash on the earlier ones look better,my 93 Vogue SE with Chocolate leather and Walnut was a lovely place to be and the switch layout - esp the rear wipe was much better.Wife now has a soft dash and I have a 300 Disco as a work truck - neither are a patch on my old SE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 LH = classic 1970-1995LP = P38 1995-2002 LM = 2002 on. Have a look at your Vin plate. Ah! I did wonder if they were parts of the serial numbers off the ECUs, but it didn't occur to me they refer to the whole vehicles - mines a '93 classic (similar to yours but with beige leather not chocolate). BTW I understand what you mean about the pre soft dash models looking dated,but I still think the dash on the earlier ones look better,my 93 Vogue SE with Chocolate leather and Walnut was a lovely place to be and the switch layout - esp the rear wipe was much better.Wife now has a soft dash and I have a 300 Disco as a work truck - neither are a patch on my old SE. I do agree the controls are better positioned on the old dash - the stalks are too low on the disco and the buttons on the instrument binacle are obscured by steering wheel. On the other hand, the dials are much better lit at night (I've improved the range rover one, but it's still not great), the heater is vastly better and the ventilation system doesn't leak air everywhere (although that is mostly fixed on the rangie since I had the dash out to do the heater matrix). What's the chances of one of the ECUs you have being sufficiently closely calibrated to just drop in and work on my truck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally V8 Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 Usually the car will tend to lean a bit if you just sub over an Ecu for testing - this doesnt matter for the test,but on a permanent basis they look awful when they lean.Its no problem to calibrate them with Testbook as it is done with the aid of a tape measure.This means you can input false data to change the ride height.(cant do this on an LP RR with Testbook as it is done with calibration blocks - so you would have to make up non standard blocks) Apparently you can just modify the counts on each corner sensor to calibrate with Autologic or Rovacom systems,but I dont have them,only T4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 If it'll have to be calibrated anyway I might as well just get one of my existing ones done - I'll probably swop in the spare though. That has a hard fault, don't know it's history as it was bought off eBay, but at least it's not known to have had issues like the original one). Spoke to the friend who opened it up and (I thought) told me it's backup was just a capacitor - think I may have got the wrong end of the stick. He couldn't find any charge storage other than a capacitor, but in any case the memory was flash so solid state and shouldn't need power to remember its settings. Quite how mine got corrupted is a mystery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Range Rover Blues Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 I bought Rovacom so I could fix the later Classics, it's easy peasy to recallibrate the EAS. My LSE sits an inch lower on standard and way lower than that on low profile, but you should see it on high All you do is measure the ride heights (eyebrow heights) which if you are unsure should be 790mm floor to wheelarch at each corner, plus or minus about 7mm. The diferent profile settings are in your handbooks. I'm in South Yorks if anyone needs their EAS hooked up. Bring beer tokens. P.S I much prefer the soft dash, with the possible exception of the rear wash/wipe switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 I bought Rovacom so I could fix the later Classics, it's easy peasy to recallibrate the EAS. My LSE sits an inch lower on standard and way lower than that on low profile, but you should see it on high Doesn't that give you a really horrible ride in low profile (and dodgy handling over bumps)? I've messed around with the height of mine quite a bit while it's been manually inflated, and found land rover got the road heights about right. Only thing I'd change with them (and I don't think this is possible even with Rovacom) is that it would be nice to lower the speed that it goes to low profile so it drops on rural roads. If the bladders are up to it (I've got the slightly longer AirBagMan ones) I think there's some benefit to running a little extra lift in high profile, depending what you actually use the truck for, but I've only done pretty easy lanes like this so far. There's at least a theoretical increased risk of pulling a bladder off its plungers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Range Rover Blues Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 Ah, should have said, my LSE sits on Arnott GIII airsprings, so I have at least 2" extra travel up front and over 3" at the back. I have to be careful using it though as it gets very close to the ARB inverting when cross-axled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 What about the on-road ride? Do you find it on the harsh side? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
q-rover Posted February 26, 2007 Author Share Posted February 26, 2007 Shiny springs on rusty car.... HAHA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 Shiny springs on rusty car.... HAHA The plungers are alloy - and regularly rubbed down by the bladders Mine are fairly shiny too, and they're 13 years old now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
q-rover Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 gOT THE SAME ON MINE, JUST THOUGHT THE CONTRAST (bugger Caps lock) was worthy of a comment. Could of course just be mud though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Range Rover Blues Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Ride quality, hmm. not easy to quantify but there is a road local to me that is as rough as the proverbial. At one point I would go along the motorway to avoid it. Anyway, at about 50 or above the front end of the LSE used to shake, "death shake" someone referd to it as and after doing all the usual I couldn't fix it, so I fitted the GIIIs After fitting them I remember driving this road and thinking that the ride was no better, though the shake had improved. Then I looked at my speedo The other thing they do well is that in high profile they have a very low spring rate, so they are much softer and less crashy over bumps. In low profile they have a higher spring rate, can you see the piston gets thicker near the bottom? well in low profile it's like it's on rails, I just wish I didn't have to wait 30 seconds for it to drop as round here you often can't stay above 50 for long enough. Thing is my sister now drives an EAS equipted auto TDi and we checked the setting on that the other day, it had a lean. We found that it had also been set 20mm lower than standard, ie 770mm eybrow height, which according to the manual is low profile, standard being 790mm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 After fitting them I remember driving this road and thinking that the ride was no better, though the shake had improved.Then I looked at my speedo Mine were the same, massively improved ride after I fitted them. I changed just the bladders, and it wasn't hard to see why the ride improved - the old bladders had gone hard, pretty much no flex to them at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Range Rover Blues Posted April 6, 2007 Share Posted April 6, 2007 My sister's latest car has just done 100,000 miles and the EAS is original, save for the pump. It's been set 20mm lower than textbook settings but it drives beautifully, nice ride with very little crash, even my MOT man reconed it's a good 'un. It's on what looks like Bilsteins, maybe that's got somehtng to do with it as my LSE is on ProComps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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