Rear end air suspension

[Julian]

Just a quick one. I've not been using the Disco much lately and notice that the rear end starts sagging after about 5 days when parked up. By 7 days it looks like it's on the stops, one side seems to drop slightly ahead of the other side.

I'm thinking that this doesn't really constitute a serious leak, and I should just forget about it for now - am I correct?

It looks a bit sad with the back end drooped down!

Julian.

[Disco51Pete]

No get it sorted or you'll be looking at a new compressor and not just an air suspension unit.

Ive had my disco just over a year now and im on the third compressor since owning it.

Just my personal opinion, see what everyone else says.

Also, i got my suspension unit from paddock, they are non genuine but v.good as they are a pushfit connection, just like plumbing and can be easily disconnected again, very handy.

If you do have a new compressor make sure the air intake filter is checked and an uprated one put on as this was not done at the land rover garage i went to an 6months later the compressor failed again to water ingress through the filter that should of been changed as its a recall part, they wouldnt even refund ne the full amount as is was water ingrees and his isnt covered on the compressor warranty.

Hope ive been of some help, ive had lots of help from this site so its goo to help others when i can.

Pete.

[scooby]

ello julian

your three main parts are your engine compressor, valve block mounted under your passanger side of the body and your air suspension units,

if i remember right once the air supply exits the vave block to your airbags if one side drops it,s a sure sign you have a leak on a pipe on the side going down

or the suspension unit is badly sealed or the rubber airbag has become porous.

check your pipes/connectors first for leaks , they maybe leaking or chaffing somewhere , washing up liquid will help detect a leak by creating air bubbles

at joints and connection working your way back to the valve block and compressor ,

it looks like a block to airbags leak from what you say, thats going on the assumption the compressor and vave block raise the car no problem and

the back end drops again after a few days .

hope this helps cheers Roy

[Julian]

ello julian

your three main parts are your engine compressor, valve block mounted under your passanger side of the body and your air suspension units,

if i remember right once the air supply exits the vave block to your airbags if one side drops it,s a sure sign you have a leak on a pipe on the side going down

or the suspension unit is badly sealed or the rubber airbag has become porous.

check your pipes/connectors first for leaks , they maybe leaking or chaffing somewhere , washing up liquid will help detect a leak by creating air bubbles

at joints and connection working your way back to the valve block and compressor ,

it looks like a block to airbags leak from what you say, thats going on the assumption the compressor and vave block raise the car no problem and

the back end drops again after a few days .

hope this helps cheers Roy

I've a Disco 11, so the compressor is an electric one I think. (sorry, should have made that clear initially)

The crux of the issue for me is this: is 5-7 days OK for the system to loose pressure when idle, I'm tempted to just ignore it until it becomes worse - I know that in an ideal world the suspension wouldn't loose one atom of air over time, but that's a practical impossibility! I remember cars like the Citroen BX that sat on their arses in a day... I'm sure the day will come when it needs new airbags but I'm not convinced that they're needed yet?

Pete, I can't believe that a system that deflates over a period of one week will cause the compressor to burn out - I know it's a weak little bugger made of substandard Landrover chocolate, but running it once a week is surely stretching the boundaries of reason? After all, when I go shooting I raise the car to help go down a farm track twice in one day and it survives that

Cheers Julian.

PS, I'd be interested to here from others with the later Disco 11 regarding how long the rear end stays up for when parked up.

[BogMonster]

It should stay up indefinitely but I see your line of thought and probably agree with the fact that going down in a week isn't going to kill it but bear in mind that the suspension compressors are a relatively weak point anyway so anything that puts it under more stress is a bad thing.

It's probably a perforated spring - if so it WILL get worse so I would get it fixed sooner rather than later as spending money is inevitable.

You could always bin the air suspension and fit coils which is easy on a D2. Change the springs (need new seats as well as the actual springs) and plug it into a Testbook for 5 minutes to change the SLABS ECU to coils, job done. Probably cheaper than a set of air springs and fairly future proof in terms of air leaks

[martinhollings]

it think it would be worth trying to find a leak lift the suspension up and and get plenty of soapy warter around the bottom of the air bags and leave it for 10-20 min before having a last look but it could be very difficuld to find a leak of that size

[ukspike]

I've a Disco 11, so the compressor is an electric one I think. (sorry, should have made that clear initially)

The crux of the issue for me is this: is 5-7 days OK for the system to loose pressure when idle, I'm tempted to just ignore it until it becomes worse - I know that in an ideal world the suspension wouldn't loose one atom of air over time, but that's a practical impossibility! I remember cars like the Citroen BX that sat on their arses in a day... I'm sure the day will come when it needs new airbags but I'm not convinced that they're needed yet?

Pete, I can't believe that a system that deflates over a period of one week will cause the compressor to burn out - I know it's a weak little bugger made of substandard Landrover chocolate, but running it once a week is surely stretching the boundaries of reason? After all, when I go shooting I raise the car to help go down a farm track twice in one day and it survives that

Cheers Julian.

PS, I'd be interested to here from others with the later Disco 11 regarding how long the rear end stays up for when parked up.

Hell I hope it will survice that because I do the same to get into woods to go deer stalking with my disco 2, then let it down to lower it to load up if I got lucky??? would hate to think that I had to go shooting less just so I don't burn the compressor out

[BogMonster]

The point is that the compressor is designed to service a closed system i.e. it keeps the pressure up, occasionally comes on to fulfil the demand of a suspension height change but it otherwise a very low duty cycle, you only have to cycle the suspension up and down a couple of times on a D3 and the suspension compressor shuts down in overheat mode so I guess a D2 is probably the same though thankfully most of them here have coils and the few that haven't have mostly been converted due to leaking springs.

Any sort of a significant air loss (far more likely when the suspension is moving around than when parked - so you may not notice the compressor working when driving) might easily increase the amount of compressor activity 10x which means it will last 10% as long.

Blow up a spacehopper with your mouth and let somebody bounce up and down on it, and then punch a small hole in it and try and keep it blown up with somebody bouncing up and down on it, when you start to go purple thats how the compressor feels

Leave it as it is by all means and you may get away with it, but just be aware of the £ risks.

[Julian]

Blow up a spacehopper with your mouth and let somebody bounce up and down on it, and then punch a small hole in it and try and keep it blown up with somebody bouncing up and down on it, when you start to go purple thats how the compressor feels

Leave it as it is by all means and you may get away with it, but just be aware of the £ risks.

Thanks BM. Your showing your age with the space hopper analogy :-) But it is a good point, one things certain the leaky air bags won't get any better so I may as well look towards changing them sooner rather than later - I think I'll stick with air for now, I rather like that lift facility, it stops the tow hitch bracket ploughing the raised center of a farm track I go down regularly.

I was thinking, is this a stupid idea not? Disconnect the air hose to the air bags and pump some of that puncture repair gloop in. I've used it on a wheelbarrow and a mower tyre and it really works well.

Julian.

[BogMonster]

I would say it probably won't work. Tyreweld etc normally requires the wheel to be driven on for a reasonable distance to spread the goo around the inside and make sure it gets into the hole. Unless you pick up your Discofairy and juggle with it for a while this isn't really practical - the stuff does work on ATV and wheelbarrow tyres but most of these are only fairly low pressure plus the hole tends to be at the bottom which it isn't on an air spring. The other worry I would have would be the goo getting into the airline on spring deflation and setting in the pipe or valve, which could suddenly become quite expensive...

You really need a little handheld trigger plant sprayer with a weak fairy liquid solution in to track down the leak before you start spending money - it can be a leak around the pipe unions as well, but a perforated spring is most common, usually where the spring folds back on itself to go up inside itself as that is naturally where most of the movement (and thus fatigue) is concentrated. Spray some of the stuff around and you should see bubbles/foam forming quite quickly.

[Julian]

The other worry I would have would be the goo getting into the airline on spring deflation and setting in the pipe or valve, which could suddenly become quite expensive...

.

Of course, never thought of that, if the goo went backwards up the pipes (which it surely would) it'll clog all the important gubbinses - I'll give that a miss

Julian.