As a new member and having studied the subject of air suspension problems on this very forum, there are things anyone having problems must know. First study the excellent thread on "everything you need to know about air suspension". As a place to start it's infinitely more useful than the Haynes manual. It seems to me there are 2 main problems: 1 air bag or air pipe leak or; 2 air pump failure.
No. 1 is simply a matter of locating leak (often the air bag) and replacing or sort out pipe union. The bags seem to be a service item with a life of around 5 years. If one side sags it's a fair bet this is the problem. Bag replacement seems really straightforward DIY job and bags cost about £80 or so.
No 2 is less obvious, though if both sides go down and do not pump up, the chances are the pump ain't pumping. Your local dealer will diagnose pump failure, which may be true, and replace it at a scary cost. 6 months to a year later you'll be back with the same problem though. You see the problem is water. Hard to believe for an all terrain vehicle, but Land Rover seem to have designed the system so that it sucks water into the air system and the air pump really doesn't like H2O. Usually the fused link in the fuse box under the bonnet blows first, but don't just replace it cos it might just have saved your air pump. Take the n/s rear light cluster off and there you'll find the air intake filter. Take the top off and remove the filter element including the denser section at the bottom. I can pretty much guarantee it will be saturated. Chuck it all away and replace contents with new. Relocate the filter inside the car by removing filter cartridge from pipe and poking it through grommet carying wiring to light unit. Refit filter inside car (removable plastic grille gives access inside trim).
That's not all though, because there will be water in the whole system. I'd reccommend taking pump off and the plastic chamber/filter just behind it and blowing water out of all of it, including the pipes. I must have got over half a pint of water out of the system. Fortunately my fused link had protected the pump, so an expensive repair was avoided.
With the filter relocated and a water free system, the air suspension should now be reliable. I'll let you know.
No. 1 is simply a matter of locating leak (often the air bag) and replacing or sort out pipe union. The bags seem to be a service item with a life of around 5 years. If one side sags it's a fair bet this is the problem. Bag replacement seems really straightforward DIY job and bags cost about £80 or so.
No 2 is less obvious, though if both sides go down and do not pump up, the chances are the pump ain't pumping. Your local dealer will diagnose pump failure, which may be true, and replace it at a scary cost. 6 months to a year later you'll be back with the same problem though. You see the problem is water. Hard to believe for an all terrain vehicle, but Land Rover seem to have designed the system so that it sucks water into the air system and the air pump really doesn't like H2O. Usually the fused link in the fuse box under the bonnet blows first, but don't just replace it cos it might just have saved your air pump. Take the n/s rear light cluster off and there you'll find the air intake filter. Take the top off and remove the filter element including the denser section at the bottom. I can pretty much guarantee it will be saturated. Chuck it all away and replace contents with new. Relocate the filter inside the car by removing filter cartridge from pipe and poking it through grommet carying wiring to light unit. Refit filter inside car (removable plastic grille gives access inside trim).
That's not all though, because there will be water in the whole system. I'd reccommend taking pump off and the plastic chamber/filter just behind it and blowing water out of all of it, including the pipes. I must have got over half a pint of water out of the system. Fortunately my fused link had protected the pump, so an expensive repair was avoided.
With the filter relocated and a water free system, the air suspension should now be reliable. I'll let you know.
