Disco 4 tow bar/air susp

Hey,

I've just swapped my Freelander for a 2010 Disco 4. I've read that there was a recall on the tow bar and need mine to tow my caravan.

I've rang LR who state the recall is expired and will have to pay for the safety checks to be done and if requires a new towbar then would also have to pay for that

Is this the only option or can you buy a strengthening plate for the existing detachable tow bar. ive heard there is one that is available. Or is its a new tow bar!!

Also every now and again im getting an air suspension fault when lowering the vehicle. If i turn the engine off/on again it seems to work fine for a few goes and then get the fault again. Any ideas???

Apologies if this has been discussed already. Thanks in advance

llewekab said:

Hey,

I've just swapped my Freelander for a 2010 Disco 4. I've read that there was a recall on the tow bar and need mine to tow my caravan.

I've rang LR who state the recall is expired and will have to pay for the safety checks to be done and if requires a new towbar then would also have to pay for that

Is this the only option or can you buy a strengthening plate for the existing detachable tow bar. ive heard there is one that is available. Or is its a new tow bar!!

Also every now and again im getting an air suspension fault when lowering the vehicle. If i turn the engine off/on again it seems to work fine for a few goes and then get the fault again. Any ideas???

Apologies if this has been discussed already. Thanks in advance

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llewekab said:

I've rang LR who state the recall is expired

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Didn't think they could do that. Well, having looked into it it may be possible. If the car is 2010, then it may still be within the 10 year period most see as minimum, get chapter and verse in writing from LR as to why they will not repair a safety-vital recall item. There are 2013 vehicles with the fault and RR sports up to 2015.
Also you could have a claim on the seller if they sold it to you without having got the recall item done. Did you buy it from a garage? If you told them you wanted it for towing that will strengthen your case.
According to this they should still do it. https://www.lro.com/blog/news/land-rover/1509/faulty-tow-bars-mean-major-land-rover-recall
Does yours actually seem to have loads of play? The test to see if it is fubar won't be too expensive. But is does come from the Ministry of Sh!t Design.
Best of luck with it all.

Thanks mate. Will have another go with LR.

llewekab said:

Thanks mate. Will have another go with LR.

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As I said, best of luck, does sound like they are trying to fob you off.
You could always ring head office and if that fails and they really are right about it then I'd be thinking about a claim on the seller and a small claim's track claim through the civil court against the seller for selling a vehicle that is not fit for purpose. The repair will be bound to be over the lower limit of £100.

Oh and just in case you didn't read the article I linked to, there is a phone number there to ring at LR about this problem.

cheers mate, on the phone now with them.

and while you are at it, how are your tarts?

As I understand it, they check for play between socket and removeable tow ball.
If play it needs new cross member.
No play and light towing then removeable towball ok
Heavy towing reqs a fixed towbar installing, which still uses the cross member socket, but has two arms that fix to the chassis that take the fore and aft loads.

When mine went in for the tow ball to be checked, they said it has some slack and the preferred option was to install a fixed towbar.

However I didn't want a fixed tow bar, as my towing was light and infrequent, and I didnt want an ugly bar sticking out the back all the time to bash my ankles on. So they took the D3 in to the body shop and fitted a shiny new rear X member, and also supplied a shiny new tow hook.

However this all happened over 5 years ago, so things have probably changed now.