Disco II Air suspension – the definitive guide

Excellent Write up
My Drivers side airbag went bang today. so i'm going over to coils pick them up monday. she's had 2 ride height sensors done about 2 months ago 2 airbags about a year ago had enough of the air suspension.

Great guide and helped me understand.

Couple of bit of learning from me.

1. Hawk eye v5 does not allow you to set ride height. You can see the heights and you can adjust them but that's it. When you take the key out the car and restart it'll all go back to where it started. I've written to bearmach yesterday to congratulate them on nearly being useful. Suggest others do the same. [email protected]

2. My latest fault was a flashing sls warning light when the car starts along with the car suspension rising. Then moves to perminant sls amber warning light. And drops again when you take the keybout. No faults recorded on the hawkeye. Cos it's not a fault. Fiddling garage set my truck to Transport mode. See very first post in this thread. Set it back to normal and no surprise there is no warning light

Might help someone else

Steve

Hi All

Have had a read of all the preceeding posts, and I'm not sure what I have has been covered, so will pose the question.

Have had a 2002 Disco TD5 for two weeks.
Back end doesn't sag over a week of non-use.
When I got it the Off Road Mode worked fine.

Yesterday took the kids and some friends on a 90 mile round trip - when we parked up there (45 miles away) and all 7 people bailed out the back end was quite up (although it rode level on the way there - checked that in shop windows reflections) - and 6 hours later when we got back in it was still up. It rode level on the way home too, as the headlights were ok, not pointing skyward.

At home now the back is where it should be, but the ORM won't engage - press the button, get a single chime and the dash light stays flashing, but no movement.

Have had the cover off the compressor box under the sill, and the compressor runs for a bit, and then stops - no movement at all.

Anyone have any pointers?

Thanks

I have a 2001 Disco diesel 7-seater. The back of the car is all the way down most of the time but sometimes it goes up when it starts and when you press the elevated suspension button. This has got worse over time. Unfortunately I live in a country where they don't know much about Landrovers (and continually try to rip you off).
Do I need to replace the bags and sensors? Will this solve the problem or could it be the compressor? Or something else?

Thanks

Amalfipurple said:

I have a 2001 Disco diesel 7-seater. The back of the car is all the way down most of the time but sometimes it goes up when it starts and when you press the elevated suspension button. This has got worse over time. Unfortunately I live in a country where they don't know much about Landrovers (and continually try to rip you off).
Do I need to replace the bags and sensors? Will this solve the problem or could it be the compressor? Or something else?

Thanks

Click to expand...

your Air bags have become porous, replace them.

Hi folks, A word of thanks for the info. My discovery had a very saggy back end with a deadline on the horizon, I was worried. After reading these tips, a couple of calls to suppliers and my tail is as still as it should be and the lad was delivered to Uni in style. One point, when I had done the work, sensor and bags change, I could not get the thing to level. Light was nearly as bad as my mood so I left it overnight. Morning saw the back end right down, but with the ignition on, the remote let me raise it square and all has been well.
Cheers

Hi all, we have just replaced both rear ride sensors on disco 2 but when we restart car the LH air bag is still over inflating. Any suggestions as to what else we can do??? It's driving us nuts!!! Cheers

u must recalibrate sensors with nanocom or similar

sabredylan said:

Hi

According to Rave, when switching off the ignition and opening a door the air suspension is supposed to drop 20mm from normal ride height.
The suspension is then, supposed to rise again when the engine is running with doors shut. The suspension on my truck only does this occasionally. Most of the time it just stays at the same height and doesn't move. I have checked fuses and for codes, but none are logged.

Beginning to think its slabs ecu that's faulty. Door switches work, interior lights come on on opening any of the doors.

Anyone come across this suspension issue?

Click to expand...

Carrying on from this......

The truck is still only dropping the 20mm it should occasionally on switch off. When its not dropped the 20mm, if I open door and switch the ignition to position 2, it lowers the 20mm. This could be the following day, so its not like some delay on the ecu or something. Also occasionally when coming to a stop at the lights etc, the back sits down 20mm. The truck then becomes very harsh on the suspension.

Things done:

- New bags (Genuine)
- New compressor and valve block (Genuine)
- 2 New height sensors (Genuine)
- Set the rear heights using Genuine Landrover calibration blocks. The
settings were 160 nearside and 145 offside, for info, which is standard ride
height.
- Checked wiring best I can.

This is starting to really p*ss me off now, as the truck driving like a bag of sh*t at the minute.

Any more ideas from you helpful people?

Hi again

I reply to my own earlier post.

I asked an independant LR specialist and the local Main Dealer about my issue. They both said bring it in and get it on the computer - then we can see abit more.
Something about the way they said it made me think they know its a glitch.

So I bought a Nanocom. Plugged it in and hey presto that fixed it - no fault codes showing on the SLABS ecu, no resets needed, no ride height setting - the system just started to work properly.

Thing is the indie wanted £50 and the dealer £65 to plug it in - so if I get a couple more faults (highly likely!!) and need to recalibrate the injectors when I replace the seals causing my bad starting I will about have paid for the nanocom!!

Battenburg, fine guide dude.


Ive a wee question a skim read a fair few but didnt see anything similar to what i have.

Just picked up our DiscoII last weekend, as usual didnt notice anything out the ordinary excited chatter during the test drive we didnt notice a constant whirring noise feels like the compressor is "riunning on" esp if the car is driven in a straight line or turning right ...... left and the noise stops............ i also noticed on the way home (wife was following me) the car wasnt level and was sitting down slightly on the drivers side, i put it down to the camber of the road and the ACE (our last disco had ACE but it didnt work) system compensating for it.

Seems to sit nice and level when stopped and no one is in the car and the compressor stops when driving, at traffic lights very low speeds.

Any ideas and thanks in advance, will possibly try the soapy bubbles trick tomorrow.

I was reading this article, www.discovery2.co.uk / Rear Suspension Air Bags
and it was very helpful. Im a new 2000 Discovery owner from Puerto Rico, and there is almost no knowledge about this vehicle here in the island unless you pay excessive ammounts of money on the only Land Rover dealer on the island. I install the airs spring, the dunlop one, I cut the pipe and remove the screw connector and everything works fine, but when the compressor starts filling the air spring, the pressure in the bag spits out the pipe. I push the pipe fully in and it seems there is no way. I think I just done something incorrectly. If someone can explain to me what Im doing wrong, I will strongly appreciate it.
Thank You for your time.

after you push in completely the pipe pull it back suddenly to lock the connector...if it will come out not lock in IMO the push fit connector is defect

great thread, read through all 20 pages some great advice.

I have a small issue with my '03 reg TD5 disco2, sometimes when driving first time in a day or after being parked for a long time the back end feels loose and wobbly like i have a puncture then after a mile or two the feeling goes away and then the car feels fine with no ride problems for the rest of the day, also i've not detected any ride hight problems.

Any one got any idea's????

Hi All.

I asked this question in another thread, but it's probably more appropriate to ask it here so I hope I'm not breaching any site etiquette by asking the same question in different places.

I've got a 2001 TD5 with air suspension problems. Using the excellent advice and guidance on this site I was able to diagnose a leaking bag and a faulty sensor... and was able to effect a temporary repair to the sensor. So far, so good..........

I bought replacement sensors and bags, intending to replace them all... but the evening before I planned to fit them the system developed another fault, which has left me puzzled.

When I try to inflate the bags, the compressor appears to run, but switches itself off almost immediately. When I use Nanocom to inflate the bags, the compressor runs for about 5 seconds and then I get the message "Test Complete". This happens with both bags, including the good one, no matter how often I try it.

Readings across all three valves are 0.00V or 0.06V, whether the compressor is running or not. The reading across the relay is 0.20V.

None of this seems right to me. I've checked the fuse and the relay and they seem ok, but I know nothing about auto electrics.

Can someone offer me some guidance on a sequence of diagnostic tests I can carry out myself to try and identify the problem? Or should I just put the Disco on a low loader and transport it 30 miles to my nearest dealer?

Thanks.

Hello peeps,

If I missed the fix to my problem then apologies for this and boring everyone with a repeat question....

I don't appear to have any airbags at all. There is no level movement up or down, running or not running. The compressor works but nothing happens. The light comes on in the dash (no audio noise tho).

Where should I start?

V8ESD said:

Hello peeps,

If I missed the fix to my problem then apologies for this and boring everyone with a repeat question....

I don't appear to have any airbags at all. There is no level movement up or down, running or not running. The compressor works but nothing happens. The light comes on in the dash (no audio noise tho).

Where should I start?

Click to expand...

First I would suggest that you have a look underneath and see if the bags have been replaced with springs.

i have 2001 model it had air suspension one of them had a pin prick hole in it.
so i bought a conversion kit
it contains two heavy duty
spring. britpart do the kits

landynige said:

i have 2001 model it had air suspension one of them had a pin prick hole in it.
so i bought a conversion kit
it contains two heavy duty
spring. britpart do the kits

Click to expand...

and whats the verdict???

a lot better for the off road and green laning