Exploding Air Bag!

Today while driving we heard a loud vibration coming from under the passenger seat.

When we stopped, the car was listing and the offside rear suspension airbag was pumped up right to it's limit.

So we headed home knowing there was a problem, we stopped briefly
on the carpark at a Tesco garage to see if there was any settlement in ride height, but when i started the engine again there was an almighty bang as the air bag exploded and the body fell down onto the axle.
I limped it home on the bump stops.

F*** me it was a loud bang... Thank god we were not on the motorway... as it was scary enough at stand still and It's a good job i'm not a muslim and was not picking up someone from the airport!!!

Is it time to rip out the air system and fit a set of coils ?

Air or Coils? dunno...??

Has anyone fitted coils to a TD5 in replacement of a air springs or given one a lift kit?

I've seen this before, height sensor is the cause. It gave a wrong reading to the ecu and it thinks its on the bump stop and so pumps it up, it keeps pumping cos it still thinks the car hasn't risen, eventually the air spring expodes.

Replace the air spring and height sensor then have it calibrated, all will be well again.

Thanks, have now ordered new air bags and ride height sensors, hopefully no damage to the compressor...

This also happened to my Discovery last night (it's done 95,000) Is it generally advisable to replace the height sensor as well as the bags? Am about to search for replacement airbags online and obviously it would make sense to order sensor with them if necessary. I read on another thread that it's a good idea to replace the clips that hold the airbags too...
This was supposed to be a better year after head gasket lead to engine replacement last year... I hate driving anything else.

Dig said:

This also happened to my Discovery last night (it's done 95,000) Is it generally advisable to replace the height sensor as well as the bags? Am about to search for replacement airbags online and obviously it would make sense to order sensor with them if necessary. I read on another thread that it's a good idea to replace the clips that hold the airbags too...
This was supposed to be a better year after head gasket lead to engine replacement last year... I hate driving anything else.

Click to expand...

yep... all of the above.. an easy job!

it was a ride height sensor that failed, be carefull not to run the engine for any length of time as the compressor will be trying to inflate the broken bag.. you dont want to burn that out as well!!!

search on here you'll find instructions on how to do it..

Hi,
I read somewhere that if you DIY airbag replacement you still have to go to the LR stealer to get the height calibrated using textbook 4 . . is this correct, or is it a simple case of old bag out, new bag in ?

(I'm refering to the AIR bag, before anyone thinks about changing the Mrs !!)

disco_steve said:

Hi,
I read somewhere that if you DIY airbag replacement you still have to go to the LR stealer to get the height calibrated using textbook 4 . . is this correct, or is it a simple case of old bag out, new bag in ?

(I'm refering to the AIR bag, before anyone thinks about changing the Mrs !!)

Click to expand...

yes and no....

I spoke to the LR stealer when I did mine and was told that even after the calibration that it could be out by about an inch!!!

I cant believe for a second that LR would turn down a quick 80 bucks for pluging in a laptop and sticking a couple of blocks on the axle... based on that it's probably true??

I did think about opening up the mounting holes on the ride height sensor chassis mounts and just revolving the body of them a couple of degrees to calibrate them ... but never got around to it!