Suspension air bag seems stuck

I have bought a new air bag for the rear suspension. I have the the wheel off and the top part of the air bag is loose. The bottom part seems well stuck. It should just turn a quarter of a turn and lift out but I can't move it at all. I would be grateful for any ideas.

Give the plastic part of it a good tap all round, it will just be stuck on.
If your replacing the bags, doesn't matter if you burst it.
The top is usually held on with 2 clips but these are usually well corroded.

I gave it a few bangs and it has come out and left a piece snapped off in the rust. See pictures. It looks like it was never going to come out easily. Not sure what to do next. I suppose clear away as much of the rust as possible and try and dig out the plastic. Is this starting to look bad? Thanks.

Not really - can you not just tap the plastic down and then slide out from underneath, failing that malky the plastic till it breaks up enough to dig out.
The Metal is fairly substantial in that area, bit of lubrication won't hurt either

I got it fitted in the end, but the suspension still isn't right. That airbag on the drivers side was flat but the one on the passenger side wasn't totally flat. The back end is still low and trying to raise the height with the suspension button doesn't work. Too late to investigate tonight but I will have a look tomorrow to see if the compressor is running at all. Thanks for your help.

You may need to raise the body slightly using a jack.

Cheers

Make sure all the doors and boot are closed or the suspension won't kick in and as neilly says try jacking it up a bit to assist.
Did you unplug the sensors at all, because if you did with the power still connected you may have to calibrate the SLS.
It would be worth checking the sensors are fit for purpose as the rubber perishes over time and the bottom of them connected the the
rear arms degrade over time

Thanks for the replies I will check in the morning.

I have taken the cover off the compressor and got my wife to start the engine with the doors closed. Couldn't feel any signs of life from the compressor or vibrations with my hand on it. Therr are a couple of clicking sounds when the engine is turned off which I am guessing might be valve solenoids. I have ordered a used compressor from ebay. Should I order a filter insert for the filter line? I have seen one for £6.99 on ebay whereas the lines are £40 - £50. I have sprayed some penetrating oil on the rusty bolts holding the compressor case on. I checked fuses and fuseable links and found all ok apart from headlight sprinkler. Yay, that is now working. I didn't even realise it wasn't working. I will change the other airbag at the same time as the compressor, as I bought a pair.

If all this fails, I might have to go down the road of sticking coil springs on. Can you tow with coil springs? How much do dealers charge to reprogram the system? Can you do this with Hawkeye or Lynx ( or even Foxwell nt510 )?
Thanks
Brian

Hi Brian,

Did you try jacking the rear end up?

Cheers

As @neilly has said, try jacking the rear of the body, under say, the towbar. Sometimes the air suspension need a bit of a "kick" to get it to work again. What you're actually doing is bringing the ride height sensors back into their working range.
If you haven't disconnected the ride height sensors without first disconnecting the battery there should be no requirement to recalibrate the system.
Hawkeye and Lynx should be able to signal the compressor to start it working, but frankly, I wouldn't hold out much hope for the Foxwell device, even though their sales sheets say it's for a Land Rover, they probably mean those manufactured after June 2004 for diesels but petrol Discos were OBDII compliant some time earlier.
The "windy springs" system is a fairly easy system to understand and therefore repair. The distance between the axle and the body, the "ride height" is constantly monitored by the ride height sensors, one at each end of the rear axle. The output from these sensors is compared to the stored value inside the SLABS ECU and when a difference is found a signal is then sent to the compressor to either inflate or deflate the appropriate airbag spring to bring the sensor output back into specification. The usual troubles lie either with the airbags leaking or the ride height sensors breaking. The compressor is often way down the list of SLS problems.

I have just jacked it up to varying heights and tried switching the engine on. There is now an amber suspension fault warning light on and a funny smell. Checked fuses and all seems fine there. The ride height sensors looked alright when I looked at them last night.

Thanks

I had a problem a few months ago where the rear dropped on one side and wouldn't come back up. Took it to my local specialist and he put his Testbook on it. Problem turned out to be ride height sensors - they were showing the height as being up when it was right down. So the system did the right thing and left it there. My specialist used Testbook to override the sensors and was able to raise the suspension to prove the pump was OK. In the end we replaced both sensors.

As an aside, I had to drive the vehicle to him with one side down on the bump stop. The handling was "interesting" to say the least, the back end felt extremely vague and even tiny bumps knocked the car off line.

Cheers!
Graham

I did mention the sensors in Post #7 and to be honest would have started there before replacing anything else as they are the cheapest and due to be exposed to all sorts of road muck do deteriorate over time. Doesn't take long to replace them a long as the power is disconnected first.

Perhaps I will treat it to a pair of sensors. I might as well. Are the cheaper aftermarket ones from ebay ok?

If you do, make sure you put them on the right way around. They are not handed so can be used on either side.

Have come across someone who had changed one, wondered why the car would not raise. Sensor was showing max position on the nanocom so would not raise because it was actually reversed.

Edit: make sure you disconnect the battery before disconnecting the sensor. and be careful with the sensor connectors they get fragile.

Cheers