Interesting and timely this; my friend had an issue with his this weekend where the compressor was overheating but his car wouldn't lower. It won't be the same for yours but we can use some of the same troubleshooting steps.

I'm not sure how your exhaust mod would stop it overheating, the heat is generated by it running too long but anyway, that's not the focus now.

If the car isn't raising but it is is pumping air, it's got to be one of a couple of issues. The air is escaping or (like Ray's car) it doesn't know where it is currently. Easiest thing to do is to use the tools that are built into the car as it's a free test. Get your 4x4 info screen up on the stereo and see what it thinks is happening.

Apologies if you know all of this already but it might help someone else out and I think it's often overlooked info.

Forgive the dust on my screen and have a look at the pic below to see (that I can brag about how mine is working :) but also) what you are expecting to see.

Standard Height
View attachment 346413
This is a pictorial what the car "knows" so it's representative of the information it's makes decisions against.

For representation, I'll put a couple more pics here:

Off Road Height
View attachment 346414
You can see here that the centre line is above the wheel centres and that the wheel arches are depicted as being much higher.

Access Mode
View attachment 346415
Now the centre line is much lower and the wheel arches are only just above the tyre.

You might be thinking at this point "All very interesting but what am I doing with this info?" Well, here are a couple of pics from my friend's one:

Driver's Side Front
View attachment 346416
Sat at absolute full extension with the compressor running continuously and dead-heading itself with pressure then overheating, no matter what he did, it would NOT come down!

His 4x4 screen:
View attachment 346418
(Even more dust than mine)
Look at the OSF wheel in the pic, the car thinks that the wheel is buried in the arch lower than it needs to be even for Access Mode which means that it was pumping air into that corner like crazy to try and raise it to access height and level the car before it will lower the rest.

Simple enough, the height sensor arm had broken and the sensor was up making it think it was low and therefore trying to rectify an issue that didn't exist.

All that aside, it won't be the same issue for you but I'm trying to give you ideas on how to read the situation because people love to play 'Parts Darts' with these and sometimes the issue just isn't that bad. If you have the inverse of this and your car "thinks" it's raised on that corner, no matter what you do it won't level out. I like these tests because you can do them without getting dirty, worrying about the weather and you don't even need to be sober (as long as you're on private land).

This is the part where you tell me you have an early car without the screen :) You can use your diagnostic to get the voltages from the height sensors to work it out too but we'll cover that if we need to.
Had zero knowledge that there was this capability on the screen, thanks so much, will have a look today and see whats going onc extremely helpful, thanks!
 
Interesting and timely this; my friend had an issue with his this weekend where the compressor was overheating but his car wouldn't lower. It won't be the same for yours but we can use some of the same troubleshooting steps.

I'm not sure how your exhaust mod would stop it overheating, the heat is generated by it running too long but anyway, that's not the focus now.

If the car isn't raising but it is is pumping air, it's got to be one of a couple of issues. The air is escaping or (like Ray's car) it doesn't know where it is currently. Easiest thing to do is to use the tools that are built into the car as it's a free test. Get your 4x4 info screen up on the stereo and see what it thinks is happening.

Apologies if you know all of this already but it might help someone else out and I think it's often overlooked info.

Forgive the dust on my screen and have a look at the pic below to see (that I can brag about how mine is working :) but also) what you are expecting to see.

Standard Height
View attachment 346413
This is a pictorial what the car "knows" so it's representative of the information it's makes decisions against.

For representation, I'll put a couple more pics here:

Off Road Height
View attachment 346414
You can see here that the centre line is above the wheel centres and that the wheel arches are depicted as being much higher.

Access Mode
View attachment 346415
Now the centre line is much lower and the wheel arches are only just above the tyre.

You might be thinking at this point "All very interesting but what am I doing with this info?" Well, here are a couple of pics from my friend's one:

Driver's Side Front
View attachment 346416
Sat at absolute full extension with the compressor running continuously and dead-heading itself with pressure then overheating, no matter what he did, it would NOT come down!

His 4x4 screen:
View attachment 346418
(Even more dust than mine)
Look at the OSF wheel in the pic, the car thinks that the wheel is buried in the arch lower than it needs to be even for Access Mode which means that it was pumping air into that corner like crazy to try and raise it to access height and level the car before it will lower the rest.

Simple enough, the height sensor arm had broken and the sensor was up making it think it was low and therefore trying to rectify an issue that didn't exist.

All that aside, it won't be the same issue for you but I'm trying to give you ideas on how to read the situation because people love to play 'Parts Darts' with these and sometimes the issue just isn't that bad. If you have the inverse of this and your car "thinks" it's raised on that corner, no matter what you do it won't level out. I like these tests because you can do them without getting dirty, worrying about the weather and you don't even need to be sober (as long as you're on private land).

This is the part where you tell me you have an early car without the screen :) You can use your diagnostic to get the voltages from the height sensors to work it out too but we'll cover that if we need to.
So, I’ve been to look, and yes front right is flashing red and the line is lower than the wheel! See pic, that’s the corner that isn’t going up.
 

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This is good news I think. The car agrees with the situation by the look of it. The flashing red line is the one above the wheel (the arch height?), I'm not that familiar with the earlier screen so I'm just trying to get it clear in my mind. The rears are showing as being in line with the centre line for standard height which is good. The left front looks low too but not as bad as the right. Can you still hear the hissing? It's almost certainly going to be a split air bag, you're losing pressure across the valve block a little so the left side isn't pumping up fully either. You could try lifting the car with a jack a little just to take the weight off that corner slightly (to just about standard height so leave the wheel on the floor) and then it will allow you to get your ear nearer to the air bag.

It doesn't feel like you're going to need to soapy water for this but if you can spray it in there it will confirm it. I think Datatek has mentioned (perhaps in a different thread) they usually split where they roll inside so you can't always see the split itself, here's one of mine from recent times, when the wheel is on the floor, this bit goes up inside and seals against itself a bit.
IMG_4241.jpeg


I suppose a further test is to jack the front up so the wheel is off the floor and then try to achieve Off Road height with the rest of the car, all that will achieve is to possibly allow the split to become more visible/audible as you're listening right but the running engine. Obviously you need to exercise caution as it could pull itself off the jack.

Feels like we're zeroing in on the issue though.
 
Interesting and timely this; my friend had an issue with his this weekend where the compressor was overheating but his car wouldn't lower. It won't be the same for yours but we can use some of the same troubleshooting steps.

I'm not sure how your exhaust mod would stop it overheating, the heat is generated by it running too long but anyway, that's not the focus now.

If the car isn't raising but it is is pumping air, it's got to be one of a couple of issues. The air is escaping or (like Ray's car) it doesn't know where it is currently. Easiest thing to do is to use the tools that are built into the car as it's a free test. Get your 4x4 info screen up on the stereo and see what it thinks is happening.

Apologies if you know all of this already but it might help someone else out and I think it's often overlooked info.

Forgive the dust on my screen and have a look at the pic below to see (that I can brag about how mine is working :) but also) what you are expecting to see.

Standard Height
View attachment 346413
This is a pictorial what the car "knows" so it's representative of the information it's makes decisions against.

For representation, I'll put a couple more pics here:

Off Road Height
View attachment 346414
You can see here that the centre line is above the wheel centres and that the wheel arches are depicted as being much higher.

Access Mode
View attachment 346415
Now the centre line is much lower and the wheel arches are only just above the tyre.

You might be thinking at this point "All very interesting but what am I doing with this info?" Well, here are a couple of pics from my friend's one:

Driver's Side Front
View attachment 346416
Sat at absolute full extension with the compressor running continuously and dead-heading itself with pressure then overheating, no matter what he did, it would NOT come down!

His 4x4 screen:
View attachment 346418
(Even more dust than mine)
Look at the OSF wheel in the pic, the car thinks that the wheel is buried in the arch lower than it needs to be even for Access Mode which means that it was pumping air into that corner like crazy to try and raise it to access height and level the car before it will lower the rest.

Simple enough, the height sensor arm had broken and the sensor was up making it think it was low and therefore trying to rectify an issue that didn't exist.

All that aside, it won't be the same issue for you but I'm trying to give you ideas on how to read the situation because people love to play 'Parts Darts' with these and sometimes the issue just isn't that bad. If you have the inverse of this and your car "thinks" it's raised on that corner, no matter what you do it won't level out. I like these tests because you can do them without getting dirty, worrying about the weather and you don't even need to be sober (as long as you're on private land).

This is the part where you tell me you have an early car without the screen :) You can use your diagnostic to get the voltages from the height sensors to work it out too but we'll cover that if we need to.
So! With that screen and some sensor cleaning I got the wheel to rise, but could hear a hissing, and wasn’t going to the top, I could feel air coming out of the bottom of the cylinder (don’t know what else to call it, see the picture , have drawn on it. So the airbag seems fine, but not the strut or where the strut connects to the bag seems to have an issue.
 

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That's where the bag is supposed to seal to the strut itself. It has a set of O-Rings (3x for memory) and plastic spacers to create the seal. It looks as thought strut is fairly new by the condition of the paint there. I'd be inclined to just fit a new airbag, it's a pretty easy job on these. Ideally you'll do both air bags on the front but one will be ok to get you going. I've heard they can fail there but never experienced it myself.
 
That's where the bag is supposed to seal to the strut itself. It has a set of O-Rings (3x for memory) and plastic spacers to create the seal. It looks as thought strut is fairly new by the condition of the paint there. I'd be inclined to just fit a new airbag, it's a pretty easy job on these. Ideally you'll do both air bags on the front but one will be ok to get you going. I've heard they can fail there but never experienced it myself.
Ok, good to know, you think maybe I could just replace the O ring? And reseal?
 
That's where the bag is supposed to seal to the strut itself. It has a set of O-Rings (3x for memory) and plastic spacers to create the seal. It looks as thought strut is fairly new by the condition of the paint there. I'd be inclined to just fit a new airbag, it's a pretty easy job on these. Ideally you'll do both air bags on the front but one will be ok to get you going. I've heard they can fail there but never experienced it myself.
There seems to be this available.. worth a try? https://ebay.us/m/W662YN
 
Ok, good to know, you think maybe I could just replace the O ring? And reseal?
It's three large O rings and spacers which I'd be curious as to why it would even fail there and you'll have to go to the effort of stripping it completely to get to them. I'm not confident enough to say one way or the other whether or not these are the main seal or a sort of secondary seal but if it's the latter, then you have another issue with the bag. It may be as simple as someone has replaced the shock and either not used silicone lube when refitting the air bag or used a lune that has eaten away at the O rings.

What's the condition of the Airbag? It doesn't actually look too bad but the pics aren't a definitive. You also get new shock top mounts when you change them so it might not be much more money to do it with way.
https://maltings4x4store.co.uk/susp...suspension-bag-for-range-rover-l322-lr051700/

I'm on this site currently and about to order some replacement rear bags for mine as they're old and I think one is starting to leak ever so slightly, it sits about an inch lower on one side at the back overnight and the compressor runs a fair bit more than it should. 8 years/80k is what I'm told their service life is and I think mine are original LR units which is very good going.
 
It's three large O rings and spacers which I'd be curious as to why it would even fail there and you'll have to go to the effort of stripping it completely to get to them. I'm not confident enough to say one way or the other whether or not these are the main seal or a sort of secondary seal but if it's the latter, then you have another issue with the bag. It may be as simple as someone has replaced the shock and either not used silicone lube when refitting the air bag or used a lune that has eaten away at the O rings.

What's the condition of the Airbag? It doesn't actually look too bad but the pics aren't a definitive. You also get new shock top mounts when you change them so it might not be much more money to do it with way.
https://maltings4x4store.co.uk/susp...suspension-bag-for-range-rover-l322-lr051700/

I'm on this site currently and about to order some replacement rear bags for mine as they're old and I think one is starting to leak ever so slightly, it sits about an inch lower on one side at the back overnight and the compressor runs a fair bit more than it should. 8 years/80k is what I'm told their service life is and I think mine are original LR units which is very good going.
Yeah the bags look pretty good to be honest, no that old at all in person. I think I’ll get the shock out and give it a proper going over, might give the new O-rings a try, will see. Thanks for all the help.
 
You'll need a compressor to seat the bag on the seals when you put it back on, takes about 40-50psi I think. Probably good to have a lovely assistant around to hold the strut up while you pull the bag down at the base and inflate it a bit too. Doing them on your own isn't easy. I'm sure it can be done with practice.
 

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