L322 2004 suspension

I have an extremely, but hopefully temporary, bad back. This makes it very difficult to do anything on, in or under any vehicle.

On Tuesday, the car drove normally and the suspension seemed fine, but I noticed all the lights were out on the raise/lower switch. The dash lighting is another problem that I need to get round to, but shining a torch at it showed "Air suspension inactive".

On Wednesday, I broke out my trusty Chinese BMW Scanner (PA Soft 1.4), which told me about loads of faults, including "Articulation Plausibility" and "Activity Plausibility Front Right". At about this time, I heard the sound of the pump running briefly.

I reset the faults with the diagnostic tool, the inactive suspension notice disappeared and the lights came back on. I then switched the magic switch to "Lower" and it seemed to have lowered the car, but it didn't seem to want to raise again, sitting there with the flashing light still flashing.

On Thursday, I loaded the wife in and we went to Sainsbury's. The vehicle seemed to be at the same height as usual, and the raise/lower light was steady in the "normal" position. But, there seemed to be no suspension at all and every pothole or princess's pea that we drove over jarred my back and I returned home barely able to move.

I assume the car is on the bump stops, even though it seems the same height as usual.

Tomorrow I will try to reset again and pump it up a bit. Meanwhile, is it safe for the vehicle, if not for me, to drive short distances if I can't get suspension back, and does anyone think the PA Soft device 's suggestion of a front right sensor is something that should be trusted as the cause?

Apart from shaking you and the car to bits, it shouldn't cauca a problem at low speeds

Well, I went out and plugged the tester in at 6 am in the rain.

Raise/lower lights out. Tester said "Articulation Plausibility error", but not the right front error. Reset error and the raise/lower lights came on with light showing suspension normal height. Vehicle looked low. Set switch to "up" and it flashed the high light, then turned steady as normal. Even though I didn't feel anything rise, it now looked quite high.

Now after 3 outings, we definitely have suspension back, and it stays at the high setting irrespective of speed. I may take a chance and try getting it back to normal.

Not sure at the moment whether to take it to my normal repair man (good on Disco 1 and 2's) or the local specialist who have all the right diagnostics or even to wait till my back comes good and have an amateur poke around myself.

Only had this since August, and I would have preferred a basic automatic tow vehicle with simple engine and basic features, but non rotten ones were all too dear.

Any advice or legal suggestions gratefully received.