OK so I got some suspension bag O-rings and dod the rear drivers side as the car was drooping over night at that corner...... double checked and no bubles now at the joint so woohoo... all done!

Well not quite (it is British after all!)

I popped it up to high ride hight on Staurday evening and this morning came out to him leaning forward with the front drivers side drooping ride down!! The weird thing is that while I was doing the rear I popped off the front arch liner and squirted soapy water all over the bag top to ake sure it didn't need the o-rings doing too..... and there was no bubbling.

So am I just unlucky that the front o-rings have gone now the backs are OK? Hopefully it's not the air bag itself, although it is so slow (it's fine during the day if you drive it about) I'd be surprised if the bag itself was at fault?

When you are driving it around, it will constantly level itself so any leaks won't be apparent, it'll only drop when left parked. If you leave it parked overnight with the EAS timer relay removed (under the LH front seat and can be got at from the rear footwell) and it still drops, then you have a leak. With the relay in it wakes up every 4 hours or so and drops 3 corners to match the height of the lowest one so even if you only have one corner leaking, it'll still end up on the bumpstops. If you have no leaks at the air springs (although if they are over 5 years old (5 weeks if Britpart) it is quite likely they could do with being replaced anyway) or where the pipes go into the valve block, then it is likely that the valve block needs the O rings replacing.

Gilbert is right, its every 3 hours the suspension ecu wakes up and unless parked on DEAD LEVEL ground will think "great lets level this bump out" and lower, 3 hours later it will think it may have been in a mild earthquake and lower one side again, and again after 3 hours.........you get it.

Make sure that when you put her up and down again that the air bags did not "wrap over themselves" as this can be a common thing on non genuine bags when they get a bit older they lose shape and form, look at the bags, they should have a smooth appearance to them if not get them changed asap as you do not want to be stuck on bump stops, if you are going to change them fir dunlops DO NOT be tempted by saving a fiver.

Try the overnight test, if the car is in a safe place just leave a door on the catch if not either get under the passenger seat disconnect the relay lock up leave 9 hours and come back, if its dropped ya got a leak if not its just waking up and leveling, fix ? fit a complete new air ride system (dont go coils.Yuk ) or live with it like us all, if I park mine on the campsite where we go over night which is near level but a field you can actually watch it every 3 hours like its on drugs trying to level ! can be very funny.

Thanks guys. It only drops on that corner - all other corners stay up though - so it's not levelling itself off. When i popped it on full height and left it the next mornign it was right down on the drivers front and right up on the opposite corner! MOre due to the weight of the engine causing the rear end to raise a sthe fornt lowered I reckon. It was diagonally leaning!
The bags all 'look' good - I changed the rears a couple of years ago, and at some point the fornt look like they have been done as they look pretty good too. When it drops the air tank must empty too as it took almost 15 minutes before the front corner rose yesterday evening - indicating the pressure tank needed to fill first i think?

It's odd that it was the rear causing it previous to my new o-rings (or at least I think it was!) and now it's moved to the front? I'm baffled!

If I park her on a slope for longer period of time I help her by choosing access height when locking.
Is almost bumpstops and saves a lot of 'pst pst, tic tic tic'.

Just had a thought - for the last year or so I would randomly get an EAS fault while it was pumping up from a 'flat' morning - I'd pop the relay and fuse ou for the suspension, wait few minutes, pop back in and it woudl carry on OK. Could that have been the ride height sensor maybe flipping the error? Maybe it's just decided to give up the ghost after I fixed the back? Not sure how I check though?

5 years old (5 weeks if Britpart)

The new Dunlops I bought came in Britpart boxes...

Checking it is easy enough it you have a Nanocom or similar, if you don't you need one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RANGE-ROVER-MKII-MK2-P38a-EAS-AIR-SUSPENSION-DIAGNOSTIC-FAULT-CODE-RESET-UK-/122229266441 (and, if you don't have an old computer with a serial port, a USB to serial adapter too if you don't already have one). I would suspect you have a dodgy height sensor so it is constantly trying to get the height correct. It woulod be a hell of a leak to empty the reservoir overnight.

I've also had new Dunlops come in Britpart boxes, I think they supply their own knock offs but will supply the real thing if that's what you ask for. Their cheap versions only have a single O ring in them so hardly ever seal properly.

Is that the £49.99 !sland one's that are single o ring Br!tpart?

Gilbertd wrote:

I think they supply their own knock offs but will supply the real thing if that's what you ask for. Their cheap versions only have a single O ring in them so hardly ever seal properly.

No, the ones Island sell are Dunlop so are the decent ones (even at only 50 quid a corner), it's the aftermarket ones that are crap. Having just looked though, it looks like you'd have difficulty buying anything other than genuine Dunlop, even eBay sellers are flogging the real thing. Not sure where the pair I fitted to the rear of mine came from when I first got it, but I never did get the nearside one to seal properly and they were both worn out and leaking within 40,000 miles.

They are indeed Dunlop bags, with Dunlop stamped on both the rubber and plastic bits. But the boxes they come in and the safety and fitting leaflets are all branded Britpart.

gordonjcp wrote:

They are indeed Dunlop bags, with Dunlop stamped on both the rubber and plastic bits. But the boxes they come in and the safety and fitting leaflets are all branded Britpart.
a cx mate....had a few of them in fact my first car was a 2400 pallas c matic !

It's strange how we all seem to have gravitated to the P38. My first car was a Citroen Bijou, a Citroen UK designed and built plastic body on a 2CV floor and mechanics, that was followed by an ID19 Safari and after that a further 4 assorted DS models, culminating in a DS23EFi Pallas. All of them had the semi auto gearbox. Having watched the DS's rot away before my eyes, I went upmarket and bought a CX2000, followed by a CX2400 Safari only to discover that they rotted away just as quickly so went completely off piste with a Matra Bagheera.....

I've never quite recovered from the 'why buy something reliable when you can have something where making it to your destination is a bonus' mentality as I still own, just for the hell of it, a Maserati Biturbo Spider.

It is not strange people always were (and still are) attracted to Citroëns of the '50s and '60s, they were way ahead and daring in design which had it's own charm. Starting with the legendary Traction Avant, 2CV, ID/DS, CX and XM.
The suspension hydraulics, the one button brakepedal, the one spoke steeringwheel. They were just not that 'home mechanic' friendly, ever renewed frontpads? You had to dismantle half the front end.
My brother still has a CX diesel (2,5?) in his backyard with the separately bolted-on 5th gear, although spiders and other small livestock have taken over posession of it, I don't think it will ever move again on it's own power.
Oh and the drivers seat is missing, I 'borrowed' it in the late '80s for my 109" Santana Cazorla and never gave it back (shame).

Ferryman wrote:

It is not strange people always were (and still are) attracted to Citroëns of the '50s and '60s, they were way ahead and daring in design which had it's own charm. Starting with the legendary Traction Avant, 2CV, ID/DS, CX and XM.
The suspension hydraulics, the one button brakepedal, the one spoke steeringwheel. They were just not that 'home mechanic' friendly, ever renewed frontpads? You had to dismantle half the front end.
My brother still has a CX diesel (2,5?) in his backyard with the separately bolted-on 5th gear, although spiders and other small livestock have taken over posession of it, I don't think it will ever move again on it's own power.
Oh and the drivers seat is missing, I 'borrowed' it in the late '80s for my 109" Santana Cazorla and never gave it back (shame).

The suspension was so far advanced, under hard hard breaking the front end never dipped about or anything, I remember my dad driving at 90 mph with a flat rear tyre and me telling him that I were sure it was flat and him insisting that I were a child and did'nt know........50 mies later at the garage when he looked and found only a ring of black rubber on the rim did he start to agree with me !

I had an Athena which had a front blow out at 60 mph ( I do lots of miles ) and hardly felt it.

In Scotland in the snow it pulled where others would not.

I miss the old CX

They were just not that 'home mechanic' friendly, ever renewed frontpads? You had to dismantle half the front end.

On CXes - jack up, front wheel off, split the caliper, change pads, reassemble caliper, bleed front brakes.

On GSAs - remove spare wheel and heater cardboard tubes, split calipers, change pads, reassemble calipers, bleed front brakes. On RHD ones you needed a specially-bent 17mm spanner to reach one of the bolts.

On a DS it was a bit more complicated as the front brakes were inboard, but even then, a damn site easier than changing the handbrake pads on a Jag you just had to remove a few more bits to get to them.

I had a similar experience on the ID19. Drove for miles with a flat rear tyre and only realised when I could hear a strange noise while reversing with the window open.

Gilbertd wrote:

On a DS it was a bit more complicated as the front brakes were inboard, but even then, a damn site easier than changing the handbrake pads on a Jag you just had to remove a few more bits to get to them.

I had a similar experience on the ID19. Drove for miles with a flat rear tyre and only realised when I could hear a strange noise while reversing with the window open.

they were superb mate so safe shame about the rot on them, I spent 8 weeks doing all the body work on the Pallas when I were 16 years old.......................was that the Jag 4.2 with the marina box ! same on the Rover SDI a complete pain.

The GS and GSA had inboard front calipers, great for freaking out the spotty youths in Kwkft. It was not until I owned a GSA myself that I worked out what the funny bent 17mm spanner in my dad's old toolbox was for :-)

gordonjcp wrote:

The GS and GSA had inboard front calipers, great for freaking out the spotty youths in Kwkft. It was not until I owned a GSA myself that I worked out what the funny bent 17mm spanner in my dad's old toolbox was for :-)

Talking of Kwik con.........sorry Kwik Fit, I had my CX in to them for new rear discs when I were 17 years old, my dad with me, after the "free" safe check the guy told us that the shock abs were leaking !, he even showed us the fluid and sure enough it was hydraulic fluid......not green LM but dirty brown the stuff that errrrr .................comes out of shock abs ! well we strait away said to the guy " just fit em, whatever it needs " and he went away to get a price for us which did take about 25 minutes of ringing around, now, after having a number of CX's, BX's and even SM's (2) we knew the guy was up to a con here but we silently waiting even showing our concern......anyway the guy returned and told us that he had indeed had trouble finding a pair but success he had located a pair however they would not be there until the next day being French and such a rare car...........he continued to say that the car was unsafe and that he suggested that WE DO NOT DRIVE IT AWAY and leave it there until they had fitted them and even suggested that the spings were now past there best as due to having no help from the faulty absorbers !!!!!!
We asked to see the faulty parts and he showed us the leaking (non Citroen fluid) and said there you go, I have concerns ! my dad then said regards his concerns ! and said show me the springs the shocks the oil is green...you get the picture here.

A few years later i had a Senator CDi 24v which they did the pads and discs on and it would not stop, again my dad did not believe me so drove it himself and agreed.again I were right ! they had also broken the ABS sensors off and my dad rang the head office,,,,,,,,an hour later the phone rang, a voice on the other end of the phone asked to speak to Reg my dad and gave his name as Tom, I said dont know a Tom get lost ! he said Tom Farmer, Kwik fit ! true story he rang refunded the costs and paid Vauxhall to repair and re fit the car to spec as they had fitted the wrong pads !!!!