Rangie failed the MoT in early June . . . for near side top and bottom ball joints. Having done many ball joints on many other vehicles in my time I googled up what was required to discover, as many of you already know, this is not a job for the faint hearted nor a job to be undertaken without the correct tools. The former issue was not a particular problem but, although I have an extensive tool set, the latter issue would necessitate procurement of the necessary puller and ‘cups’ which I do not possess and would never use again even if I acquired them!
This was going to be a job for the professionals so I enquired of the local Land Rover and 4x4 specialists to discover that this job, as Gilbert noted some posts above, also struck terror into the hearts of all of them, two of which wouldn’t entertain the job at all and the other two who declared they were so busy that they couldn’t get round to it for months!! I got the message!
Last year I had to go quite far afield to find an outfit that could do a full flush and refill of the auto gearbox, torque converter and ATF cooler so I tried them as they did a good job back them and seemed a decent outfit. Yes, they could do it in a few days time so off it went for this job and a re MoT.
I also picked up an advisory the previous year for corroded ‘ferrules’ on the front flexible brake hoses - I did inspect them and noted the ‘crud’ build up on them but it all cleaned off quite nicely and the underlying ‘ferrules’ were still pretty sound. They were not mentioned at this year’s MoT, however it did strike me that these rubber brake hoses were now 25 years old so it seemed sensible to get them all replaced noting that disconnecting them might also prove tricky particularly if some of the hard brake line to which they connected also had to be ‘replaced’. It was time for a brake fluid flush and replacement anyway so I added all that to the work sheet!
The time had also come to fit a replacement rear exhaust system. Many years ago (like 20 years) I procured a stainless steel replacement exhaust system with a lifetime guarantee. Now I have called on this guarantee three times so far, not for the main exhaust which has always remained sound but for the welds that join the sections which have cracked and separated. I have had a complete rear exhaust section in storage as the final chromed tail pipe welds had cracked but not come completely adrift . . . well not until a couple of weeks ago when the near side end tail pipe fell off! Would they consider fitting these customer supplied items for me. As they were not a safety related item (which they won’t do) they agreed to replace the rear exhaust sections while they were at it.
Finally, whilst re MoT ing they advised me that the front radius arm bushes were on the way out. Recognising they would probably need to be replaced before next year’s MoT anyway I also added that to the jobs list.
The result - they did a great job all round even though they had to get the oxy system out during the current heat wave to help persuade the ball joints out (as expected) and they told me they broke one set of pullers during said persuasion as well! Two sections of the hard brake lines at the rear also needed to be replaced. Rangie is now back to rude health although I do need to source some ‘reliable’ replacement height sensors for the next refurbishment session but as the EAS is currently behaving itself (famous last words) that can wait a bit!
I'm not convinced used original is the way to go - risk of frying pan and fire seems high!
Two further questions for those more knowledgeable than I:
The front height sensors are not handed so if they are swapped do they then 'wipe' a different part of the internal resistance track or is swapping fraught with other problems?
I have come across Aerosus who seem to be pretty comprehensive across the automotive air suspension spares supply who do have the front height sensors listed. Does anyone have any knowledge about this outfit and its products?
So, I have been switching heights up and down, and down and up, and up and down etc., etc. whilst watching the actual readings like the proverbial hawk. There are no glitches/jumps, it all looks smooth and progressive! I dare say I have now expired 50% of the compressor life!
I have been driving around with zero problems for the last few days as well.
I am now reduced to ‘gut feeling’ and I am ‘blaming’ the front near side height sensor as I once, some time ago, registered an out of range fault on that sensor and it seems to be the most jittery when I exit the vehicle and it attempts to re-level.
Next question - best place/make to procure a front height sensor?’
The saga continues . . .
I took Rangie to Dorset for a few days getaway. On a local journey the EAS faulted with quite a coarse rumbling sound but still had air in the bags so a swift stop and removal of the under seat control relay froze the system and enabled the trip to continue with no more rumbling and return home.
Cleared the fault (a non descriptive fault on NanoCom!), fired up the system and it was clear the compressor was in trouble. Swapped it out for spare (which still worked but had yet to refurbished) and normality was restored. Disassembled the compressor to find that it had broken the con rod. This is the second compressor that has done this, both having been refurbished a number of times. From this I conclude that the compressors only withstand a couple of rebuilds before they truly life expire. I bit the bullet and bought a new compressor and fitted it so I still have one to refurbish. All OK.
I have just returned from the Lake District after another getaway and half way home, over 1000 miles since the last EAS problem, the EAS hard faulted without any notice and immediately dropped onto the bump stops. I feared the new compressor had gone AWOL and had to nurse Rangie some 100 miles home on the bump stops - good job I replaced them all a few years ago! Anyway it was an ‘interesting’ journey and managed over 20mpg for that (or any) journey the first time ever. I thought the bump stops would be trashed but they remained in very good order!
I broke out the NanoCom again and, yet again, it just gave a non description of invalid fault or some such. I cleared it and the compressor fired up and filled the reservoir in a very short period of time so no compressor problem, indeed there must still have been air in the reservoir! The suspension went up and down on command and, in short, I cannot identify a problem. There appears to be no leaks and I have conducted a couple of journeys involving height changes including extended and lowering to access height and back up. It all seems to be working OK - I am perplexed to say the least.
I am beginning to suspect a dodgy height sensor - could that possibly be the cause? Any help appreciated.
Thanks for the info. Where might I find the EAS System Info document you speak of?
There are further clues in the RAVE Electrical Troubleshooting Manual under section S1 where it states:
" To compensate for any changes in load after parking (e.g. driver or passenger getting out), the EAS system will lower the vehicle to the height of the lowest corner after the last door is closed. Furthermore, if the vehicle should develop a lean due to temperature effects or air leakage whilst parked, the EAS system is automatically re-powered every few hours to allow limited corrections to the height to be achieved."
This explains the little dance it does when I exit the vehicle. I suppose it is feasible that the actual settings in the system are quite different at each corner to achieve the same actual suspension height and why the supposed lowest corner is not the lowest value in the system! I should get Nanocom out and check what the settings in the EAS at each corner actually are! The temperature effects could also explain why, with no leaks, it does regular little dances when parked - probably more common if the sun is out and warming up one side of the vehicle more than the other!
This damn system is far too clever for its own good!
Further update. Vehicle has not changed height for last 2.5 hrs. I unlocked the car, opened the door, shut it and re locked and . . . nothing, it didn’t do its little dance.
When I shut down the engine at the beginning of these ‘tests’ I waited until the air tank was fully charged and the compressor had shut off. To check the air tank I fired up the engine and checked the compressor but it didn’t run at all so I let it down to ‘access’ height then banged the EAS back up to ‘High’ height and up she went immediately so no problem with air tank pressure. I conclude from this that the air tank and associated air lines are leak free and that all the valve block solenoids are OK.
Back down to ‘access’ level and then to ‘standard’ height. All OK, compressor fired up, replenished the air tank and then shut off.
It all seems to be working but I still don’t understand why it does its ‘random’ little dance occasionally and why it doesn’t just adjust to the lowest corner level when it does!
I can’t believe the control unit has self modified its programming so it must be the height sensors, must it? Or is the programming not clever enough to deal with slopes where each corner is very different?
24 hrs later and the suspension has not moved one iota - not a single mm at any of the corners. From this I take it that neither the air bags nor the air lines to them have any leaks. It is not on level ground with a slight slope down from back to front (with the right sided sloping more) and a slight slope from left to right at the rear and a more significant slope from left to right at the front.
I unlocked the vehicle to retrieve a pair of sunglasses and on re-locking the EAS springs into action with the chattering of solenoids and exhaust noises and on completion of the exercise the right rear (which was previously the lowest) ends up 18mm lower, the right rear (which was the highest) 25mm lower, the right front has lowered 12mm and the left front lowered by 10mm!
I know from previous experience that if I leave it on level ground it sits nice and level and does not do any 'jigging' if it is unlocked/locked/opened/closed.
I cannot fathom this behaviour at all!
I have parked at different height settings and it's made no difference. Copious use of soapy water on air lines and air bags has not revealed anything.
I have decided to start with the front left air bag and have disconnected the air line from both the valve block and the air bag, cut a few mm off each end, applied the pencil sharpener treatment to both ends and reinstalled. It has now been left at 'high' for two hours and precise measurement of all four corners reveals absolutely no movement of the suspension . . . .so far! I'm not convinced it is sorted but I will leave it for the rest of the day and see if there is any movement.
Next step will be the same treatment for the front right before removing the valve block and giving both front solenoids a good going over.
Why the right front sensor possibly iffy? I think I understand the EAS operation but what is foxing me is that it is letting down the front left which is the one under most compression when on the downside of a slope (so should be lower than the front right). I exit the vehicle so, as expected, the right side suspension raises very slightly as my weight is taken off. Why then does it start to lower the left front as it should already be lower than the right front and continue to do so when any levelling has taken place and why does it stop its self levelling antics before the bump stops are reached?
The height reading via Nanocom all look OK when the vehicle is commanded to the various heights so I'm not seeing anything obviously iffy with any height sensor?
Strange one this. The EAS operates normally, or so I believe, but if I park on a slope with the left side of the vehicle lower than the right the EAS system seems to do its hourly assessment and lowers the left front suspension down a bit . . . each and every hour until it is at access height or thereabouts but never sets it all the way down onto the bump stops. It also then starts trying to level the rest of the vehicle on the hour, every hour but never lets the vehicle get down on the bump stops.
I'm convinced it's not a leak because a) it never does it if parked on the level - it remains as parked for days with n'er a movement in the suspension; b) you can hear the EAS controller operating the valve block when it does its wake up call lowering the vehicle; and c) it never does it if the right hand side is on the downsdie of a slope.
I am at a loss to explain it and can only think the front left height sensor must be playing tricks but when on the move it all operates correctly between the various ride heights!
Anyone able to shed light on this odd behaviour?
At long last the weather has been decent enough to resolve the minor bodywork issues I noted last September!!!
The nick on the offside wing mirror sanded back and, thankfully, didn’t require any filling but I now notice on close inspection a black mark in the paint from the wing mirror of the badly driven ‘white van’ that clashed with mine last year. All sanded back, undercoated, top coated and clear coated.
Minor corroding nick on the front passenger door dealt with. Thankfully the corrosion had not spread at all - these Range Rovers really do resist corrosion incredibly well - just removed the necessary very small bubbling area and noted that it had not penetrated to the metal at all so just required a bit of touch up and polishing.
Front offside bumper lower finisher required a bit of sanding back to plastic, undercoating, top coating and clear coating.
Minor scratch on rear bumper was only in the clear coat so just required a quick fill with top coat and sanding and quick spray of clear coat.
However, having had significant repair work on the rear arches it was apparent that some other less than careful parking motorist had opened their door onto the offside rear wheel arch. It obviously just touched as there was not dent but they managed to scrape about half inch of clear coat and top coat off. This required some light filling, sanding, undercoating, top coating and clear coating plus blending into the surrounding paintwork.
That completed the body work which is now all looking remarkably good for a 25 year old motor.
Finally, whilst replacing the rear brake pads I treated Rangie to a new pair of rear mudflaps which were beginning to look a little tired.
So, all now prepared for the holidaying season!
The brake light switch is connected to the ABS system and the BECM. As soon as you press the brake pedal, even lightly, pressure will be injected into the braking system and if the brake switch is not operating I assume the system will think the brakes have not been applied and therefore flag a fault and the ABS & Traction lamps will illuminate - The ABS system flags the fault but the BECM controls the lamps and the messages on the dash.
I have included the EAS valve block and compressor rebuild as a service item to be undertaken every three years. I acquired a spare valve block and compressor off eBay many years ago and routinely rebuild the spares at leisure as 'ready use spares' and then swap them out with the in-service ones which then become the spares for rebuild. I use the complete valve block and compressor rebuild kit by X8R (includes replacement diaphragm) also available on eBay and never had a problem with them.
I used an iPhone 15 and it worked seamlessly . . . apologies for the ‘bad news’!
On the strength of the posts here I procured one of these units - at £50 odd it seemed a gamble worth taking! I have just finished testing it with both cameras, Apple CarPlay etc and have to say that it’s quite a bargain. Straight out of the box the quality seems pretty good and the functionality spot on, once you’ve figured out how it works etc. The instructions accompanying the kit are pretty ‘thin’ to say the least.
Now the testing was completed with ‘jury rigged’ cabling and loose units. So onto the next phase of installing in as seamless way as possible. On this topic does anyone have any suggestions on how to mount the main unit to the dash top and how/where best to mount the rear facing camera?
Rangie has been in the body shop for the past couple of weeks to eradicate the more serious body defects:
Now I need to sort out other minor bodywork issues - minor nick on offside wing mirror housing, minor paint nick on front near side passenger door, cracks on radiator grill, minor bit of flaking paint on near side rear of the narrow lower front bumper trim.
Hopefully Rangie will then be OK for another 24 years . . . although I may not last that long!
It’s my fear - that aftermarket may be a bit ‘iffy’ but the price differential to OEM is massive.. I suppose I could procure three each of the aftermarket ones, which a) would still be a lot cheaper than a set of four OEM; and b) provide a spare for each in case any of them proves to be a dud.
I just wondered if anyone had had good or bad experience with any of the aftermarket ones.
Quick question - are any of the aftermarket suspension height sensors 'any good'? Recommendations?
Check earthing between engine and chassis and back to battery.
Get yourself a small 1/4” ratcheting ring spanner and the shortest cross head screwdriver bit you can find (the type that fits in hex drive handles). Lever lid out and you can just (and I mean ‘just’) get the combined spanner and bit in and on the screws. Ask me how I know!