LR3 Air Suspension Diagnosis

Silmarillion

Observer
After leaving it for a few days, I noticed that my 2006 LR3 required a pump up after starting. I watched some vids on how to diagnose it and took measurements. What are y'alls thoughts? Is this leakage worth some new struts or a replacement axle valve? There was measurable decrease in both front struts - does that mean the valve is a likely culprit? Even though it's not the same decrease? I was surprised the rear sank on the 2nd day...

I placed it in extended mode and removed the suspension fuse, then let the Disco 3 sit there.

7pm Fri 3pm Sat 7:30pm Sat Sun 10am Sun 4pm
Front Driver's: 21.75... 21 20.75 20 20
Front Pass: 21.75 21.75 21.5 20.95 20.75
Rear Drivers: 22.5 22 22 20.5 20.7
Rear Pass: 22.4 22.5 22.75 20.75 20.75

Just hit 110,000 miles! I LOVE this Rover. Bought it in Fall 2014 with about 78k miles.
 

Silmarillion

Observer
Sorry...that chart looked nicer before I posted!

To simplify -
Front Drivers - sank 1.75 inches between Fri evening and Sunday morning
Front Pass - sank 1 inch
Rear Drivers - Sank 2inches
Rear Pass - Sank 1.75 inches
 

amcjen

Member
I don’t have an answer to you question regarding the valve as culprit, but I have a 2005 LR3 and I replaced the compressor a couple years ago. It also leaks now in a similar amount over the course of a few days. Compressor turns on almost every time I first start it up if it’s been more than 48 hours. So it seems this age/mileage LR3 begins to show this symptom.

I’m budgeting for HD coil overs at this point. I too love my LR3 (SE with 18” wheels and the HD package) and I’m planning some pretty remote overlanding through most of Nevada. I don’t need an air suspension fault 80 miles from the nearest road!

Plan on keeping the compressor installed however, and tapping the tank to run an air line to the back of the vehicle near the towing electric plug to give some on-board air. Can’t remember where I first saw that but love the idea.

- Allison
 

johnsoax

Adventurer
My LR3 has sunk when parked for multiple days for 6 years now, since I brought it home from the LR Dealer.

I've had two issues with the air suspension in that time. 1. a control wire for the front valve block was broken (no clue how), had to rerun a wire, and it fixed it. 2. Currently getting a smattering of codes (C1A13-64 (2E) Pressure does not decrease when venting gallery, CA20-64 (AF) Pressure increases too slow when filling reservoir) that I purchased a compressor refresh kit for, and am hoping that will get rid of those..
 

rlynch356

Defyota
you have 3 valves in the LR3.. Each one costs about $150 (just an FYI)..

Leaking can be caused by any of the 3 - typically bleeding between the galleries, or the lines at any point but usually where the plug into the valves. On my truck i ended up replacing all 3 over time, the Mid-valve b/c it was getting a cross articulation failure (leak between front and rear valves in the valve gallery). The truck would drop over night, that was traced to a leak in the rear Valve input valve or gallery.
The front was replaced while troubleshooting another problem - pressure increase when system inactive - ultimately i traced that to a mis-hookup in the front valve (basically the Right front shock and the Input to the valve were reversed, which would cause a spike in the pressure when you hit a bump)..

anyway its all fixed - but without some codes its a guessing game only.

while your at it if you venture off road at all i would at least carry 2 of STC850G (air line couplers) https://www.jewellamberoil.com/sales/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=193 and some high pressure 6mm tubing and a line cutter.
generally its the line that fails or the bag itself
 

Silmarillion

Observer
Thanks for the thoughts y'all! I'm going to do the smart thing and ignore the problem for now...it doesn't seem to be leaking enough to replace the struts. It also doesn't seem to be dropping enough over night to be overly stressing the compressor.

Maybe it's just that I can't pin it to one specific thing based on the numbers...it's leaking at every corner, just very slowly. And there are no codes on the GAP tool.
 

TheSweetness

New member
I need to look into this now... '12 L322 and the over-night air leak is getting worse. One idea I read is to spray the potential sources with soapy water to highlight active leaks. I'll give this a try and report back.
 

A.J.M

Explorer
The issue with leaving it is it slowly kills the compressor.

I would go round the joins with soapy bubbles. It could be a simple leak in a valve block.

There are ways of giving the blocks a quick strip and clean up.

I have an 04 with 180,*** on it.
I replaced the air struts at 175 as I could tell they were tired. I’ve also swapped to the AMK compressor when the hitachi died.

I never bothered to refurbish mine. I also couldn’t get the brass collets out as they had seized in place. So I cut the pipe work to get it off.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
185,527
Messages
2,875,545
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top