Hi,

Just wondering if anyone else has encountered similar to the following, and if so, whether they found the fault?

Some time back I noticed front near side dipping by about 2-3" when going along flat road. If I put it to offroad position and back down it usually sorted it and both sides were then level.

This got worse, until the point came where it was apparent the air bag had a split and it was dipping down to the point where the rubber folded over enough to seal the split. At this point I put the dipping down to the split, so had both fronts replaced with OEM Delphis from Island 4x4 (currently £265 inc vat compared to LR ~ £450 for one!). Suspension was then recalibrated using Autologic.

However, same behaviour ensued.

Plugged it into autologic which showed that the left front corner was indeed lower than the right. Autologic diagnosed it as being the front solenoid valve RVK000040 (Wabco from Island4x4 £135 inc vat compared to LR £278 for exactly same unit!). This kind of made sense, thinking that the solenoid probably either had some dirt in it or had a damaged diaphragm, and it was cheaper to just replace at garage than get them charging me time to find the original was knackered anyway. Went for a drive, same thing happening!

Plugged in Autologic again, realised we'd caused a fault by not waiting the 16+ mins before it goes to sleep after turning off ignition before pulling pipes out, instead of using Autologic to depressurise it. Cleared the fault and it seemed ok. Dipped a bit but not as much and levelled again pretty soon after, and again when stopped on level ground. We had Autologic plugged in during test drive to get an idea of what was going on, even though it couldn't refresh instantly.

Said I'd monitor it and get back to garage, however it is now doing it again!

The thing I don't get is that the suspension ecu knows the relative height of the left front is lower than the right, but can't seem to do anything about it. We know the front valve is ok, along with the air bags as both are new. We know the front left height sensor is ok also due to no faults and the fact that it is returning accurate data.

To me it feels like there isn't actually enough pressure in the front air bags to get the high enough and to a balanced height both sides. However we know the pressure in the system is a healthy 11bar and the compressor works at a steady 50 degrees, so should be ok.

The car will also change height ok, although I would say it seems to take longer to get to off road setting, again suggesting a lack of pressure in the front due to more air needing to be pumped to get it up.

Other funny thing is that if I leave it for a short while parked on a flat surface, when I come back to it the left front is then noticably higher than the front right; that is the opposite to what I get when driving along.

The only thing I can think of now is that there is something wrong with the central valve arrangement that is resulting in a lack of pressure at the front, or that the ecu is playing silly [half shaft].

Is there anyone on this forum who has an intricate knowledge of this system, beyond what RAVE tells you, who might be able to shed some light on my predicament?

I've also got this on the LRO forum, in the hope I can reach said knowlegable bods who might be able to help.

Thanks very much,

Richard.

Are you sure the level sensors are working properly and sending the correct signals. They are around £20-£25 per corner and can go faulty

Hi,

yes, the sensors are working fine, as there are no faults showing on Autologic and we can see the relative ride heights of each corner, which tallies with what we are seeing. The values showing are right, its just that nothings being done by the ecu to rectify the identified issue with the front left.

thanks

Have you tried disconnecting the battery for 30 minutes?

We've recalibrated it using Autologic, which is the proper way to do so. Any issues in memory won't go away by disconnecting the battery, as its all stored in the eeprom.