Had the dreaded Air Suspension Inacvtive, HDC Inactive along with ABS lamp, DSC lamp, and Brake Warning lamp all illuminated on the FFRR. I took the vehicle to an indie who did a reset and I was told it was 'sorted' only for the dashboard to light up a couple of miles down the road.
I found E.S. Alternators by chance whilst surfing for alternator repairs in Glasgow and called them on Tuesday. They took the vehicle in straight away and after a reset decided it needed further investigation. I collected the FFRR today and it is all working perfectly once again. Jason the electrician spent time with me explaining what he had done and how the ABS DSC etc are all linked and how one affects the other, so even if the suspension locks out, it might not be a suspension fault. The service was first class and very professional without ripping the ar5e out of the bill and I have no hesitation in recommending them to anyone who has problems with their FFRR. 10/10


E.S. Alternators

If these are the guys in Kirkintilloch, I tried them once about some coding and they told me that the S/W they had on their laptop(s) wasn't up to date enough for my MY2007 car, so unless they've updated them, they couldn't do anything for me sadly.
They didn't seem that concerned about getting updates to help me out...........  Got - 2017 SDV8 Autobiography in Loire Blue
Had- 2008 TDV8 Vogue SE in Java black
Had - 2007 S/C in Stornoway Grey

Speaking with them yesterday they told me they have been on a number of LR courses recently, and had new software, what software I'm unsure but always worth asking. I certainly found them to be more than helpful

What did they tell you about the fault? I have the same problem at the moment - always comes on when on the motorway after a couple of minutes. I can reset myself and having read the fault codes I think in my case the steering angle sensor may be playing up, but I'm interested to see if the cause of mine could be the the same as yours and therefore what I would need to investigate to determine whether that is the case.

Bit of a long one this.............

My original problem was I scrubbed both rear tyres in 6000 miles and before having the geometry done I decided that the best course of action would be to renew the rose bushes and anything else that might be causing the FFRR to scrub the tread off in a short space of time

I had changed the rear lower bushes (2 large) rose bushes (2 small) and 2 rear track arms on the FFRR marking each cam bolt before removal, after rebuilding it I took it to McConechy's to have the geometry re-set and they made a right hash of it, rounding the cam bolts and leaving them loose. I complained and they were not very helpful, they did eventually ask me to bring it back in and they would redo the geometry, but rather than take it back to them I decided to fit new bolts and take it to a Pro-Grip in Larbert who have a great reputation.

I booked it into Progrip in Larbert but when I left home to go there my warnings came on and the FFRR was leaning to one side and John at Pro-Grip said it had to be level before he could do the geometry. I then took it to a LR indie who cleared the faults and sent me on my way but as soon as I left them the lights came on again.I called them up and booked it in again for the following week.

All I could have disturbed by changing the bolts was either an ABS sensor or height sensor and as one of the rear level sensors was perished to the point of almost broken in two at the bottom rubber where it connects to the wishbone I felt I should change them both before I have any more work done so two new rear level sensors fitted. A week later I took the FFRR to the indie and left it for the day, apparently they required it for a full day to diagnose and repair the fault(s). When I collected it he said it was fixed, all it required was to clear the faults and reset it now that new sensors were fitted, sadly though a mile along the road the warnings came on again. so obviously I still had a problem. My mate who was following me in his car said it was leaning like the Tower of Pizza, much worse than before.

I went round to John at Pro-Grip and spoke with him and a mechanic friend of his who used to work on these vehicles had a look underneath and told me he noticed a potential problem. There were two different height sensors fitted to the front and advised me to change them as it could throw the heights out. Sure enough one of the sensors was a BMW part which was about 0.5" shorter than the original one, so both front sensors have now also been changed.

My problem now was I was caught in a catch22 situation, I couldn't get the vehicle levelled off until the fault was found and repaired and I couldn't have the geometry done until I had the vehicle level. By chance I found A.E. Alternators at Kirkintilloch and spoke with Brian who said they could look at it that day, they cleared the faults and took it a test drive, but the problem was still there, so I left it with them for a couple of days. Jason the LR electrician spent a couple of hours going through everything and eventually managed to level the vehicle. When I collected it to take it and have the geometry set he told me the warning lights would come on again, to take the vehicle to Pro-Grip and then back to them for a final clearing of the faults.

Sure enough as soon as I drove out of AE Alternators the warning lights flashed up, but the suspension felt smoother than it had ever done before now that the four corners were level for the first time since I owned the vehicle. Pro-Grip set the rear geometry which when done realigned the steering wheel to zero without adjusting the front tracking. (it's rather weird that a couple of cam bolts in the wrong position on the rear suspension can throw the steering wheel out by 21 degrees) The tolerance before a fault shows up is 15 degrees so I was well outside these parameters with mine. When I left Pro-Grip there were no faults showing up, I then went back to Jason who cleared the same faults as before and everything has been fine since

If McConechy's had done the job properly in the first place I possibly would never have had a fault, but then I would never have bothered having the vehicle levelled off and I would never have changed the almost broken rear sensor and I would never have known the front sensor was the wrong one.......

What Jason told me was that just because you have an 'Air Suspension Inactive' fault showing up it doesn't always mean the air suspension is at faulty. The air suspension is linked into speed sensors which come from the ABS, so it could be an ABS fault, a speed sensor fault, an ECU fault for either the ABS, speed sensor or the air suspension, they are all linked and when one goes tits up they all start flashing on the dash. The cause of my fault was the steering angle sensor was reading the steering wheel was 21 degrees out because the rear suspension was out....

Hope this makes sense

Ric, is your steering wheel sitting dead centre when driving in a straight line?

47p2 wrote:

What Jason told me was that just because you have an 'Air Suspension Inactive' fault showing up it doesn't always mean the air suspension is at faulty. The air suspension is linked into speed sensors which come from the ABS, so it could be an ABS fault, a speed sensor fault, an ECU fault for either the ABS, speed sensor or the air suspension, they are all linked and when one goes tits up they all start flashing on the dash. The cause of my fault was the steering angle sensor was reading the steering wheel was 21 degrees out because the rear suspension was out....

Hope this makes sense

Ric, is your steering wheel sitting dead centre when driving in a straight line?

Can you not take it to an indie who has the equipment to read the angles of the steering sensor, they can be re-calibrated but only within certain parameters. I was told if the steering wheel had been removed and not put back on in the same position it can throw the sensor out, also a faulty rotary coupler behind the steering wheel can cause the steering angle fault, there are so many things that can be the cause. The can bus fault could be relating to almost anything and possibly nothing to do with your fault. Mine was showing a can bus fault but was nothing to do with the problem. Your problem sounds similar to what I had, I thought mine was speed related and have read that the ABS sensors sometimes send false readings to the ECU when travelling but show no faults when tested, something else to look into. The sensors are not expensive, around £20 a corner.

You say your steering wheel is only 2 or 3 degrees out, can you post up a picture of where it sits when you are driving in a straight line?

Does the RAC read the ABS sensors?

47p2 wrote:

Can you not take it to an indie who has the equipment to read the angles of the steering sensor, they can be re-calibrated but only within certain parameters. I was told if the steering wheel had been removed and not put back on in the same position it can throw the sensor out, also a faulty rotary coupler behind the steering wheel can cause the steering angle fault, there are so many things that can be the cause. The can bus fault could be relating to almost anything and possibly nothing to do with your fault. Mine was showing a can bus fault but was nothing to do with the problem. Your problem sounds similar to what I had, I thought mine was speed related and have read that the ABS sensors sometimes send false readings to the ECU when travelling but show no faults when tested, something else to look into. The sensors are not expensive, around £20 a corner.

You say your steering wheel is only 2 or 3 degrees out, can you post up a picture of where it sits when you are driving in a straight line?

Does the RAC read the ABS sensors?