My 2010 3.6’s handling has really gone off. The car now feels like a knackered pogo stick and is occasionally quite scary if driving on uneven surfaces at moderate speeds, developing a severe diagonal wallow if you know what I mean, as opposed to a straight fore and aft sort of thing.
I have replaced the compressor as that was not working, but although I now have full raising and lowering, the handling hasn’t changed at all. I assume at 142k miles the damping in the shocks has completely gone (No oil leaks evident though). Is there anything else I should be looking at? I thought maybe the airbags, but if they hold off-road height that would rule them out wouldn’t it? The car has adaptive damping control by the way, although it patently doesn’t work at the moment!
Assuming a set of shocks is needed, is that do-able without access to an IID tool? At least to the extent I could fit the parts then drive it to a garage to get diagnostic stuff done?

Mine (2007) was like that, I sold it and went back to the Disco. Graham

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Bad tyre maybe? Only needs one.

Worn-out shocks jump to my mind. Replacing them does not involve a diagnostic tool and is a home mechanic type of task. The rears are easy to change as they are external to the air-springs but the fronts more involved as they're inside the air-springs. You may want to change the complete front assemblies as the air-springs don't last forever.

Adaptive damping only softens the damping from the default maximum damping but if the shocks are worn-out then adaptive damping wont be trying to soften them.

Edit: It is possible that an accelerometer has become loose in its mountings but I would expect an adaptive dynamics plausibility fault. Remove the fuse in the rear panel for adaptive dynamics or remove the plug from the top of a front shock to disable adaptive dynamics then see if the suspension becomes very rigid (shocks are not worn out) or stays the same.

My front adaptive shocks were leaking into the airbags. Rolled and swallowed and when I split a bag and took it off the seals the oil poured out.

Now corners well with little roll. 2011 4.4tdv8 Vogue
Baltic Blue

If you have an IID tool it's worth calibrating the heights. Mine was way off when I bought it and recalibrating had a huge effect on the quality of the ride.

Graeme and Gaz, thank you! Some stuff to check now at least. By accelerometer do you mean the height sensor thingies or part thereof?

WB, what does that actually do? The car sits level more or less at the moment, or is it more how each shock reacts in relation to the others?

What i found on mine was that the height at each corner was out of spec (they should be from memory 493mm wheel center to arch at front and 483mm rear. Mine were all over the place - some high and some low and the result was a harsh ride. Worth a check as they can be corrected using the IID

MJ - Thanks for those, very helpful!

WB - Looks like I need to bite the bullet and get an IID tool.

@ 142k miles I would also think that there is a good chance that all your suspension rubber bushes are shot as well!

Do an MOT type test with a pry bar and check for any loose movement, clonk, free play etc. There should not be any.

This checking is the cheapest method.

(ooh, Jensen Interceptor, any pics? )

Best Rich L322 3.6 TDV8 Vogue. 07MY
ML 320 7 Seat full leather etc. (The Black Pearl)

My old 2002 was similar, with similar miles, I replaced the rear shocks and it was like buying a new car, you couldn't believe the difference...

Do all the calibration first, if it's still bad just try the rears, as has been said they are the easiest to do...  Pete
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2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

The other thing to check is the bushes on the rear. On my old XC90 and my brothers FFRR 5.0SC, the handling felt loose and it was the rear bushes (especially felt bad over drain covers and joins between tarmac on the road). Rob 05 L322 4.2SC
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Mini Cooper S Works 2006

A bit of an update on this.

The problem was primarily the rear shocks with contribution from worn control arms at the front. Replacing the shocks has resulted in a 95% improvement in handling! Replacing the control arms and the currently seized rear track arms will hopefully return the handling to it’s old self!

Thank you to all who contributed, very much appreciated!