Member Since: 11 Jan 2017
Location: Sheffield
Posts: 4
Suspension Fault - HELP!
Good evening,
As this is my first post, let me introduce myself. My name is Michael and recently my Mum purchased a 57 plate Discovery 3 SE 2.7 auto. I am a big petrolhead and have always been a member of the relevant forum for every car I've owned and have found them to be a huge help and hold a wealth of knowledge. I helped my Mum search for the right Disco for her and used this forum to look for common problems which brings me nicely onto the subject of this post.
When we first went to test drive the car she bought I knew from what I'd read on here that one of the more common problems was with the air suspension. 5 minutes into the drive and the amber light came on the dash with the error message reading "Suspension Fault - Normal Height Only". From reading up I knew that this would most likely be a compressor fault. Everything else with the car was perfect and it had a near full LR service history and came with 12 month warranty so we said providing they could fix the fault we would have the car.
My Mum collected the car 2 weeks later and they told her that it was just a faulty warning light and all was fine. When you turn the car on the light isn't on and you can raise and lower the car but after a mile or so of driving the light comes back on and gives the same error. She got the car home, I took it down to our friendly local LR specialist who looked over the car and diagnosed the problem as the air compressor and that it needed replacing. We returned it back to the garage we bought it from with the print out from the diagnostic check and told them to replace the compressor.
We left the car with them on Sunday, on Monday they said they'd ordered the wrong compressor (something about an upgraded one being available now?), Tuesday they'd got the right one (the 'updated' one) and fitted it and my Mum collected the car this evening and got the same light and error message as before! Also, the horn now doesn't work and we also have a black box on the car (for insurance) which has stopped registering journeys since they've had it which suggests whatever they've done, they haven't put it back together properly.
Does anyone have any ideas what they might have unplugged and not plugged back in? And if they have replaced the compressor would they have to clear the old fault codes to make it work? I've looked under the car and it doesn't look like the cover over the compressor has been touched - no screws disturbed and no fingerprints in the muck around the clips etc. which makes me question if they've done anything at all. Going back to our local LR specialist who have been a great help so far to see if they can get to the bottom of the problem but if anyone can contribute on here it would be a great help!
11th Jan 2017 10:19 pm
GK
Member Since: 04 Jan 2014
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 39
Hi Michael
Welcome to the forum. I would be a bit suspicious of any garage that said ignore the warning light - it probably wouldn't pass the MOT for a start. If you whip the cover off it should be pretty obvious if they've fitted a new compressor or not just from its condition, and I think I'm right in saying that the original ones were Hitachi and the upgraded ones are AMK.
11th Jan 2017 11:42 pm
Gareth Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26701
Thy should have upgraded the software too, if they have fitted the newer compressor. It's Easy to take the cover off and check.
Have you checked the horn fuse? Maybe blown and could be being used by the smart box.
11th Jan 2017 11:48 pm
Alphamale
Member Since: 28 May 2014
Location: Belfast
Posts: 496
One other thing to take note of is, if the original compressor was a Hitachi then an upgrade would require a new top and bottom cover. The Hitachi ones do not fit the AMKs. Additionally having fitted an AMK they would have to update the software for it to work properly.
Can't help with the other elec. problems.
12th Jan 2017 12:29 am
mikethemike
Member Since: 11 Jan 2017
Location: Sheffield
Posts: 4
GK wrote:
Hi Michael
Welcome to the forum. I would be a bit suspicious of any garage that said ignore the warning light - it probably wouldn't pass the MOT for a start. If you whip the cover off it should be pretty obvious if they've fitted a new compressor or not just from its condition, and I think I'm right in saying that the original ones were Hitachi and the upgraded ones are AMK.
Thanks GK, this is a big help, I will take the cover off today and inspect. They didn't say to ignore the light, they said that it was the light that was faulty and claimed to have fixed it without replacing the compressor at first. They also put it through an MOT before we picked it up so now I'm thinking if they passed it with that fault, what else did they pass it with!?
I'm sure if they've installed the new compressor but not updated the software that this is something our local LR specialist can solve for us. I will check the fuses today for the horn. Thanks for the help this far everyone!
12th Jan 2017 8:18 am
mikethemike
Member Since: 11 Jan 2017
Location: Sheffield
Posts: 4
Ok, so to update:
I took the compressor cover off and they have replaced the compressor and it is a newer AMK compressor. Car is booked in tomorrow to have the software updated.
The horn was a simple fuse issue, replaced the fuse, all is well again. Black box also recording journeys again.
Lastly, on a side note, a more intermittent fault we were having was the trio of HDC, Transmission and Park Brake fault which would lower the suspension to the bumpstops. I've just replaced the brake pedal switch and all seems well again so far. Took the old one apart and it's got the familiar black dust inside. Again, thanks to the help of this forum!
12th Jan 2017 2:06 pm
mikethemike
Member Since: 11 Jan 2017
Location: Sheffield
Posts: 4
Ok, update and final post on this (I hope!)
Took the car back down to our local LR specialist who took another look and said the air reservoir tank that the compressor fills has a hole in it, hence the old compressor burnt out trying to fill the tank. They're replacing the tank next week (£141 for parts and labour inc VAT, don't know if this is good?) at the expense of the garage we bought it from. No further faults since I replaced the brake pedal switch so I think we're all sorted now!
Thanks again, will stay active on here for future advice.
14th Jan 2017 11:02 pm
Disco_Mikey
Member Since: 29 May 2007
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Posts: 20731
Common issue, and a prime example of why diagnostics are so important. Not suggesting that the previous compressor wasn't at fault, but you would be surprised how many compressors get condemned without checking the rest of the system first My D3 Build Thread
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