Member Since: 27 Nov 2017
Location: Michigan
Posts: 7
Red suspension fault-sitting on bump stops
Well this is official my first post on here as a Disco3 owner, after wanting one of these for many many years! I wish it would be about something a little more positive lol, but I found a great deal on a 05 V8 SE that I couldn't pass up, the only exception is it has a suspension fault and is sitting on the bump stops.
When I purchased it, it was sitting on the bump stops, and I currently get a red suspension fault accompanied by a transmission fault and randomly a HDC fault as well, but not always. After doing much reading on here and another forum, I ended up replacing the brake light switch, checked all tail lights, and did as much of the "common" problems that I could find. Even after a hard reset and hooking the battery back up and starting it within the first 5 or so seconds it throws the red suspension fault and transmission fault, almost like there's no communication with the EAS ECU. I jumped the compressor relay, and the compressor runs just fine, and it eventually (took about 4 minutes) filled all corners EXCEPT for the rear drivers side. This leads me to believe either the bag itself has to be replaced or the valve block. This is where I'm stuck, because my first concern is that before we even get to a bag or valve block leak there still seems to be a communication issue if the system is faulting almost immediately after it's started. I know I can buy the scan tool for $500 or so, and of course take it to the dealer, but I'm decently mechanically inclined and a $500 is almost 1/4 of what I paid for this thing, so it's hard to couch up the money lol.
I've searched and searched for something similar but can't find anything that's exactly like my problem, hence why I'm posting here. I'm looking forward to getting it on the road, just need this problem corrected! Thanks in advance, and happy to be part of the family!
27th Nov 2017 7:49 pm
df_tom
Member Since: 09 Mar 2017
Location: Stuttgart
Posts: 127
1. Maybe she's in shippng mode - i.e. sitting on bump stops. Yo can get her out of this by doing a strange dance on pedals and with the key.
2. Mine sat on bump stops and gave me the errors a lot. Dancing (see 1) didn't help. What helped was to jack up the car a bit and then have itlift out of its own power.
Main culprit were homebrew height sensor connection rods. These were made so wrong, thatthe values they gave when sat on bump stops cnfused the electronics.
So, maybe check for the height sensor rod, maybe it's just missing or detached on the non-functional leg. You should be able to get air in and out of the air bladder by moving the detached height sensor arm. This way you should be able to check the valve block. BEWARE not to get SNATCHED Don't stick you arm in there, use some piece of plastic or cardboard, os a piece of string to move the arm.
27th Nov 2017 9:05 pm
Kosmo04
Member Since: 27 Nov 2017
Location: Michigan
Posts: 7
df_tom wrote:
1. Maybe she's in shippng mode - i.e. sitting on bump stops. Yo can get her out of this by doing a strange dance on pedals and with the key.
2. Mine sat on bump stops and gave me the errors a lot. Dancing (see 1) didn't help. What helped was to jack up the car a bit and then have itlift out of its own power.
Main culprit were homebrew height sensor connection rods. These were made so wrong, thatthe values they gave when sat on bump stops cnfused the electronics.
So, maybe check for the height sensor rod, maybe it's just missing or detached on the non-functional leg. You should be able to get air in and out of the air bladder by moving the detached height sensor arm. This way you should be able to check the valve block. BEWARE not to get SNATCHED Don't stick you arm in there, use some piece of plastic or cardboard, os a piece of string to move the arm.
Any easy way to get it out of shipping mode besides using the scan tool, or explain this dance??
I'll check the height sensor tonight, I ordered a backup rear air bag today on ebay in good shape for a whopping $45, so I'll keep that as a spare if I can diagnose it being something else. After reading a bit more though I'm worried about jumping the compressor because from what I'm hearing it will chew up the dryer, since you're essentially bypass most of the system. Not to mention since the EAS is hard faulting and not activating anything, I'm surprised the valves are filling the bags as it did for me the other night.
I'm now thinking I may start to check all the wiring on each valve block and the compressor, maybe I can get lucky and find something cut or corroded that's an easy fix.
28th Nov 2017 10:25 pm
Kosmo04
Member Since: 27 Nov 2017
Location: Michigan
Posts: 7
I noticed now that my drivers side front is now sagging compared to the other three two that were raised when I jumped the compressor the other day, so I possibly have a leak at the front left bag now too. The pump looks like it was recently replaced, but there's a line near the back of the pump thats coming from above the frame that looks like it should go to the compressor but it's capped off. Any idea what this is?
29th Nov 2017 7:01 pm
Kosmo04
Member Since: 27 Nov 2017
Location: Michigan
Posts: 7
Made some progress yesterday, which gave me some hope. I ran through as much wiring as I could possible see to ensure that there was not a cut/corroded wire causing my faults and came up empty handed. When I purchased it last week, the previous owner who was not mechanically inclined at all informed me that he had taken it many shops and they all told him it needed a new EAS ECU, and would run about $1,200-1,400. So going into this I knew I had some work cut out for me, but for the price I couldn't pass it up and can do most, if not all of the work myself. I had ordered a used EAS ECU off Ebay last week to see if that could be the cure, or at least see if it would change anything from the current faults I was getting to narrow my problem down a bit more. I did notice the other night that when you first turn the ignition on and all the "dummy light" go on that it illuminates all the controls on the center console, including the special programs and figured the suspension control SHOULD illuminate, even for just a second since I have the red fault, but it didn't. I checked all through the wiring and again no issues there. My Ebay ECU arrived a day earlier, yesterday, so I was able to install it, hooked the battery back up and bingo, just turning the ignition on and not starting it the suspension light was off and the selector illuminated! Now I have a fault on the new EAS ECU that pops up about 5 seconds after starting it since it's not the original and needs to be calibrated, but I think this solved the issue.
So the big question is now, I believe the EAS ECU is coded to each car, can I just get away with just recalibrating the new ECU, or does the LR dealer need to go in there and recode the new ECU to the truck? There's a European shop around the corner from me who can do the recalibration, but they were not sure they if that would clear the fault because they believe it needs to be coded to the truck. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?
Last edited by Kosmo04 on 1st Dec 2017 9:59 pm. Edited 2 times in total
1st Dec 2017 4:59 pm
Mole734
Member Since: 12 Aug 2016
Location: Derbyshire
Posts: 161
You need the codes to have any hope of getting to the bottom of this. Do yourself a favour and get a IID tool. This will allow you to do codes plus programming plus suspension recalibration when you finally get it running.
1st Dec 2017 9:39 pm
df_tom
Member Since: 09 Mar 2017
Location: Stuttgart
Posts: 127
IID is a must have now. Just factor it into your purchase budget. No Disco is complete without it.Reading Fault codes, changing config, adjusting the suspension, all calls for a diagnostic tool.
2nd Dec 2017 8:22 am
Samson66
Member Since: 17 Sep 2016
Location: Peterborough
Posts: 99
This is why I dumped my air and went coils Air is nothing but trouble and is it worth the pain of trying to diagnose whats wrong.iiD Bluetooth Diagnostic Tool
Cambs GLASS Rep
!970 Petrol 109 "Samson"
1972 Diesel 88 No top half body "rat landy"
1988 110 V8 Defender
1995 300TDI Discovery Auto
1997 Camel Trophy 110 Support Vehicle P232KAC
2001 Freelander GS V6
2nd Dec 2017 1:10 pm
df_tom
Member Since: 09 Mar 2017
Location: Stuttgart
Posts: 127
Well, you need the IID for the rest of the car as well. Otherwise you should dump the terrain response, direct injection, cruise control, electronically controlled turbo and variable lock centre diff. Go back to mechanical injection and mechanical diff lock, in other words: 2.5 NAD Defender. That one will run without a battery if needed.
On a more serious note: The Air Spring controller is linked into the Electronic Stability Programme, Terrain Response Electronics and most possibly the ABS. How do they cope with not being able to controll roll? Is the car still safe to operate after taking away those vital actuators?
And, if you take out the air springs, how do you de-activate the EAS controller? don't you need an IID for that as well?
2nd Dec 2017 1:38 pm
Samson66
Member Since: 17 Sep 2016
Location: Peterborough
Posts: 99
I have a modified ECU that allows all the terrain functions to still operate, Traction control still works. Stability is not controlled by air its controlled by shock absorbers spring rate ARB bushes and tyre pressure. I have very little and certainly less body roll than before.
So what your saying is the entry level D3 is not safe to drive, this had the only option of coil over suspension !!! please do your research before you bore me with such cynical comments you obviously know nothing about the function of suspension iiD Bluetooth Diagnostic Tool
Cambs GLASS Rep
!970 Petrol 109 "Samson"
1972 Diesel 88 No top half body "rat landy"
1988 110 V8 Defender
1995 300TDI Discovery Auto
1997 Camel Trophy 110 Support Vehicle P232KAC
2001 Freelander GS V6
3rd Dec 2017 9:20 am
df_tom
Member Since: 09 Mar 2017
Location: Stuttgart
Posts: 127
Kosmo:
Luftfederung aus dem drucklosen Zustand befreien
Zündung ein, Motor aus.
Zündung aus.
Schalter für Heben einmal betätigen.
Schalter für Senken einmal betätigen.
Zündung ein, Motor aus.
Zündung ein, Motor ein.
Schalter für Heben zweimal betätigen.
Schalter für Senken zweimal betätigen.
Schalter für Heben einmal betätigen.
"choreography" to get vehicle up from depressurized state:
Ign. on - engine off
ign. off
toggle raise vehicle once
toggle loewr once
Ign. on - engine off
ign. off
toggle raise twice
toggle lower twice
toggle raise.
transport mode can only be done and undone with diag unit, so it's probably not activated.
if your height sensor connectors are far off (fitted twisted, homebrew/ altered connector rods), sometimes it might help to jack the car up to access height, and then have it pick itself up from there.
It certainly helps to be able to read the error codes and state of the system, though. IID or nanocom, i have the latter, but should have bought the first.
And to samson: Well, obviously i just like to push buttons from time to time. That's why I bought the D3.
3rd Dec 2017 1:30 pm
Kosmo04
Member Since: 27 Nov 2017
Location: Michigan
Posts: 7
Well I thought I would update everyone on this, since I ended up buying an IID tool, and it is off the bump stops and drivable now. It has helped me isolate what seems to be a bad AMK compressor, due to a constant C1A13 fault that is reoccurring even after clearing the code and updating the firmware for the AMK.
I've searched through many topics on this forum and others and I seemed to keep tracing it back to the compressor now. Hopefully I will be able to get it warrantied through Arnott, even though I didn't purchase it, the previous owner did.
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