TMR
Member Since: 07 May 2016
Location: Canuckistan
Posts: 1
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| LR3 Suspension troubleshooting - stiff and bumpy ride |
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Hi All,
Been doing a lot of reading and trying to determine if I'm going crazy or not. I have taken the car to 2x local independent shops and everything is supposedly fine, however I've found that the car is riding extremely harsh over small bumps and feels as if there is an overabundance of high-speed dampening (high frequency, NOT high vehicle speed). Outside of this, no codes on IID and no lights on the dash. The car has had the LCA bushings replaced with polysport bushings, new front and rear swaybar bushings replaced with polysports, new ball joints, new steering rack, new sway bar end links, and a new AMK compressor recently installed. All the clunking from before has been eliminated.
The car rides well on the highway and soaks up round edged bumps and has some semblance of the 'magic carpet ride' on low-speed dampening. The car raises and lowers no problem, articulates well on offset rolling bumps, and handles 'tight'. The only issue I have is that the car seems to transmit all small bumps - I feel every single expansion joint, railway joint, small bump, and even crosswalk lines. Going over corrugated pavement at lower speeds seems to result in very little compliance. Tires are Pirelli scorpion with plenty of tread, stock 19" sizing. I've played with tire pressures: recommended, lower, higher, etc... to no avail.
And so here is my question - is this how the car should handle and ride? I've never driven an LR3 other than mine and I bought it prior to changing all the aforementioned components. Is this just a quality of the air suspension, or could it be something else? Clogged valve blocks? Worn shocks? The car only has just over 100k miles (170k km's) on it and so I question whether or not the shocks could be worn so quickly. The awesome indy shop I work with says that the car rides well, and that the stiffness that I'm experiencing could be a result of acclimating to the new components, or could be caused by the poly bushings. I understand their point however prior to this LR3, I played with sports cars, many of which utilized poly bushings or heim joints; though stiff, these cars were always able to control and provide compliance in both high/low speed compression. Likewise, I've had SUV's in the past and they never rode this harsh on small bumps. I recognize that this could all be a product of my possibly unrealistic expectations, but my memory of the LR3 when I first purchased it was that it was like driving a soft couch - albeit well controlled without excessive oscillation. Would love all your thoughts and opinions to help troubleshoot, thank you for your time.
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 3rd Feb 2018 5:53 pm |
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kajtzu
Member Since: 10 Aug 2017
Location: Helsinki
Posts: 6778
  
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D3 ride should be very smooth and comfortable. I had a D4 previously and it felt great to drive.
Neither wallow around like a big tub such as a Chevrolet Caprice or Lincoln Towncar.. I assume you know how they behave since you’re from Canada.
My first guess would have been the polybushes, too, some of which have a reputation of being quite hard.
I recently got rid of clunking front and back with by replacing old LR ARB bushes. I did look at various poly but couldn’t figure out whether they’re useful or not so I went with originals again. So far I’ve been really pleased with how it behaves now.
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| 3rd Feb 2018 6:10 pm |
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