Just something to look out for. All air suspension equippped Defenders come with EDC (electronic dampening control). This "Magneride" technology developed by Delphi many years ago to allow electronic comtrol of shock absorber dampening. Mainly this tech has been used for on road stability and comfort. It incorporates a fluid that has metal in it. It is almost a solid gel consistency when no electricity is applied. The shock is then super firm. As current is applied the gel gets less viscosity (more liquid) and the shock becomes softer. This is a reactionary system that is controlled by an ecu and numerous sensors and inputs to determine optimal dampening. Starting with the Evoque, Land Rover decided to apply this tech to a 4wd vehicle. LR was able to adapt the tech to also aid in off road situations while still being much more utilized for on road dynamics. Very cool technology and does work very well!

JLR adoped this tech as part of the air suspension pack (one ecu does air and EDC) in the new Defender. The coil sprung Defenders do not have EDC. Issues are arising with the rear EDC shock absorbers. Namely 2.

1. The most common and prevalent issue has to do with the remote resovoir on the shock. The coil sprung trucks do not have the remote reservoir. It is breaking or falling off of the shock body. When this happens, all of that Magic fluid leaks out of the shock. Surprisingly, there is no warnings or error messages on the dash. The driver may notice the rear of the vehicle is softer and a bit bouncy. This has been reportedly happening on vehicles driven on or off road. This is very easy to spot by looking under the rear of the vehicle and inspecting the bottom of the shock. If it looks like this, it has failed


As you can see, it is not welded on very well and it seems some rust has set in.

2. The other failure has been that the shock shaft right at the upper mount will fail and break away. This will cause multiple warnings in the dash and will be accompanied by some loud banging as the loose shock shaft bangs against the mount and the body. Also, since there is a fault, the system goes into failsafe, which puts the other 3 shocks in full Hard setting! This makes the vehicle feel very unstable. The weak point of the shaft is the area where the wiring goes in thru the top of the shaft. The shaft has to be hollow to allow the wiring to go into the shock to make the magic happen. The wall of the hollow shaft is VERY thin especially where the threads for the nut are and where the electrical connector plugs in. Over time the metal fatigues and seemingly stretches until it fails. Here is a photo of the failed shaft


The mushroomed end of the shaft is due to the owner driving it home in this condition. Here is the consiqential damage to the shock mount

upon removing the oposite side shock we noticed that the shaft was pretty badly stretched but had not failed yet.

The EDC shock shaft is the same diameter as the coil sprung conventional shock, but the shaft is solid! I believe this could have been rectified with using a larger diameter shaft with thicker wall to compensate for it needing to be hollow. These shocks are out of a 2020 110 with 35k miles on it. It is heavily off roaded. Has 1 inch lift rods and 33 inch mud terrains. This failure seems to be more common with trucks that are used off road.

I believe there should be a JLR supercession to the parts to make this shock more durable. Being that is is EDC, it is difficult to replace with anything other than JLR. Note that the 2 shaft failures i have seen, the dealers did not warranty them since the vehicle was "modified". At $2700 a side, this can be a bit pricey. Needless to say, this owner opted for a set of aftermarket shocks until there is an updated part. A lot of money to just put back the same weak shocks. A reminder that you cant just unplug the shocks in the rear because the front will go rock hard. We had to do some manipulation to get the front shocks to stay functional.

Here is to hoping that JLR upgrades this shock soon!

 

is this on the new defender? it looks ancient shocks. as for the MRC, I have experienced use of it on my long term escalades and it last up to 80K miles. Yes, made by delphi now BWI chinese owned company. Even my 2013 RRS air shocks, I was shocked(no pun intended) that it is also a BWI brand!

 

Absolutely! 2020 d110. We worked on ot 1st hand.

 

SAREK:

Thanks so much for sharing this very useful information. I was unaware that JLR incorporated this particular Evoque-pioneered technology in the new Defender. I avoided it on my Evoque, as I was concerned it was a "bridge too far" for use on an off-road vehicle (and because it was an extremely expensive add-on).

I do hope that JLR addresses the design to harden it, as you suggest.

 

@insider This is the 3rd time I've heard reports of the little remote shock reservoir coming "un-welded" on a Defender, I can't speak to how modified vehicles with issues may / may not have been. So hopefully your team is aware?

 

I just hugged my coils.

 

When we are talking about modification, are we using that as a codeword for lift rods?

 

I suspect it was the lifted 110 that caravaned with him to SCARR '22 in Gilmer, Tx from RVa. If so, I think it was a true 2" lift. I'm sure Sarek will likely correct me. The rig was sweet and had been lovingly used like a Defender should. (THAT is a codeword for driven off-road in a proper manner). If the only bumps driven over are the speed bumps at the local mall (do people still go to malls?), then I'm sure there will be NO threat to the Defender. I think the point here is that these are driven like you would expect in almost every Defender advert out there (other than plummeting in reverse off of a cliff) and didn't hold up to mustard.

I still fondly recall all the first videos I saw of the Defender. JLR took a bunch of automotive journalists to Namibia in 3 or 4 of them for multi-day excursions. Each one had a different set of pics and videos. Imagine that kind of treatment on & off for a couple years and that's what led to the above pics looking "old". But way too early for that type of failure. Caveat: I'm not Sarek, just a fan of his work and I suspect the above based on me seeing him on this Forum & FB.

 

The reservoir in question is a piggyback remote reservoir that we use to increase oil volume in the shock. That helps it run cooler when subjected to sustained high intensity like washboard roads which drive up temperatures. As designed, it's actually quite durable and we tested it for many months over thousands of miles of brutal conditions. In fact, we sent many journalists on long cross-country trips in remote areas with no failures (aside from the occasional tire puncture).

I am unaware of any issues at this time with the reservoirs failing on vehicles that are operating as designed. That's not to say we couldn't have a run of shocks that were not manufactured properly by our partner OEM and thus failing, but we should be seeing this at the retailers in various countries. I'll keep an eye on it.

While I know people like to modify their vehicles and Im sure some were done carefully- some people cause more hard than good. I see that there is no picture of the missing reservoir. It would be helpful to know if it struck something or got caught on something (although that's fairly hard to do).

I would recommend that anyone intent on modifying their vehicle first check with their local retailer that it conforms to warranty policy. In some cases, retailers are willing to install lift rods themselves and therefore ensure the warranty remains in place.

Ultimately, this is a very overbuilt suspension (and brake system) that should be able to handle any reasonable off-road scenario a consumer can throw at it. The Defenders in the James Bond film ran the factory suspensions and we only added roll cages. If you're destroying the suspension on our new Defender you might want to question if you're using the right vehicle for the task at hand.

 

^^^^ @The Insider ^^^^ Epic picture!! Would LOVE a poster of this!!

Matt