I appreciate the info and response. The reason the resovoir is not pictured is because it fell off during a trip from texas to virginia. No way to tell how or where it is. If welds fail before the metal that is welded fails, then the welds are not good quality. The fact that there is no sheared metal left on the shock absorber body and there is evidence of rust showes that the likely culprit is a manufacturing issue. I am by no means surprised, but you and i know that the final quality control process is the customer. Manufacturers know that they can not test everything for long periods of time. JLR built a fantastic defender and i applaud all of the hard work that went into this. I know they have been tested. I was a dealer technician for many years and we were aware that the manufacturer wanted "pink sheets" on new release vehicles to fix or update potential problem components or situations. Then they release service bulletins to correct on a customer complaint basis. So the idea that this situation has to be related to using the vehicle outside its design limits or can only happen to a modified vehicle is a bit of a stretch. And asking a local retailer if an aftermarket modification voids a warranty is also a bit of a stretch. Generally most dealers will tell you that any of these aftermarket mods void warranties. Also they will tell customers that letting an independent shop work on these vehicles will void some warranties which you and i know is inaccurate. Dealers act as judge and jury for the manufacturer very often. I agree that if these issues are isolated, maybe it is not a manufacturing issue. I know that since there is really no definite warning or major symptom when the resovoir falls off, i am betting there are quite a few driving around with one resovoir missing. It doesnt set a fault or warning, so it definitely can go unnoticed. Thank you for checking in on this potential issue. The good news is that a visual inspection is very simple to do. I hope that it turns out to be only a few isolated instances.

 

I'm going to file this photo away in case I run into any issues about warranty coverage and off-road use. "I was using it no more harshly than JLR designed it for".

 

Very much enjoying reading this technical discussion this morning. Unlike the other garbage threads about windshields and supply chain probs.

I have a couple of thoughts / Guy in this YT video had a problem with a rear shock…. first link is him trailside.

https://youtu.be/wEkkB_v13fQ?t=595

https://youtu.be/wEkkB_v13fQ?t=1709

2nd link is after dealer told him the problem.

The video utterly puzzled me when I first watched it. He said that the defender was undrivable after he broke a rear shock. I thought that was really weird as I’ve broken shocks on other rovers and an old m3 (even an old saab 900 turbo!) and you can still drive —might make an awful noise and feel unsettled — but in my experience driveable. Ie - if proceed carefully, it is fine. But the youtuber firmly states it was undriveable. So he had the Defender recovered, and a new shock ordered at the dealer.

I think he snapped the shaft of the shock?

Which brings me to @insider 's comment that perhaps occured = Defender then puts the other three functional shocks into full stiff mode making this vehicle feel unstable. The Youtube vid does say he threw a suspension fault code. However @sarek mentions no codes/faults for a broken reservoir but faults /codes for a broken shaft. Which is consistent with the YouTube video.

Anyway, thought it relevant. My question would be: It seems like someone needs to make beefier more durable off-road shocks for these… So who is going to do that? LR - They could charge a literal mint for upgraded shocks on these because everyone would buy them. I would.

And I’m pretty sure the guy that paid $4500 for the Australian spec brush bar would do that too…(?)

Another observation: the air suspension doesn’t decide to collapse at the drop of a hat (like … mid 2000’s lr/rr). So that’s good. My much loved OG LR3 would lower to the bump stops quite literally if a taillight filament burned out. Which really renders an air susp Rover undriveable if on bigger tires.

 

With a 4" subframe and a 1" rod lift running 35" tires at ~30 psi and a GVM approaching 7000 lbs I think this sort of failure is unlikely to be a common occurrence for the average user.

I do agree that the hollow design of the shock is likely a factor, but probably not the main one.

Speaking as someone who wouldn't know his suspension head from a hole in the ground, what the hell do I know.

Although not available, beefier shocks, if adding all this extra weight, height, unsprung mass, and rolling resistance to these vehicles does seem sensible to me.

 

couldn’t agree more. My local retailer refused to even send in a warranty claim for an issue that has been bothering me since I purchased the vehicle. His reason was its normal and I know what response I will get. It’s unfortunate you retailers like that backing your brand.

 

Just to reiterate, and update. The 2020 defender 110 that these shock failures happened to was not subframe lifted. It was the one that accompanied me to the SCARR event in Texas. The resovoir on one side fell off and the other side the shaft broke. Neither of which happened at the Texas event. It happened afterwards. It has 1 inch lift rods and 33 inch KO2s. The one in the youtube links had the subframe lift and rods. The Electronic Dampening is a separate system from the air suspension (even tho it is controlled by the same ECU). Shock shaft failure does not cause a fault in the air suspension system (fortunately). It does open circuit the shock which sets faults for EDC. This disables any of the terrain response modes and gives a warning indicator in the dash saying "electronic dampening is inactive. Drive carefully". And the edc goes into failsafe hard as a rock mode. I doubt very highly that the aftermarket will develop a Upgraded EDC shock, but we can hope. 3 options currently is to do some sorcery as we did and put aftermarket shocks in the rear and keep electronic dampening functional in the front (this works surprisingly well and is a nominal seat of the pants difference in handling). Next option, in addition to aftermarket rear shocks, would be to install front air struts from a d5 (seems like they might fit. Have not confirmed)) which have the option to not have EDC (interesting that this is an option) and then program out EDC. Or finally convert to coils and program out the air and edc. Being that you lose some if not all edc function with these options, you do sacrifice some benefits of edc for the sake of reliability ( especially if you plan to drive off road where there is no easy access to a dealership) . My hope is that jlr just updates the parts and this just becomes a small bump in the road.

 

I'd love to understand how many failures need to be reported through dealers / LR service to JLR before they think about revisions to a part. As a % of vehicles on the road, etc. It's such a black hole (as it similarly is with most other auto manufacturers...).

 

Could just design a 2-piece collar that goes over the valve and body of shock, preventing movement. Or a hose clamp.

 

Actually, the damage shown looked almost identical to my coil spring failure on my 97 NAS Defender ST, except it took out the brake line as well. It took out the shock the tower and the backing plate for the disc along with ripping the brake line off the caliper. Broken coils are scary looking.

 

Im resurrecting this thread. My 110's suspension is rock hard And has been for 5k miles or so. Its obvious because it resumes normal functionality/ damping characteristics after clearing all codes with my GAP tool. The codes im seeing seem to be nuisance/unrelated codes. Furthermore, live values for the shocks show no real issue. Im not sure what my next step should be other than to bring it to the dealer. Any advice for diagnosing this concern.
110 currently has 26k mi. P400.