So I spent the day at Rowher Flats OHV trail today, and as I was turning around to head back down the trail I heard a whoosh of air by the firewall. Once I got out I soon realized my front suspension had completely collapsed, but only the front, the rear was still in off road mode.
Once I managed to get off the trail with a little underside scraping, I had a poke around under the hood and could hear air escaping. This led me to remove part of the plastic cladding and low and behold, one of the plastic air hoses had popped out of the brass fixing. The plastic hose is the smallest and flimsiest tube you have ever seen and its only held in the brass knuckle with friction and 2 rubber o rings.
Once all connected, everything was fine, and the suspension lifted. Now I just have to get it checked out to see if it was a case of poorly put together at the factory or if it managed to shake itself loose whilst off roading. Service centre Monday !

The defender was trying some SoCal lowriding


Here you can see the pipe (with the green tag) and also the brass plug that the hose is meant to be connected to.

 

Glad you could fix it yourself !

 

Voss fittings. Usually pretty reliable so hopefully just a random fail at full bag pressure. Easy fix. New fitting and maybe new hose. Don't know if I'd say anything about being on a trail though.

Assuming it's a regular air system, each wheel should have a dedicated air line to a manifold that's controlled by the computer and filled by the compressor. Small leaks in the bags and lines eventually stress out the compressor and burn it. Hell of an awful sound when that happens.

Were there any warning lights? Should have been.

​​​​

 

Good catch, probably a good idea to not say I was bombing around the mountains when this happened.
There were no warning lights or messages. The only thing that indicated there was any sort of problem was the 4x4 screen on the pivipro and it showed the difference in angle of the front and rear driveshafts, otherwise nothing.

 

Do you have a zoomed-out photo that shows where that hose is located? (Engine bay somewhere?).
Thanks.

 

I am suspecting my defender may have a leak in the air suspension. Every time i start it up, i hear a whoosh of air and the car rises a little bit. (I do not have it set in access mode in park) I am thinking that some air leaks out when it is turned off and it re-levels itself when turned on.

Does this happen to others?

 

I had that issue too. There is a technical service bulletin, only UK right now, that discusses the fact that early air springs had a small leak due to a fitting. I showed it to my US dealer and they were unaware or acted unaware. I pushed back and they replaced my front air springs and no issues since.

 

Mine tends to make some sort of noise when I open a door or at some point when I had been messing around with it when the engine was off...ive been wondering if that is normal or not?

 

Taught my son how to ride an off-rode motorcycle, out in Rowher Flats, back in the 90's. Glad you could take care of it.

BTW, little Brother says "Hello"

 

I think that is normal - mine does the same thing. These things have a mind of their own! The systems make so many sounds all the time.

Congrats on finally receiving yours btw.