Has anyone heard of an aftermarket way to get active suspension in this car? I would love to do that someday to smooth out the ride, on road and off.

Anyone heard of someone adding ACE to their Disco?

And has anyone switched from coils to air suspension to get the SLS system?

I'm asking because I've searched and searched and come up dry.

I've poured hundreds of hours into my Discovery 2 2004 SE, both into the engine and into cosmetics. Mainly the engine of course. I love it, I know it well and know it's service history, and I'll put in a new engine and transmission when they die. So I'm not selling it, I want to retrofit it.

 

You'd need a lot of stuff to convert a non ACE to ACE. From the ACE ECU, wiring, lines, pump, hoses, and the actual hydraulic rams F/R. If you wanted ACE you'd be better off finding an ACE equipped D2 to start with.

Also SLS wise it's kinda the same story SLABS will need to be enabled for SLS, you'll need OEM wiring harness, pump, solenoids, height sensors, air lines, air vent line, and of coarse the air bags themselves.

 

If somebody has changed it to coil spring before you acquired it, it might still have everything there. Mine was originally air ride rear and it was converted and everything is still there. I'm debating on doing the same right now to
mine

 

Ace would be tough to retrofit, but you could acquire the parts second hand. Problem is it is unique to LR and has to interact with the BCU I believe.

if you went to an air suspension system, you could probably stiffen up the ride and improve handling without adding the extra strain to the engine, and without another system to maintain. People do like it though.

Living in the Midwest I spend a lot of time on the highway, so I have always thought being able to lower the suspension for the highway would be awesome.

Arnott makes air springs for the rear, and I wonder if you could use the front air struts from an LR3. Certainly not bolt on, but similar vehicle in height and weight.

I would probably go to an aftermarket self leveling and control for the air system. You could control it from your phone if you wanted to.

 

ACE has it's own ECU mounted to the right of the SLABS unit.

 

To revive a 2 year old post. SO does that mean it can be retrofitted to a discovery without due to it having a standalone CU next to SLAB? Also do they have these on the HSE7 with Rear Air Suspension Feature?

 

If this interests anyone I am about to tackle the ACE retrofit. I have a complete 02 with ACE I am going to retrofit to my wifes 04 G4 HSE7

I have already added rear air (the lines, rear blower housing ducting, and REAR wiring was the EASY part) . Retrofitting the wiring harness under the dash is the "strap yourself in and enjoy the ride" part I am undertaking now.

I have added the rear jump seats and that was a easy as well.

Here is what I am gonna say about all of this. 03-04 Discos were NOT PREWIRED for everything. You WILL HAVE TO MODIFY THE HARNESS. They do howeer have all bolt holes pre theaded and the rivet holes are there as well.

I am thinking about starting a thread on the ACE but I only do things to look factory so it will have all wiring routed in the correct place, programmed (if needed), etc

If anyone has anything to add that has retrofitted the ACE I am all ears.

 

Very interested to hear how this goes. Have you driven the 02 with ACE? How is it?

I also retrofitted rear air to my Disco 2 here in Uganda. Everything worked, I was pleasantly surprised. The electrical diagrams were instrumental in splicing in wires to the correct place, just had to make a few joints in the front and about halfway through, if I remember right. I had bought a rear air kit from a Discovery salvage shop on UK eBay and had it shipped to me. Issue I ran into was no rear refrigerant lines were included, and not a single shop in the UK would pull the lines to sell to me no matter what I offered. So I had my local mechanic here retrofit lines and they did a fantastic job, got hi and lo lines running to the rear unit and it blows very cold.

Since we didn't use factory refrigerant lines to get to the rear, I'm curious—are the original rear refrigerant lines just super long and uninterrupted from the front to rear? Because that would explain why they weren't willing to try and pull and ship them...

 

Yep. 2 hard lines from around firewall to the rear evaporator. Pretty unwieldy!

 

It wasnt that bad they split in two different places, it is easier if you remove the drivers side exhaust manisfold though. Make sure you get ALL the fastening hardware when you remove it, the Discoverys have all the studs and suchprewelded to them to use when reinstalling. Then get the AC system oring kit off of rock auto