I know all of the pitfalls of rear SLS, and one of my old discos even bit me hard on Christmas day with a compressor failure! But, I persisted. I believed that if the fittings were replaced, lines leak checked, compressor re-ringed and tested, and new air springs installed (Arnott), the system could be made reasonably reliable. Then the right rear spring explodes, kids thought it was a gunshot. Not overloaded (me, three boys), and a normal rural NE Pennsylvania/ NY border road. Has anyone else in the community had an air spring fail after only 2 months of otherwise flawless operation? No lift, set up to factory ride height with Mr. Nanocom. I will be removing the bladders today, but first inspection seems to reveal that the bag separated from the top plastic mount. Thanks!

Rhys L.

Hey, at least the left side held up!

 

They always eventually fail and often in a catastrophic manner.

 

Defective part, is always my first thought when something fails prematurely. (and everything else is in working order)
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Yikes. No good, that could cause quite an accident unbalancing the car at speed. What brand of air springs?

(side note: have never had this happen and am on my 2nd SLS D2 - original bags on the one I'm driving now lasted 20 years and 103K miles notably - I replaced when I bought it)

 

I have had good luck and have run a 2" lift since 2007 on rear air SLS. I have replaced bags 2x or 3x. no catastrophic failures. I always buy the Arnoit bags on Craigslist and have a spare on hand when one starts to leak. I will never go to rear springs; as I like the *** jacker mode for offroading & have been extremely reliable. I mean semi trucks use them, what is more to say.

 

So, initial inspection was correct, looks like the metal band connecting the top mount to the bladder let go. They are Arnott bags, installed approx. 2 months ago. I will, for now, just hope that this was a random failure, and not indicative of an entire defective batch. The warranty will replace the failed bag, although I would have preferred to replace them as a pair. On the plus side, you can't complain about how easy these things are to replace!

 

Looks like maybe not a random failure. Another Arnott bag exploded yesterday, again on the right. The bladder stayed intact, it was once again the steel top clamp ring that let go. This time it was around town at low speed, luckily no highway failure yet. Not sure how I'm going to handle this, as I really do not want to go back to rear coil springs.

Rhys L

 

I had Arnott’s on my P38. I loved how they handled both on and off road, but I also had 2 different catastrophic failures so I went back to Dunlop bags. The warranty worked great, but outside the USA they only warranty 2 years, and also I couldn’t afford to risk more failures.

 

Wow! I am like you and one of the few who love the SLS system. I’ve never had a failure like this in the 2 Discos I’ve had with the system, but I’ve had (and actually currently have) slow leaks that cause them to go down. I think the system and design as a whole are great and very simple to work with.

Also, I’ve used the capability quite a bit in towing ad carrying a dirt bike on a hitch carrier.

The issue I’m having with mine is that it holds just fine, but once you shake or put weight on the rear, the driver’s bag deflates. I still need to figure out if that is a bag, line, or maybe even a check valve.

I’m surprised at this as many spoke highly of the Arnot brand for the L320. I may have done a replacement Arnot in the boss’ L320 a few years ago.

BTW, I’d love to see more pics of your Disco- I’ve got an Alveston as well and it’s starting to grow on me as my favorite color.

 

Now I'm just fuming, I've had good dealings with Arnott, the warrantied both of my failed rear springs and I bought them from Rock Auto! Great customer service. But I was installing the two new springs, got halfway up the inflation cycle, and the RH bag failed again. Same thing, clamp ring blew off. This can't be coincidence, all I can think of now is that the upper spring seat must be warped. Bag inflates, weight gets put on the upper plastic mount, distorts it and then BANG. Holy crap, I can't tell you all how scary that noise is. I'm going in with the measurements gear tomorrow, if anyone else had repeat failures like this I'd love to hear about it!

Rhys Legge