Hello everyone.

I’m a bit confused and hope that someone can give me some advise and point me in the right directions.

I don’t think the rear suspension on my discovery TD5 is working as it should be, but I am not sure, I will try to explain.

Both air bags have been replaced, not at the same time, probably over a period of 3 months, one sensor replaced. The nearside bag and sensor were replaced under warranty (although they only paid a small part) by a garage. The offside bag was replaced by myself two weeks ago after reading about it on this forum and looking at some wonderful step by step instructions.

My understanding of the SLS system after reading the Rave manual is that the rear body should level itself to within 5mm, if I place a spirit level across the bumper or rear door it should read level. Well it doesn’t. I have noticed this when I park the car outside my house and at work. I mention this because, one place is nearly level and outside my house is not level due to the camber and could be two inches out of level perhaps more.

I have managed to borrow a nanocom device from a friend to read the settings and the SLS inputs. Having pumped up the suspension and dropped it and saved the settings several times, I am confused. When I save the settings to the ECU then turning of the ignition and re-reading the settings they are what I would expect, ie the settings that were set before I turned of the ignition. If I then move the disco and read the settings they are different. Is this correct or should the settings always be what they have were last saved at?

My questions are as follows:

• Should the settings being read from the ECU always be the same or are they dependant on how it has been parked?
• Should all 4 readings from the nanocom be the same or nearly the same, ie the saved settings (height) and the SLS readings?
• Should the body be level with a spirit level.
• If I am parked out of level and take a dimension from the centre of the wheel to the wheel arch should the reading be the same on both sides?
• If not when I turn the Disco around to park it the other way round ie what was the low side, should the dimensions change?
• Should I set the suspension by pumping up whatever side is low by the spirit level and then save those settings to the ECU?
• Is all of this confusion simply because I need to replace the sensor?

I am sorry this is a long post but thank you in advance for taking the time to read it.


Best Regards

 

The truck should sit level to itself and not the ground, so if the ground slopes to one side the truck will lean to that side.
Sitting on level ground and say 200lbs on one side of the truck it should still sit level to itself.
Should it be perfectly level? I dont know, define perfect, but I dont think you should beable to stand back 10 ft and see any difference but you might see a difference with a level.

 

Thank you very much, then that must mean the If I am parked out of level and take a dimension from the centre of the wheel to the wheel arch should the reading will be the same on both sides. Should I therefore use the nanocom to pump up the suspension to make the dimensions the same on both sides and save those settings?
Regards

 

If you are parked on a hill and the truck is running and all the doors are closed yes the space between both the right rear wheel to the fender and the space between the left rear wheel and the fender should be the same.
How close to the same depends on how picky you are.
Personally I would not worry about a 1/4" (for example), but thats just me.

 

Exactly what spike said - keep in mind that the disco has no idea what you're parked on or how you're parked, the only information it has is what the height sensors tell it (and it'll level itself till they read correct) the tolerance is very accurate (+/- .5mm)

 

Thank you both very much for taking the time to explain that. My dimensions between centre of wheel and wheel arch are over an inch out. So do you think I should make the dimension the same by pumping up the lower side using the nanocom and then saving those settings to memory or is that more liely to be a sensor problem?

Regards

 

Whichever is cheaper. lol