Just when I though I had prepared myself for most of the inevitable problems that might face me with the Disco, I walked outside and the driver side is drooping down. My first guess was a flat tire, and while that tire was the lowest of them all (haven't checked them since it was in the 90s during summer) at 20psi, it's currently holding 30 along with the other side and is still drooping.

I measured from the rim lip to the bottom of the fender and the driver side is sitting about ~1/2" to 5/8" lower than the passenger side! How is that even possible?

I just noticed the issue so I'll drive it around a bit with the correctly inflated tires and see what happens (yes I drove it around the parking lot after reinflating everything correctly) - and YES the rear air suspension is working perfectly and the heights measured out correctly.

I know a dead shock can cause a suspension sag, but I've only seen it in the rear of IRS cars like my old M3 - you wouldn't think of them as load-bearing components but it was a common issue with higher-mileage BMWs. The Disco has about 155k miles on it. The rear airbags have a slight leak if I have any loads in the back so I might just buy a set of the lifetime arnott bags and replace the shocks all-around. I rebuilt the entire air suspension system with a viair compressor and different valve blocks (working great!) so I'm not trying to do a coil-spring conversion just because of this issue.

 

Sounds like a worn or broke front spring.

 

im with Brian, sounds like the spring is just worn out... mine was the same way. lower on the pass side before i redid all 4

 

Well that's freaking weird, I swear it's not happening anymore since I drove home.. the parking lot was pretty damn flat too (I kept telling myself that was the problem, but it wouldn't explain why the rears were even.. well actually I guess it would with the SLS haha)

So, semi-false-alarm BUT I really do need to pay more attention to the suspension on this thing.

The groaning when I turn the steering wheel is starting to **** me off (ONLY happens if there's a lot of friction (aka FAST turning the wheel when I'm hardly moving, like in parking lots) hmm. Steering box

 

First, get you air pressure up where it should be, 40 pounds all the way around.
Second, if you have a rear bag leaking, as it drops, it will lower, a little, one of the front corners making it look like a spring is failing.
With your mileage, your front springs are shot and if you are planning on keeping the truck, replace them with some medium duty OME coils that will get you back to a reasonable height and really improve your ride.

 

Thanks Disco Mike, yeah I've got a list of stuff to do to this thing, it's just a matter of priorities - the brakes are being funky but there's a good amount of pad/rotor left and in order to change them I need to fix the rear hub leak (aka $$$).

The SLS shouldn't have been the problem (yesterday at least) since I measured the rears while I was freaking out about the fronts and everything was fine in the back. Maybe it was the parking lot - but yeah I'm sure the springs are shot.

What about the shocks (all-around?) wouldn't they die first? I can get the new Arnott bags for like ~$95 each through my shop so I should probably do that first before it starts snowing (the extra weight makes them leak - it's totally bizarre since it hardly ever leaks unloaded)

 

Shocks should be changed cause they are usually gone anytime after 50,000 miles, as well as the steering stabilizer.

 

Oh yeah thanks for reminding me, I'm 110% sure the steering stabilizer is toast. Gravel/dirt roads = no fun! Actually that's probably not helping my steering box issues since so much additional movement gets thrown into it. OEM or aftermarket?

 

Go on line to Lucky 8 and look at what Justin has for Old Man Emu shocks, coils and a stabilizer. He has some of the better prices. Go with the medium duty coils in the front, HD shocks all the way around and keep your air bags.

 

Ohh okay, yeah I've talked to them a couple times on facebook but didn't really need anything specific - I'll give them a holler today thanks.