So, over the weekend I swapped out the lower control arms on the front of my LR3.

I started on the passenger side as that is the one I have been getting weird tire wear on. Per the manual, I dropped it into access mode, jacked it up and went to work.

The air shock on the right side came out with out too much fuss and went back pretty much the same.

However, on the left side it was a whole different ball game. I started taking the shock off and could barely get the bolt to move. I played around with it for a bit without much luck.

So, I went in and grabbed my PC, hooked up SDD and depressurized the air springs. That really didn't seem to help a whole lot. Some for sure, but not enough.

So I grabbed my spare jack and took some pressure off the bolt and finally got it out, then the pressure from the spring tried to shoot the jack out from under it (roller floor jack.)

Thankfully I had a feeling it would do that and had my foot braced behind the jack, or it would have shot it out at me. I knew then I was going to have trouble getting it back.

I got the arm swapped out, got everything bolted back in and then it was time to put the air spring back in. And that very nearly didn't happen. Finally though I managed to get it in there.

So my question is this, is it safe to assume that one of those airbags is bad and needing to be replaced? If so which one? I would assume the passenger side?
How do you know when the airbags need to be replaced (short of them actually leaking?)

 

One characteristic that has been identified as a tell-tale is the ability for the upper control arm to make contact with the airshock. Jack the car up so that the wheels are at full droop...I mean fully off the ground. If the upper control arm is contacting the shock, that shock is no longer limiting travel and is T.U.

 

Humm, well, it's really not anywhere close to making contact, but it's a lot less strong than the other one...

Could it just need a height calibration?

 

I can't say. I do want to mention though that my statement covered ONE way to tell that the shock was toast. No contact doesn't mean one isn't more worn out than the other. Sorry I don't have a more definitive criterion.