Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum.

I have a 2006 LR3 with 205k miles on it, running great. WAS driving great too, until I had some recent work done. IE Rovers, in Lake Elsinore, California, replaced my front control arms, (upper and lower), the front air bags (Arnott), and installed the Lucky 8 SYA kit, which consists of spacers on top of the air bags, and limiting straps. For those not familiar, it is designed to prevent the body from lowering onto the tires, and rendering the vehicle immobile in case of an air suspension failure.

Immediately after the install, I noticed the steering wheel clocking was off, and that the vehicle pulled to the right when accelerating, and left when decelerating. Then after about 250 miles of driving, 3 of the airbag air fittings popped off, and dropped the vehicle onto the bump stops. I contacted the shop owner, and after driving 150 miles home on the bump stops, he sent a tow truck to tow it back to his shop.

He replaced all 4 quick connects at the air bags with higher quality parts than what came from Lucky 8, which is part of the SYA kit. Then he had his alignment shop re-do the alignment, and I opted to use a AAA tow to get the vehicle back to my house, as the shop is about 85 miles from my home (in California).

Then I hit the road to Colorado, to spend the summer at my folks house. As soon as I hit the road, I could tell the alignment was not any better. Now I am in Colorado, trying to figure out what to do. I tried a basic alignment shop, but they won't touch it, and recommended I take it to the dealer. I have used JC's British, which is local to Denver, and they seem okay.

Is anyone running this SYA kit? How was it getting the vehicle aligned afterwards? Am I just dealing with a terrible alignment job, or what? Should I take it to the dealer, who charges around $240 for an alignment? Try a different alignment shop? Or take it to JC's British?

What would you guys do?

Sorry for the long post and for bringing this mess to the forums, but I am feeling pretty lost! Thanks in advance!

 

I'm not saying it will fix your issue, but I do believe the LR3 does have a special alignment process where the dealer puts it into a certain mode to do the alignment. I believe this mode ensures the vehicle's suspension is level by allowing smaller tolerances in height differences.

Did the shop that did the first alignment give you specs on what it was initially and what it is after they corrected it?

Did they also replace tie rod ends? How far off was the clocking? The actual angle of the wheel shouldn't have changed unless they disconnected the steering from the rack, or changed the tie rod lengths.

Based on what you've described I'd honestly have the dealer or another well-reviewed Landrover shop take a look and ensure the work was done correctly. Your pulling issue should have been caught on a test drive after and not returned to you until fixed.

 

It's called "Tight Tolerance Mode."

I have heard that Firestone does Lifetime alignments and knows how to do the LR3. Probably varies by location, but that's worth a shot.

 

The GAP tool can set tight tolerance. I do it when I take mine into Tires Plus for its lifetime alignments. Sounds like the install shop did something wrong, as much as I would never buy anything from Lucky8, I doubt the air fittings were poor. If you have the SYA kit do you also have it lifted some? Or is the kit just for tires. I run overused but no kit, was not needed for 275/65/18. If lifted, then there can be other issues caused by the lift causing alignment problems.

And besides steering being off center, how does the truck actually handle?

 

Clocking was off about 5 degrees the first time I got it back, and about 15 the second time. I don't think the tie rod ends were changed, so yea, I'm not sure why it is so far off. And I completely agree, it should not have been returned to me in the condition it is in now. I was not given an alignment report, the paperwork from I.E. Rovers is a joke! Never going back to that shop again, lol

Thanks, I will consider going to them if the dealer or JC's British does not work out. I am very open to finding someone who confidently knows what they are doing, and will give me an alignment spec report before and after.

I am leaning towards I.E. Rovers did something wrong, and the alignment shop they use has no idea how to align a Land Rover with air suspension. I have it lifted some, it came with Johnson rods when I bought it and I'm not sure, but I think it is 2 inches. I am also running 275/65/18 tires. It looks like I should invest in the GAP tool.

Before all of this, it handle pretty well for a 6k pound SUV, I really loved it. Now it is just awful, feels dangerous because of all the crazy pulling. I don't feel it is safe to drive until I fix all this, so I am driving my other car.

 

Well a suspension calibration is maybe needed to get a proper alignment. Also a lift can cause all sorts of issue if not done proper. But air suspension or not, alignments are done the same as with pretty much most SUVs. There is no magic with the LR3 the tis specific to it, but one needs to know how and where to adjust which the shop should be versed in. On a side note, rods suck. The strut kit may prevent the issues they cause though, which is when the rods push the suspension out of range then you are stuck on bumps for good.

 

Yea, at this point I am thinking of going back to a smaller tire size and taking off all the lift parts. A lot of my driving is cross country highway driving, and I don't get all that extreme when I go off-road. Will see what I find out when I get the alignment looked at.

I have been looking at other shops here in Colorado, if anyone here on the forums is close to the Denver area and has a shop they like, I am all ears!

 

There should be no need to remove parts. People run the kits without issue. They only thing that affects geometry would be the rods since they sorta trick the suspension to put the truck higher and I assume those were one before you even went in? And if you are running the same tires as me, you probably dont really need the lift per say. I deflated my bags and was able to move the truck, so even lower than access height. Not that I would want to very far for multiple reasons, but I was not stuck on the tires immobilized. With your spaces, it would not even be an issue at all as you expected. I think you really just need a proper alignment. I am 2" up, no rods since I used the GAP to adjust height, and no alignment issues. But I also did my lift the proper way by homing all my bushings by setting my heigh up before install all new suspension front and rear and doing final torque.

 

Interesting what you say about homing all the bushings at ride height, I doubt that my new control arms were installed with that much precision and care. Did you get an alignment after raising the height using the GAP tool and homing the bushings? Would you recommend I home my bushings before taking it in?

I would love to be able to stick with all the new parts and my current tire size, after going through all of this.

For now my plan is to stick with my appointment at the dealer. But it is not until the 11th, next Tuesday, so I may make a few phone calls to some of the other shops in the area that work on Land Rovers in the mean time.

 

I raised my stock height before all the new parts. Maybe a year or so? Because I already knew I was putting all new on and that raising would quicken their demise since they were not re-homed. Example being front upper arms, those are not touched during an alignment. So if those bolts are not loosed and the bushings allowed to resettle, they are forever twisted at the new height. But yes, another alignment after all new pars of course. When putting all new on I barely tightened things then simply measured from fender flare edge to hub center. Used a jack to get them spot on. Then torqued everything down and used a pain pen to mark each bolt/nut once torqued. Gotta keep track!

I know some dealers can be fussy. They may not even want to try to align it because of the rods. Or they may not because of the spacer kit - which really has nothing to do with alignment, but some dealers can be weird. I kinda hope not given where you live tho, they must see more modded Rover than most other placed in the US.

In the mean time, you may want to check your rear lateral links. The bars that go from the backside of the rear knuckles and point up into the spare tire area. Even a hint of play in these can cause very weird handling behavior because they allow the rear tires to turn left and right. I keep spares on hand because of this issue. They last long though, usually 150k miles if not abused off-road.