Hello, all.

I just took delivery of an '08 LR3. I noticed on a couple occasions that after I turn off the car the sound of air is released. I live in Manhattan and don't have access to tools on the fly so I'm curious to know if anyone is able to look at the attached picture, and with their best judgement, say whether or not they feel this is correct for normal driving height. The car is not in access mode or raised. To me there appears to be a slight amount of forward rake. Full disclosure: the EAS switch is malfunctioning; therefore I am unable to manually lower or raise the car in neutral, only raise under Rock Crawl mode.



TIA

 

Congrats on the new ride. That looks right to me. There's an air release every time I shut mine down and get out too. I believe the truck is just leveling when it recognizes the cargo weight difference. Also, if you haven't already, read your owner's manual to learn how the suspension settings work.

 

Thanks for posting your feedback. I did read online about the self leveling at shut off but it was so sporadic when occurring I thought something was wrong.

Also, unfortunately it did not come with an owners manual so I've just been reading online as much as I can.

 

The air release noise is normal. Most often it results from the release of internal air within the air compressor so that when the air compressor starts its next cycle, that the compressor starts "unloaded".

It is kind of the same noise that you hear when parked beside a city transit bus or heavy truck that has air brakes. You are in the big time, and yes, the height looks very proper - level, even, and proud.

Sometimes the same noise is as per what the other posts said, the auto level circuits sorting itself out after you have just departed the vehicle and shut the doors.

The auto level circuits are alive all the time when parked or at least they wake up every two hours or so for a couple of days or so before it notices that the vehicle has not been used.

 

It sounds like you can get your 3 to rise, and I guess lower; hence the switch is probably OK; also the compressor is probably OK. I assume that there are no red or yellow lights illuminated on the dash. The works in Rock Crawl is only to confuse the issue but is what I would call good news as it does eliminate some of the possibilities.

I suggest you spend a couple of days going thru various of the files per the link below. There are three albums related to the air system with block diagrams and wiring as well.

Before you can figure out what is wrong, you pretty much have to understand how the air system is supposed to function. The problem could be wheel alignment - is the steering wheel pointing straight ahead or off centre? If it were so simple as a switch .... There is a fuse, F35P that may not be good, but it probably is as the system works in rock crawl - there is a file on the F35P fuse as well.

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So the dealer that I purchased the vehicle from states they will be doing the work to properly fix the air suspension issue. They weren't all that proactive with things so I was left to do my own research. I came across this link, Air suspension will rise only when rock crawl mode - JustAnswer which describes exactly the issue I'm experiencing.

When the car is in neutral 0 mph, the raise lower toggle lever is inopp. It doesn't even do so much as light up. If I turn the dial to Rock Crawl Mode however the vehicle will raise, and the light on the access and raise lever will illuminate showing the vehicle is raised.

Being I live in Manhattan the access feature is crucial for parking garages with my roof rack. The dealer told me they ordered the switch without even diagnosing the car in the shop. They just went ahead and ordered after reading that link I sent. I found this pretty strange. Regardless this is not my primary vehicle so I plan to leave with with them for a week to try and get things working properly. Just a pain to have to drive 5 hours to drop it off with them...

Thanks for the link. I'm going to spend some time reviewing the information.

 

Just a note re air springs - they can dump in milli seconds and you do not want to be under your 3 when it happens. I use nominal 6 ton axle jacks located under the frame when I get under it; also chock the wheels front and rear - the 3 reacts differently than any normal vehicle. You will note that at your dealership, they use a frame hoist and that the wheels always hang down - there is a reason for that and why they do not use that drive on type at all.

Your link above is correct when it says that coffee and the like spilled into the switch is bad for the switch but in your case, I think the switch works and the problem is elsewhere.

The reason I mentioned the wheel alignment is that there is a steering wheel rotation sensor. It talks to the anti skid system. The anti skid communicates with the anti lock brake wheel sensor counters. The counters will say all four wheels are rotating at the same speed assuming you have four matched tires - (do you?). The yaw sensor in the anti skid will say the vehicle is going straight ahead but the steering wheel sensor may be saying the vehicle is turning. Since the computers to not like the mismatch of info, the default is sometimes to drop the suspension or freeze it at normal height - usually it turns warning lights on as well, but ....

Anyway this will give you an idea of how many systems can be involved in a seemingly unrelated problem.

In my album, read the section on the brake light switch and regardless, install a new one just for peace of mind; also maybe replace all the tail light bulbs with genuine LR - this is just to help reduce the number of variables you may be dealing with.

 

Tires are all brand new and correct OEM rotational dia.

 

Yes, the wheels and tyres look pretty good in the picture. I assume the size is therefore 255 55 R19 in the XL load range and hence a nominal 30" OD. The main requirement is that all four be the same OD. Stock sized tyres on stock rims eliminates another set of variables from the equation.

Something called the CCF, (Car Configuration File), has the OEM tyre size programmed into it so when tire OD changes and the computers do not know about it, then other variables come into play. That is not to say that those who install up to 32" OD tires and make no changes to the CCF will see any specific problems, (that is all seems well), but when problems arise, you just have more variables to contend with. One problem with 32" tires is that when the air system fails and the 3 lowers to the stops, the tires lock into the wheel wells and rotation is not normally possible - until then, all can seem well.

The steering wheel is probably sitting level as well so that suggests wheel alignment is not a factor.

Do you have the NAV screen? If so, there should be a 4x4 info display. Drive with that on and look if any of the wheels appear dead.

By that I mean, is there any vertical movement of each wheel on the display when you, one at a time, mount say a 6" high curb with the other 3 wheels on the level. Do that with each of the four wheels - sometimes one of the wheels will not display any vertical movement on the screen. If so, then perhaps the problem is with the wiring to that wheel or to the valve block at that end of the vehicle.

This is how you close in on where the problem may be - by ruling out other systems. It is a slow and tedious process. Once you have figured out where the problem may be or not be, the dealer has a better chance of finding the exact location.

 

The alignment also appears to be spot on when driving. Hands off the wheel, the car drives straight as an arrow, wheel correctly positioned. I'll check the 4x4 screen and test each of the wheels this week. Thanks again for your time and input.