I was curious what is the best way to jack up a LR3 to get new tires. The guys at Discount tire have done it a few ways and I am not sure which is the best.

1. One guy tried to jack it up under the rear control arm but its recessed and the jack plate would not fit flat without slipping. (fail)
2. Last guy said set the air suspension to access (low) and turn key off. They then put in on a lift with 4 wood blocks under the frame and lifted the entire car off the ground and did all 4 wheels. I think the air suspension did kick it trying to raise it but it auto shut off. Seemed to work.

3. I had a flat tire once and used the scissors jack and did not touch the air suspension (later saw they want off road mode) I was able to jack it up using the included scissors jack with zero issue.

Can anyone explain why one needs to food with the air suspension at all doing this? I had no issues changing a flat doing zero with it. Discount tire aired it down and still was able to change all 4 tires.

What is the best method and why make it more complex than it needs to be but fiddling with the air suspension at all?

 

I would find a new place to go, it is jacked up like any other vehicle. I don't get what is so complicated about it.

 

I agree I don't get why its so complicated either. I did look at the manual and it says to put the car in off road height but does not say why or what bad things will happen if you don't. I saw one guy on YT say the same thing and went so far as it will do damage to the suspension but failed to explain why or how.

If I know the proper way to do it I guess I can tell who ever I take it to what to do. Discount tire said the opposite of the manual from working with other cars with air suspension. Lots of conflicting opinions so I figured someone here has to know more.

 

If you don't want to deal with the suspension you can always disconnect the battery or pull the suspension modules fuse (I can't remember which one off the top of my head). By selecting off-road height you're extending the struts so when you lift the frame it decreases the amount of down travel left.

If you don't select off-road height your jack has to do more of the work to lift the car up. Requires a jack with longer travel. Oh and the suspension will "fight you" a bit by lowering the corner(s) your jacking up and raising the others(s) to try and level out the truck.

Either option won't damage the suspension as theres no extreme forces beyond what was engineered for. All your doing is compressing the struts which is what they're designed to do.

At home theres a few ways to do it (assuming no lift).
1. by the frame. A bit annoying if you use a bottle jack with a short cylinder.
2. By the control arms (I do NOT recommend for the rear, its sketchy/dangerous. only in emergencies and NEVER put yourself between the ground and the car with this)
3. If you have rock sliders or aftermarket steel bumpers you can use those.

 

There is nothing special about the air ride. I think they want to lower it so they can "lock" it. They did the same with mine. The guy explained that by doing so it will not adjust but that is 100% flat out wrong, it will still adjust even when locked at access height. The lock just prevents it from raising up until a certain speed is met. This is ideal for parking garages. But normally when in access it will raise to standard pretty much at 3 or 5mph.

So there is that. Basically they are misinformed.

As for raising before jacking. This is because the struts have rather long travel compared to most vehicles. So by raising first one is simply eliminating some of the work the jack need to do to get the wheel off the ground. That really is the only reason/advantage to it.

For image concerns, there are none normally. The ONLY time strut damage can happen would be if they are newly installed and have never been inflated or if they have had a line removed and totally deflated. In those instances there is a risk the rubber strut bladder can fold on itself and rip. This is generally can only happen when new were the rubber has not been folded onto itself thousands of times and sorta been worked into normal folding/rolling condition. But since the compressor has a minimum pressure the exhaust will work down to before it can not exhaust anymore, even when using a GAP tool to deflate will never, ever remove all the air. Basically there is a mechanical lower limit it will drop pressure down to before a swing in the exhaust is stronger than the air pressure and closes up. Therefore you can never remove all the air form the system unless you open a line directly to a strut. (or use the GAP to cycle the exhaust a lot via the pilot valve and then yes, you can prob get all the air out but that is another discussion).

 

I was not talking about locking it driving 3-5 mph, they tried to lock it so it would not kick on when they lifted it. It failed, when they lifted all 4 wheels off the ground the air compressor kicked in for awhile then stopped. They put it in access height when finished too which put the frame on the wood blocks, had to raise it to standard height to drive it off the lift pad.

I think the only way to stop the compressor from getting in the way is to pull a fuse or battery.
Next time I think Ill just put it in off road height and have them lift all 4 tires off using wood blocks on the lift pad. The lowering to access height did not see to work all that great last time.

 

Read what I wrote again.

 

When I had new tires installed a couple years ago the shop foreman showed one of the techs how to lock the suspension in access height.

 

or leave a door open, which is what I do when I'm doing tire removals for whatever. Seems to work for me.

 

Absolutely no issue lifting from under the arms, this way you barely need to lift it 2 " to get the tyres off the ground.
Much safer and easier than lifting from the chassis.