Hi everyone, I'm hoping I can get some guidance here.

I have a 2005 Lr3 with the old style Hitachi compressor. I had an intermittent suspension fault that turned into a permanent fault and discovered the seal between the desiccant cannister and compressor had failed and was leaking air.

I went ahead and ordered a new compressor (Chinese/Amazon Hitachi clone. Got 5 years out of the last one for $130) and installed it. Started the car up, the reservoir filled quickly, then lifted the car to its normal height. The compressor sounds good.

That lasted a day or two. Then the suspension fault came back: the car starts, compressor kicks on for 10 seconds or so, then yellow suspension fault - normal height only.

I have two suspension related codes:
C1A20-64 - pressure increases too slow when filling reservoir.
U0416-86 - invalid data received from vehicle dynamic control module.

When I clear the codes the compressor will kick on for 10 seconds then the suspension fault returns.

I did see that the right rear ride height sensor voltage is different than the rest. All 4 sensors have a supply voltage of 4.92v. 3 sensors have a voltage of 1.28v, but the right rear is .78v. Would this cause an immediate suspension fault without throwing a sensor related code? The height readings seem accurate and are not fluctuating much.

All 4 air struts + front and rear valve blocks are less than 5 years old and have no significant leaks. Since the car has not been able to raise it had lost roughly 30mm in 7 days.

Did my center valve block fail? Did my new compressor fail in some way?

I'm really stumped why I'm getting an immediate suspension fault with what seems to be a good compressor.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Can you rea your gallery pressure? Also, clearing the codes is one part of the reset but I found I also have to re-enable EAS .
I have found with mine that if I start the Rover, open the door, select off-rad height and close the door, the compressor will run and usually raise the suspension and occasionally stay working. I should go and rebuild mine but haven't bothered so far.

 

How do you re-enable the EAS?

 

You do not need to re-enable EAS unless you had a failed calibration or such, but the function is in the GAP tool if you want to try. But it sounds like yours is running and it sounds like you have a leak or bad compressor. The sensor voltages are probbaly fine, the voltage is basically the actual physical reading of the sensor as it moves through its range. The calibration is what takes that reading and "converts" it to a height based on some fancy maths.

 

I find that clearing the fualts won't let my compressor start again but re-enable EAS has a 100% success rate. Obivously I do have issues still that I should figure out but for now I do the re-enable, put it in off road mode and drive off, letting it settle down into normal at 30 mph or so. ANd some days it all works fine. The joys of LR3 ownership!

 

What is compressor current load and temps do you get when it kicks off?
I have found some of the non name brand compressors draw too high a current or get too hot before the reservoir is filled.
If you replaced the whole compressor unit because of a bad dryer O-ring leak, I would try putting the new dryer on the old compressor and see if that fixes the problem, also might look at swapping the motor from the old one into the new one to see what the amp current draw is as well.

Hope this helps

Jeff