Back again with an update on my 06 LR3 suspension drop. Question now is what would allow suspension drop, more than an inch, only on right side front and rear overnight. Arnott springs made in 2017 ( assume installed not long after), soapy water spray finds no leaks yet, but still hunting. Just replaced front valve block. Is there any commonality between right side front and rear? Or perhaps if one corner is dropping, it will cause the other corner on that side to drop some as well? Thanks for all help.

 

Are you pulling both air suspension fuses to be safe? Have you rebuilt your rear or center valve blocks?

 

Alex J,

I am pulling both fuses, 3 and 26. I’ve replaced the front valve block, but not the center or rear. My confusion stems from the research on here and elsewhere correlating front block with fronts, rear block with rears, and I can’t seem to find definitive correlations between center block and suspension drop. I read that if front and rear blocks are good and fuses removed, they will stay up unless there are leaks at the strut or it’s lines. What I came out to this morning was right side front and rear lowered, left side still holding at off-road height. But I have no knowledge of something that would affect one side only, front and rear. My suspicion is a leak related to right rear corner and it’s dragging the right front down with it. Although so far, spraying soapy water has not revealed any leaking. I’m puzzled. Not a new thing for me.

 

Have you looked at the factory service manual section for the air suspension and read through the description and operation to see how the front, rear, left and right are controlled? I was going to dive into it but I got lucky and rebuilding my front block fixed my sagging overning issues. I think the FSM section is dynamic suspension and not called air suspension. Might be worth the time to dig through it since you have kind of an odd situation with just the one side sagging and a front or rear issue that is more common.

 

Hi AlexJ,

I haven’t searched that on this forum, but I did print out what I believe is likely the same info from another forum, about 30 pages of system diagrams, wiring diagrams and info. I feel like (felt like) I was getting a pretty good handle on how components are related and what’s what. Until this one side sag began. I’ve been down some of these same roads with our L322 over the years, although it’s been pretty trouble free. I did discover yesterday after getting the 3 on stands to go in with soapy spray, that my rear springs are actually Delphi and appear to be quite older than the shiny Arnotts up front. I had assumed all were replaced with Arnotts, but most of my work so far being at the front and compressor. So I may do the rear springs just to eliminate that for now (or failure someday soon judging by their apparent age) and also do the rear valve block while I’m in there. At that point if it still sags with fuses out I will know that it’s a line as all else would’ve been done. I have little invested in this 3, in large part because it was sitting on its bumps stops, and want to set it up for long term reliability. I don’t mind replacing things to create a baseline, but of course I want to be as efficient as possible, not really knowing what else it may need once on the road for real. Kind have thoughts creeping in about coil conversion too though.

 

Right rear air strut replacement cured the sag. It was indeed dragging the front down with it. Now that this corner is standing tall again, the front is as well. On to the next 100 things to do on this LR3.