Hey all!

I've had some work done to my LR3, recently. In order, these were:

• Replacement of the air conditioner compressor and desiccant system
• replacement of front and rear brake pads, wear sensors, and front rotors
• cleaned negative battery cable due to mild corrosion

I've also changed the diff oil in the front and rear, and done regular oil changes, but I don't think that those things "count" toward the analysis.

I'm not sure if the errors that are popping up are related to any of the previous repairs or tinkering. It has been two months since the A/C repair, one and a half months since the brake repair and negative battery cable removal and reattach.

When I started the car after I undid the negative battery cable (a month and a half ago), the parking brake warning came on and said that it was non-functional, but when I pulled the lever, I could hear it engage and disengage. After I pulled it a couple of times, the warning went off and it functioned fine.

Three days ago, after being parked for an hour or so, when I turned it on, it threw a warning that said that the special programs were offline, that the suspension adjustment was in access height only, and that the parking brake was offline.

I pushed down on the parking brake lever, and it disengaged just fine. I turned the car off and waited a few seconds, then restarted. The special programs came back online, but it remained in "access height" mode and wouldn't let me raise it. I drove it home (7 minutes or so) and turned it off. I let it rest for about 30 seconds, then restarted it and everything was back to normal. I raised it to "normal" height and drove it around the block with no difficulty.

Now, about half the time, the parking brake warning comes on, but it seems to function normally. After I disengage the parking brake, the warning goes off and doesn't come back on. I've decided to stop using the parking brake as if it *really does* get stuck on, then my bet is that it would be a, um, hassle to tow. It also throws a warning that the suspension is at fault and it is stuck in "normal" mode. I haven't been using the switch to raise and lower my truck, so it doesn't give the fault as often. It clears when I turn off the car and restart it.

It hasn't locked out the special programs since last Saturday, and has done it only once on that day.

So: could a battery that is on the edge of being bad cause multiple malfunctions?

Is there something that everyone who knows LRs can say, "oh, when you have those codes, then XXXXXX is the problem."

I know that I should get a code reader (I posted about this in February of this year), and I think I might get the RSW as it's like 150 bucks instead of 500 - unless the 500 dollars does something like back massages until I fall asleep.

Thanks in advance for your knowledge!

 

Yes; absolutely.

 

I replaced the brake light switch and the brake bulbs. The old bulbs looked OK before replacement: the filaments weren't broken, etc. These replacements did nothing to clear either the parking brake failure indication or the suspension lock.

I took pics of the process for changing the brake switch - it's easy and there are already lots of images for the procedure, but I'd be happy to post the ones that I took if anyone is interested. The only issue that I had was that when removing the knee fascia, one of the metal clips that attach to it sprung off and landed in an odd place, but it was easy to find.

The next step was to get the battery checked. I've noticed that the backlight on the main display in the dash would flicker when the parking brake was applied, or if the suspension was raised or lowered. The test came back with a bad battery: 267cca on a 700cca stock battery. It was replaced with (I know that it's risky i.e. the different battery may play havoc with the systems, but I do a lot of travelling and getting to the LR dealership in the next few days is an impossibility. I didn't want to be stuck with a dead battery somewhere) an AutoCraft AGM 850cca battery.

After the battery replacement, at least for now, there is no longer a parking brake fault displayed. The suspension fault reappeared after a few miles down the road.

Tomorrow, I plan on doing a hard reset to see if it's displaying residual faults or if they are recurring.

I haven't timed the EAS compressor to see if it is running an overly long time, but my next guess is the dryer being all befouled.

Does anyone have any other hints?

 

Sorry to revive an older post from January, but I have a somewhat similar situation to yours regarding the suspension fault. I had also replaced the OEM battery in my 2010 LR4 with an AGM; mine is an Interstate AGM deep cycle. Anyhow, the dealer scanned the codes because I was getting the stuck in "normal" mode message too, and the dealers says that the compressor is in fact going out. it's $1,400 to replace.. which is probably the case, but I wasn't getting the message before the battery swap. What did you find out after performing a hard test on residual faults? Did you end up getting a new compressor for the suspension? Thanks!

 

I haven't tried the hard reset, yet. Life got in the way and it's "stuck" in normal mode, which is fine for now.

I found a website that sells material to rebuild the compressor, which runs 100.00 or so American. It comes from the UK. I'm going to change the dryer material and filter as well as refresh the rings on the piston. It'll be a couple of weeks before it arrives.

Compressor rebuild kits for Land Rovers

As soon as I get the hard reset done, I'll post again. It will be tomorrow morning before I can get to it - weather permitting.

I'm surprised that the compressor is going out on an LR4. It seems a little quick, but I'm not one to judge as Land Rovers are new to me. User BByer is a veritable expert - if he's monitoring perhaps he'll have an opinion.

 

I am not so much an expert as I just know about more things that go wrong on a 3.


I cannot say I have any good ideas re the above the problems - the solutions generally are either throw parts at it or keep fooling around until you figure out just what is really happening. I say really happening as what does not work is usually just a symptom of the real problem of which the solution is usually easy and cheap to fix once you figure it out - but it is near impossible.

Re electrical, or really most any problem, as they all seem to be electrical anyway in some manner, I have a CTEK US3300 trickle charger that I will connect every night when problems start to appear.


It usually takes a good week to get what one thinks is a fully charged good battery back up to being fully charged. For a variety of reasons, the LR charging system cannot ever get the battery full up. Full up to me means that in the morning, prior to engine start, the battery voltage would be near 13 volts.

As such, when the computers powers up for the POST, they first see a full battery and sometimes will not throw their initial fits - that is false red or yellow warning lights or messages such as Cruse Control not Available.

I use the term false red or yellow as low start up battery voltage can make the computers think things are bad and it then takes a day or so or maybe just hours for the false info to work its way out of the system. In the meantime if you have done an engine shutdown and startup, the cycle starts over and the system never clears.

In other words, if a full battery makes some of the lights not happen, then perhaps you have a alternator, battery, or charging system concern.

Re the compressor on the LR4, I assume the compressor is the older Hitachi unit - an OK unit in my mind and the new AMK is not necessarily the solution to all of LR's compressor problems either.

I note Ohio and assume that humidity levels there are higher than say in Colorado or where I live in Alberta - (3,200 ft ASL and +20F this morning). If the compressor motor is still running, then the solution is perhaps a new air dryer or replacement of the air dryer desiccant. As noted in a previous post, there are guys in the UK and Germany who sell compressor and desiccant repair kits.

Regarding battery, I am an Interstate fan and so is Land Rover North America. I noted AGM and that is good so to speak, but the term deep cycle bothered me. My understanding is that a deep cycle battery is usually a motor boat battery whereas what I call shallow cycle or more commonly, starting battery, is what manufacturers usually install in vehicles for starting purposes.


The difference between deep cycle and starting has to do with thickness of the plates inside and relates to the ability for a large initial surge of current for starting, or not.

In other words, a deep cycle battery has a different starting characteristic than a starting battery and I suspect the LR computers are sensitive to that. I note the computers run at 5VDC so they must have lousy voltage converters. Eleven volts will start the engine but to the computers, that seems to be death and thirteen volts is sunshine - that puzzles me.

Also lower outside air temperatures can trigger lights but I think that is battery voltage related rather than mere air temperature. As winter sets in, any problem or weakness in the ABS side of the brake switch contacts starts to trigger lights and false messages - my favorite being "you need to install a new $7,000 dollar tranny" which LR was doing on warranty back in 2005/6 before they figured out that off spec brake light bulbs installed by the vehicle owner or a bad brake light switch would generate the false messages and lights.

 

I think that I've got the problem isolated to a dryer, which I'm ordering the parts for, today. If changing the dryer material doesn't work, then I'm going to go ahead and get a diagnostic program for the computer (my laptop) to diagnose my computer that also doubles as a 4x4.

When I installed the new battery - which isn't a deep cycle as I share your sentiments about their theory and application, but it is AGM - the parking brake fault went away.

Thanks for your input bbyer, and in spite of your humility, you do have lots of knowledge.

 

I did the hard reset procedure: disconnected (-) then (+), cleaned (-) terminal with baking soda and H2O, dried - took about 5 minutes. Connected (-) and (+) terminals with wire, waited 5 minutes, disconnected wire. Waited 10 minutes, put a very light coat of grease on the outside of the (-) terminal; reconnected (+) then (-) terminals to battery...

Worked! For 2 minutes. Suspension fault, normal height only signal on dash resumed.

So, I'm going to order the dryer rebuild and piston rebuild kit from overseas. It'll take a couple of weeks to get to, but I'll post pics for the rebuild procedure.

Oh, and it seems that Land Rover discontinued the dryer as a separate component: one has to purchase *the entire* compressor and dryer as a system. It's like they killed Kenny.

I have to say, I do like working on cars. I had a Mustang GT before this: it was a great car - but nothing went wrong...

 

So you cannot purchase the dryer any longer from Land Rover!

It is fortunate that those guys in the UK developed the desiccant kit then as I presume LR figured out that most Hitachi compressor problems could be resolved by replacing the dryer and if LR continued to make that part available, then sales of the new AMK compressor would be negatively affected. Each business unit has to stand on its own it seems.

Please keep us up to date then with the dryer fix and if it solves the problem.

I noted your comment about obtaining a diagnostic program for your laptop and so true, the 3 is a mobile computer posing as the worlds most capable 4x4, which it probably is but....

 

OK, so the final problem was the suspension air compressor.

I bought a rebuild kit from X8R in Great Britain. Shipping time was a week, as promised by their website and method that I chose for delivery.

X8R has instructions on how to remove and repair the air compressor. I took some pictures during the rebuild, but then I quit as I found that their site was more than adequate for visuals.

Some things that I'd like to add:

I've seen some people who state that they remove the compressor by undoing the allen bolts that hold it into the mounting frame. I tried this, and found that it was impossible to do without modifying an allen wrench. It was too much of a PITA for me to continue along this route. There are three bolts that hold the assembly to the frame. The first two are easy peasy.

There is an instruction video on YouTube that suggests using a 10mm universal assembly with an extension to get to the third - and you use your second hand to guide the socket into place behind the dryer. Another PITA.

After I got under and actually looked, I saw that the third bolt could be reached - with a wrench. I used a gear wrench and got to it without too much difficulty at all. It would have been better to have a longer handle, but the regular 10 got to it just fine.

When putting it back on, I partially secured one bolt - the one closest to the back, then placed the upper bolt into the closed end of the wrench, put the bolt into the opening on the compressor assembly, then rotated it - slowly - until the bolt matched with the hole in the frame. Worked great.

As far as the rebuild - the dryer was very easy. I took the liberty of cleaning all of the rust/dirt from the inside of the container. The seals were also very dirty, but not brittle or stiff. I took them off and dry cleaned them to ensure that there would be a decent seal. Again, X8R instructions were great. It should be noted that there is a thick filter, a thin filter, and a filter that has a plastic holder for the O ring that must be reused. The thick filter goes on the bottom, after putting in the metal filter retainer. The thin filter goes on the top, before putting on the top metal "sandwich" retainer that contains the filter with the plastic ring.

X8R supplies, BTW, a screw for the "sandwich" filter - and I overlooked it in the bag. I drilled out the metal "buns" for the "sandwich" (it's close to lunch for me, here) so a 6/32 (1/2 inch long) would fit. I used a stainless, along with a little thread lock for the bolt.

Rebuilding the piston was a WHOLE other issue.

The guys at X8R use a demo compressor that makes it seem much easier than what it is.

It was easy getting the head off of the piston unit. It was easy to get the heat sink removed, too (btw, self tapping screws, so don't get them out of order as it may screw with the threads getting them back in). There is a black shield that covers the piston arm. The screws were pretty tight - and I *almost* stripped one backing it out. I used a mini DeW@lt hammer drill and it popped right out.

There is a silicone sealant that surrounds the plate. It makes for a *good* seal. Be very careful prying this off. I used an Xacto knife to score the seal, then *gently* pried it off using an flathead screwdriver. Obviously, the seal is important, so you absolutely don't want the screwdriver to slip into the space and scratch the plate.

Once off, remove the silicone from the black shield. If you take a look at the housing for the piston, you'll see that there is a groove around the mating surface. Clean all of the silicone out of it and from around the contact edge of the body.

The real problems are coming up...

I couldn't get the bolt that holds the piston rod to the cam to come undone. It was so tight that I didn't want to loosen it partway and end up with a stripped bolt with no way to retighten it. This decision was made because the bit *did* pop out and partially messed up the torx thread. I left the piston on the rod and cut the plastic seal off and removed it like X8R recommends. Once cleared, there is a small space where you can pry off the ring that holds the plastic seal in place.

Again, another issue. I couldn't get the ring to budge off. At all. I ended up heating it GENTLY and pulling it off.

I'm not a metallurgist or a machinist. Bear that in mind. But, when I got the ring off and inspected it, it looked like someone had tried to put it on the piston and got it off center, filed it on one side, and re-sat it. Further, the metal that it is made from is what I would call, um, cheap. It seems like a very lightweight aluminum alloy. Cheap.

I cooled everything immediately after heating them - but I'm not sure if it will be good enough to maintain integrity. We'll have to see. I didn't buy the new compressor because I'm a cheap bastard. If I have to spend the money, then I do. We'll see.

After getting everything back together this morning, the compressor ran for about a minute and a half. I'm assuming it was because the reserve was evacuated or low. The front end bounced right up like it used to. I lowered and raised my LR3 for the first time in a couple of months - and I didn't get the suspension error "normal height only" as soon as the compressor turned off. I do have my fingers crossed, and hope that the internet does the same!