Thanks. I had thought they should be replaced in pairs. Replacing one at a time is much more budget friendly. LOL, especially since I'm going to probably be purchasing a valve block. Update today..I sprayed and sprayed and found no leaks. Opened up the front valve block and it looked good. I wiped it all down and reinstalled it all. Same result. I think I'll go for a new front valve block and see what happens. I'm not sure where to go from here....

 

Have you socked the top of the struts? If you want to do an easier test, find a 6mm or 1/4" push connect cap. And preferably a few inches of 6mm hose. Put the hose into the valve block in/out and cap it off. See if it lowers then. If it does then there is def a leak up front somehow, maybe the old strut. If there is no leak then you know the issue somehow is the valve block but because the internal leak of the valve block can not move air into the gallery, you effectively stopped the leak. If that make sense.

 

I have sprayed the top of the struts and doesn't appear to be any leaks....I like your idea of this further test..I will work on that one today. Thanks so much for continuing to work with me on this. Love the landrover community.

 

Update—— I disconnected the compressor line to the front valve block and isolated the front valve block and disconnected the battery. The front dropped down with the right side dropping slightly more than the left.

 

Since you bubble soaked the valve block, I suppose that can rule out the valve block body and connections. I bet you have a strut leak and it is probably the old one. Since they are suppose to be replaced in pairs anyway, you could tackle that project?

 

Yeah, the two fronts I believe were installed within a year of each other, last year. But honestly I’ve been having issues since I bought this about six months ago. This is definitely the deepest that I’ve dove into it. Leaving for a week tomorrow…then diving back in. Thinking to remove both fronts and manually test them each. Just to completely confirm before I drop the dough on a pair. The thing that’s still a bit strange to me is that they didn’t drop evenly…the right is lower than the left.

thanks again for all your continued help and advice! I’ll update after completion.

 

Sorry, I must have got another thread confused with this one. I thought one strut was new, installed by previous owner, and they gave you a second one to install.

 

you are correct. The right one was installed early 2025 and the left one was installed Sept 2025.

 

Ah okay, I thought one was still old and you still have a new one not installed yet. I read too fast. So if these are not OEM/OEM brand struts, maybe removing them would not be a bad idea. Just do the one that is lower for now. If you have a compressor you can easily use that to pump em up. You do not need much pressure at all. And I would suggest dropping it into a pool of water as you slowly inflate them. If there is a leak, bubbles will be super easy to find that way. The air that is leaking out is leaking from somewhere after all.

 

My gut tells me that they were not OEM. I’ve decided to replace them both with OEM. Yes, the air is certainly leaking out from somewhere. LOL. If that still doesn’t fix it then at least I know both fronts are new OEM.