I'm thinking about getting rid of the air ride just because of how expensive it is to replace. I recently came along the old man emu 2" lift for the LR3. Has any one done this? And has any one used this lift I'm referring too? I figured I could sell my air springs on eBay for a good price and make my money back off the springs. The air ride is a pretty cool deal but when it all boils down to it it just seems like an expensive thing to fix if anything goes wrong and from what I hear there's a bunch that goes wrong.

I'm getting suspension faults at random, it's either the front valve block leaking back or just the compressor is going bad. Maybe it's a ride height sensor but i doubt it cause that's too easy to fix. If anyone has any insight on this it'd be great.

 

So...you're considering completely changing the suspension, and ripping out one of the best features of your LR3...because it "seems like" an expensive thing to fix and from what you hear there is a bunch that goes wrong.

I don't know that I'd consider that a very sound direction or train of thought.

A few things for you to consider:

1. Sensors are relatively cheap.
2. Compressors are fairly reliable now.
3. If a compressor fails, it's $1200 installed; and will likely happen only once.
4. Air lines are fairly well protected.
5. Compressor can be serviced ($150 every few years for new desiccant).
6. Air shocks last quite a while; $800 to replace.

So there are a few wear items and some maintenance. How much is your OME lift going to cost (which I've NOT heard of for the LR3, btw...I've only heard of the AB Replacement)? What are the downstream effects of that? Are all the sensors going to report properly? What about the electronic systems that require EAS inputs?

Selfishly I want you to do it...so we can hear how it goes; but personally I would NOT do it.

 

I get what you mean I think it's a cool feature. But I never really use it. I installed the lift rods and I usually just leave it in the regular setting all the time. This kit I've found is like $300 bucks so that's the only reason I'm even considering to be honest. In a perfect world I'd take out the old air bags, sell them, put in the new OME 2" lift, sell whatever other good parts I have like compressor, valve blocks, sensors etc. and I know that there is a kit that Atlantic british sells which includes an OBD thing that will what I'm assuming flash the module for the suspension and make all the codes go away. So if everything worked out right I'd be making money on the deal, and potentially keeping myself from paying Land Rover anything. My local LR deal wants to charge me 300 just for diag. I'm a mechanic (mopar) myself and I really don't want to pay someone else diag fees. I'd rather pay some extra and get the IID tool so I can diag some stuff myself. I was hoping there was someon out there that's already done this. I wanna know how much tire clearance I'll still have because I'm buying new tires too.

 

http://www.rocky-road.com/lr3-lift-kit.html

Here's the link. I emailed them to see what's actually in this "kit". Their website is kinda lacking of detail. But still if it's what I'm wanting then that's quite a bargain.

 

Ok, NO THANKS. You have to buy the conversion kit from Atlantic British, AND THEN if I want to lift it its another $300 on top of the $900 conversion kit. I'm just gonna take this thing to LR and see if I can get everything covered under warranty. Doubt it though. I'll just have to fix everything myself I'm sure.

 

Good lookin' out!

Oh, and if you take your LR3 off-road (and it sounds like you do) then you DO "use" this cool feature. The EAS is at its best in undulating terrain. The cross-link valving forces air in a drooping spring to push down that tire to reach terrain if possible. It emulates a solid axle and this is the main thing you'd be losing with a coil conversion.

 

My dealer tech has done this and said the vehicle rides and handles bad just fyi

 

Most of the obvious has been covered in here so far, but one very important thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that THESE VEHICLES WEIGH ALMOST 6000LBS!

You absolutely can not have a 6klb vehicle that "handles well" and still has any kind of payload or towing / utility capabilities without this air suspension. The shocks and springs would need to be so stiff that it would be inconceivable to me.

You'll also (essentially) lose terrain response, you'll lose the cross-linked suspension feature which mimics live axle behavior as mentioned above - but having standard independent suspension would be a large handicap over the original system.

Not sure if many people on the forum know this or not, but Arnott Suspension now makes a compressor unit for $720 (same spec as new design, same supplier as LR) they also have new front air shock assemblies for $375 with a lifetime warranty.

 

it would be like the front coils on my diesel 4x4 dually, and the shocks are large

 

Yeah but about the last thing on any HD truck suspension engineer's mind is how well it handles.

The sort-of "hybrid" ability of the LR design impresses me on a daily basis. Almost handles like a car, but I've had it at a GCVWR over 11klbs many times and drives almost the same.