Wife wanted an LR3 (2008 HSE), we've only been off road a couple of times. My son came of driving age and the wife bought a c-class for herself (wanted better mileage) and let the boy stay safe driving the LR to school.
I haven't driven it in a couple of years and just this past weekend spent some time in it (we used to use it for road trips all the time). I was shocked that the suspension was as soft as it was. It was clear that it was not as I remembered it. My initial thought was the air springs have to be shot.
Last Friday I put it in extended height and pulled the fuse and just waited to see if it drops. Two days later still at the same height. It has 109k miles on it so this also was surprising.
This truck isn't safe and I'm worried about letting him drive it again. In trying to describe it... imagine in your car/truck (not LR/RR) that the next time you drove it that someone had removed the swaybars. Kind of like that. I can no longer avoid an obstacle for fear of rolling the truck.
It's had it's 110k or whatever, service recently and no codes and otherwise running great.
I don't know where to go from here. I was entertaining the idea of Arnott springs and a new compressor.
Any ideas?
Drew

 

Here is an idea, Drew: Jack the front end up so that the wheels are fully off the ground. Check for contact between the upper control arms (on either side) and the air shock's metal outside cannister. If they are touching, then you are right, the airshocks are worn out.

 

Ok so that makes sense. I didn't think that they could be worn out but still hold air. Can this be checked without lifting it? Just curious. Maybe look for contact marks?

 

Sure....you could look for contact marks, but it could be that they haven't made contact yet but would if lifted or articulated.

...not hard to lift it, one corner at a time. My comment only really applies to the front, anyway. I am not sure if the rear shocks produce the same effect. I've not heard of the rears wearing out or causing contact, either. Also, start with the passenger side front; for some reason that one tends to go first.

 

If what I know is correct, the air spring is separate from the shock absorber. It could be the air bladder's fine but the attached shock is no longer able to properly damp the motion. Also check the rear sway bar links to see if they are broken. Both of mine were snapped when I bought it but to be honest, haven't noticed a lot of difference since I got them fixed.
The Arnott assembles utilize a HD Bilstein damper and would be a great upgrade, imo.

 

I'm leaning toward just replacing it all. It's so bad I have to be constantly thinking about it while driving. Tracks straight but a left turn at a light (any for that matter) and amount of roll surprises. Assuming the links are ok it can't possibly be anything else right? I only feel comfortable diagnosing with parts (don't usually of course) because of the severity and the current mileage. If the Arnott assemblies would tighten things up then I'm onboard.

 

It takes 20 minutes and no $ to jack up the front passenger corner of the vehicle and see....

 

Is it body roll or does it just feel very loose?

Yes, there is a lot else it can be, and if it sits level while driving, I would expect any failure of the assembly to be with the shock, not the air spring.

 

I'd also want to check the front sway bar end-links. I've broken them before but normally only when wheeling hard. It sounds like this is a street car, not an off road rig so I'm not sure about that but hey, it's easy to pop a wheel off and look.

The truth is it could be any number of things from bad bushings to sway bar end links to bad shocks... certainly DIY-able stuff, but you need to be fairly comfortable with a spanner to diagnose it. It may be safer to have a local shop take a look if it's as bad as you say it is. I find these trucks are pretty boat-like even stock; far more than I'd like, but then again my background is road racing so I prefer a much more tied-down and firm ride than Joe Average.

 

I'm with Zelatore and would be looking hard at the sway bar connection points.