Disco Td5 Air Springs (SLS)

My rear suspension suddenly collapsed a while back, presumably a leak so= fast that the compressor couldn't keep up and the computer shut it down,= literally. Roughly your mileage give or take 5,000.

Cost =A3900+ at a dealer for two new air springs and a compressor. Deale= r say that compressor is not rated for a lot of use (true from other sources) and will fail quickly after leaks develop. This was a bit of dispute between me and the dealer as I was told it had failed on the phone, the bill said "weak". I wanted the old compressor, "gone for refu= rb sir". On complaining compressors go for scrap not refurb... Couple of hundred quid off the bill.

So replace those springs! (=A3150ish each) I don't think it's a particul= ary difficult job. The snag is you might need test book to recalibrate the suspension afterwards...

Possibly not the spring, maybe the valve. There is a box under the sill with all the gear in it. Jet wash the springs really clean & get soapy water over them to see if it's the spring. If not, look at the valve block in the box. They can be fixed cheaply, or if you don't want to do it, buy a second hand one off ebay.

You can get them for £90 each & it is piss easy to do.

Yep - dead easy - I did the P38 on holiday with only very basic tools and some axle stands I got in the local supermarket. No need to recalibrate the system, but if yours has gone into a hard fault you might need a specialist to reset the ECU so it will inflate the springs

- at least you do on the P38.

Matt

I did mine recently on a 2001. Just the one side. Cost about 90 quid from paddocks. Mine had done 120k miles but the owner before me said he had replaced the compressor. As Nige says, a bit of soapy water painted on the bag will quickly indicate a leak. Piece of cake to do. Undo the nut to allow the air pipe out and deflate the old one. I believe the air pipe just plugs into the new bag (I undid the nut first, but that may not have been necessary). There was no calibration necessary on mine.

Heh. Mine waited until I was nicely settled on a campsite in S Brittany last week and then failed completely, both sides. Turned out to be the RHS height sensor [1], but negotiating an investigation and repair in a dealership where no-one spoke English, and then a hire car for three days [2] while they did it, was a bit of a test of the old schoolboy French.

The problem with SLS, brilliant though it is when it works, is that when one bit goes wrong, it all goes wrong. There's no "nearly right" option as with most mechanical stuff.

Yep we had a similar experience - much more natural to drive a LHD too over there - I found myself actually looking for oncoming traffic at roundabouts which was new :-)

Lee D

Yes, well in a small hired hatchback you need to look out for other vehicles - after years in a 101 when you don't have to give a s*it either way :-)