L322 Air Suspension gone mad !

RR: 2004 Land Rover Range Rover Vogue (BMW M62 4.4 V8 Petrol with BRC 2 LPG Conversion )

Hi guys Harry here I hope your all well and safe, I really need some help as I am literally about to tear my hair out :/ I know this question must have been asked a thousand times but believe me when i say I have looked through almost every page on google, countless forums & every available YT video and I am struggling with a definitive answer. Yesterday I replaced my front height sensors as I have been doing some work on my beloved L322 during the lock down. Once completed i ran the vehicle from standard to access height & finally off road mode and all worked as it should However i left my car for two seconds and my idiot father decided to start calibrating the suspension and typing in random numbers. Since then my poor L322 has gone mad, she will not sit level, for example before i gave up last night the front left was at max height and the rear right at almost rock bottom. So this morning i went through RAVE, and through various Land Rover forums. and here is the procedure I followed

1. Switch the ignition on & plugin my Foxwell OBD reader.
2. Navigate to Air sus check fro any fault codes ( None Present )
3. Enter Calibration mode.
4. Starting the engine as advised.
5. Allow the vehicle to rise into its calibration mode, take around 2-6 mins.
6. Measure from the rim lip to the bottom on the arch.
7. Finish and wait and see what happens.

Each time I find that shes 20/30 mm out in each corner eventually i got the fronts within 10 mm of each other but then the rears were high. Finally I went in and did the process again and she just went slightly bonkers again. After consulting the forums again I saw members disagreeing which way to measure the height either from rim lip or from the hub cap. So I tried the hubcap method & now the car is sitting incredibly high. In the end i manually deflated her to sit level, disconnected the battery & put on charge. The surface my car is sat on is as level as possible I just cant seem to get her calibrated and cannot seem to find an actual step by step guide on my BMW vehicle. Any Help would be greatly appreciated. Any Further information can be provided Kind Regards Harry

Take a look in the technical archive, I think there is a write up in there on how to calibrate, certainly the heights are there.

@Datatek Will do just now =]

MrMach2 said:

@Datatek Will do just now =]

Click to expand...

I hope you measured / took note of the heights "stored in the system" before trying To re-calibrate it.

I attempted re calibrate my TD6 last year and stupidly didn't...... I couldn't get shot of the " articulation validity " Fault after, once driving off and going over 20mph despite it being sat "perfect" on all 4 corners....

@robhew86 Thank you for your reply! So I wrote down every measurement before and after each time. Before & after entering the measurements into the system. After the third time it seemed like I was getting closer to the correct heights but after that it started to go a little crazy again :/ is their a hard reset I can do ? Or let me know what process worked for you ? Kind Regards Harry

L322 is measured from the bottom edge of the rim to the bottom of the wheel arch - the P38 is measured to the hub centre.

For accurate calibration, does your device ask you for wheel rim size? as this will affect the correct heights.

@MrMach2
Just ensure you Do not loose the original height settings.

I used a different system to what your using I used RSW solutions all comms.

The procedure may well be different, with the allcomms, After each new input of heights you have to put the suspension into off road height then back down again to settle at its new calibrated 'height'

It's a very time consuming, lengthy process.

I did however find, e.g Once the rear was sitting exactly where it should have been according to the measurements (the bottom of the alloy wheel to bottom of the arch) I would adjust the front, then after putting it up into off road then down to settle, one of The rears would again be out.....don't ask me how (handbrake was always off and gearbox in neutral too)

Without stating the obvious, You are doing it on level ground aren't you and an empty car? (Not with 3 bags of cement in the boot)



As far as I'm aware, there is no "hard reset" For the suspension calibration, once you have started to adjust it, you need to keep going basically.

Saint.V8 said:

L322 is measured from the bottom edge of the rim to the bottom of the wheel arch - the P38 is measured to the hub centre.

For accurate calibration, does your device ask you for wheel rim size? as this will affect the correct heights.

View attachment 208551

Click to expand...

Ant, just out of interest as this confused me a little when I was calibrating mine, do you know why Storey Wilson measures from the centre of the hub when he re calibrates on 4DCAN on a later L322? (His YouTube demo video)

Cheers

@Saint.V8 Hey Saint V8 I hope you are well, I've read many of your posts! I have this pic saved to my phone but this one is better res so thank you My device for some reason specifies that you select the rim size in the "terms window" before i get to enter the height measurements but from what i can see there is nowhere to select the rim size, my RR is running standard 19" alloys. I will most likely make a video tomorrow to show you or take many pictures, probably a video will be better.

@robhew86 All I have to play with is the Foxwell device at the minuet, ahh I will definitively give off road mode a go tomorrow as it would make sense as when its in calibrate mode its high up anyway. Ive left mine in park so will give "N" a go. & Dont worry any advice is greatly appreciated at this point yes no one is in the vehicle and im keeping all doors closed and nothing in the boot.

** Kind Regards H

robhew86 said:

Ant, just out of interest as this confused me a little when I was calibrating mine, do you know why Storey Wilson measures from the centre of the hub when he re calibrates on 4DCAN on a later L322? (His YouTube demo video)

Cheers

Click to expand...

He has written the calibration software to be measured from the centre of the hub to eliminate the whole 'different size rim' errors that can happen.....the calibration still works the same - it goes to a datum height, you measure that and the ECU works out the rest.

It just takes away the rim size errors is all.

But All Comms uses the bottom of rim method. Not sure what the Foxwell device uses - should be i nthe manual somewhere I guess....but in either case, check your height measurements against the chart above to ensure calibration is correct.

@Saint.V8 Id love to say i had SVR 22" rims!!! But yeah it makes sense as I've read before, Foxwell also states that I should measure from the bottom of the wheel rim, I did try the hub measurements and they made the suspension go very high on all four corners more or less slightly

Have you got any faults listed under suspension ?
I tried calibrating my suspension using alcomms and never managed to get it spot on, I kept measuring and inputting the heights but sometimes it would move too much and other times not at all.
After I fitted my last height sensor having changed the same one for 3 different ones as a fault wouldn’t clear I eventually did the battery disconnect reset and the fault changed to something different.
I ran the faultmate extreme live data and realised my pressure was only 8 bar instead of 12 or whatever it’s meant to be.
I rebuilt my compressor and all faults cleared. None of the faults logged mentioned pressure being low.
If anyone can fix you it’s saint, rumour has it even his trainers have adjustable ride height.

@MrMach2 I also have the Foxwell and I agree about the bit that says enter the correct rim size but doesn't give you the option. I guess it assumes you have standard wheels, as @Saint.V8 says it would be much better to measure to the centre of the hub. I have just checked the measurements I had to enter last time I did mine and they range from 750mm to 795mm on 20" rims, are your measurements anywhere near these ?

Good Afternoon I hope you are all well & thank you for all of your replies they have been so helpful! So here is today's events; I reconnected the battery as the car had been on charge over night and read the error code in "Air Sus" "CAN BUS Error" now this is probably because I had the battery disconnected overnight. After cleared the fault it did not return again. I followed the calibration procedure as I stated in my first post regarding calibration. The first thing I tried as Rob suggested is put the gearbox into "N" after calibration the suspension did not move at all in "N" for some reason so I decided to try again in park. So I am going to try my best to give you as much information as possible. After Measuring all four corners from the bottom of the wheel rim lip and these are the numbers I got:

Front Left Front Right Rear Left Rear Right
820mm 810mm 750mm 750mm

After Calibration I remeasured each corner and this is what I had:

Front Left Front Right Rear Left Rear Right
800mm 755mm 798mm 740mm

So the FL came down as instructed but just not enough, The FR also came down to near perfect height. The RL went up curiously & RR came down to near perfect as well.

As I've tried calibrating multiple times now and not got desired result for some reason. I decided to start cheating the system if you like by entering calculated measurements during calibration to try and achieve the correct heights
(not actual measurements I calculated these by using the previous above data. So as the front left was still high i told the system it was still high and so on. Hopefully you can follow here) So what i did was enter the following measurements:

Front Left Front Right Rear Left Rear Right
850mm 810mm 800mm 750mm

This gave me the following results:

Front Left Front Right Rear Left Rear Right
740mm 740mm 700mm 700mm

So now I was seriously close to where the vehicle should be in standard ride height after consulting @Saint.V8 cracking diagram. With those results that seemed to work I calculated that for the fronts to come up 13mm and for the rears to come up also by 43 mm I put in the following values:

Front Left Front Right Rear Left Rear Right
727mm 727mm 657mm 657mm

Now this in theory should have got the car as near enough perfect with obviously the tolerances being between +/ - 2 mm however she just wouldn't settle down and the car was just stuck up really high & I mean seriously high. I believe the measurements are as follows:

Front Left Front Right Rear Left Rear Right
880mm 860mm 650mm N/a mm

At this point the car would not go into any of its modes the light will just continue to flash, in the end I manually deflated the car and put her back on charge. Also worth noting the car will try and adjust for "off road" or "access height" but the led would never stop flashing despite the heights going up and down.

Here are some notable info from the "live data" section of my Foxwell OBD reader (quick note I cannot remember at which point I took pictures of all this data but tomorrow I will allow the car to try and go into standard height & make sure I take pictures before engine on and after engine on, pump & suspension moves):

Ride Height Mode: INVALID
Battery Voltage: 12.9
Wake Up: ON
Standard LED: ON
Up Switch: OFF
Front Right Voltage: 3.80 V
Front Right Height: -1.0 mm
Motorway LED: OFF
Down Switch: OFF
Front Left Voltage: 50.7 -- This one has always been high before and after sensor replacement.
Front Left Height: -1.0 mm
Off Road LED: OFF
Access Button: OFF
Rear Right Voltage: 1.85 V
Rear Right Height: 0.1 mm
Access LED: OFF
Reservoir Pressure: 11.7 bar.
Rear Left Voltage: 2.67 V.
Rear Left Height: >>> mm.
Hold LED OFF.
Compressor temperature: 95 F.
Average Height Regulation inhibit: YES.
Car Jack Regulation inhibit: NO.
Door Open Regulation inhibit: NO.
Valve Door Duty Cycle Regulation inhibit: NO.
Braking Regulation inhibit: NO.
Over Temperature(Regulation): OK.
Over Temperature(Filling): OK.
Exhaust Valve: CLOSED.
Reservoir Valve: CLOSED.
Compressor Relay: OFF.
Front Right Bellows Valve: CLOSED.
Front Left Bellows Valve: CLOSED.
Rear Right Bellows Valve: CLOSED.
Rear Left Bellows Valve: CLOSED.
High Pressure Exhaust Valve: CLOSED.
Rear Cross Link Valve: CLOSED.
Front Cross Link Valve: CLOSED.
Engine Management ECU: OK.
Dynamic Stability Control ECU: OK.
Instrument Pack ECU: OK.
Front Left Offset: 65396 mm.
Front Right Offset 65339 mm.
Rear Left Offset: 1105 mm.
Rear Right Offset: 20824. (Note: after a calibration FL, FR, RL offsets all changed to 3 digit numbers however the RR always stays in the 20000 mm figure.

I hope you can see what i tried to do by subtracting and adding to hypothetical measurements to get to the desired height but sadly on the final go she was just stuck up really high & I gave up for the afternoon as I got so close and then she went crazy. Its worth adding that after each calibration was complete I waited for the pump to cycle a few times and then selected "off road" mode as Rob suggested and then back to standard and measured where she settled.

I have some questions though: After confirming in calibration that the doors are closed etc when i get to the page where i can enter the measurements for each corner the air compressor always kicks in and raises all four corners of the car should she be doing this?

What does the offset mean in the live data info?

So in conclusion i need to try again tomorrow and get you all the exact data which i will do, sorry for the really longggg post but i diddnt want to leave anything out I'm astonished at the response I've received from you all and I just wanted to say thank you to you all ! Kind Regards Harry

I think you can only cheat the readings so much before they go out of tolerance of what the Foxwell will accept. I also tried cheating it and had similar issues.
Have you checked all the sensors are secure and straight?

@backinblack Afternoon I hope you are well, I totally agree cheating it seems to almost get the range near where you want and then she just spits her dummy out. It's interesting because I believe the default value for the front during calibration is "680" I can't remember what the rears are. whereas I'm measuring values much higher values than that usually between 720 & 825 mm. I've replaced the front sensor's two days ago but not the rears I've attached pictures of them all to this post. they're all definitely secure and look straight to me:

Front Right:

Front Left:

Rear Right:

Rear Left:

So this morning I reconnected the battery and fired her up and had another "CAN bus Fault" in the air suspension category but I'm pretty sure this is because the battery was disconnected so I cleared that fault. I allowed the car to attempt to get in standard height. I then made a note of the Foxwell "live data" without touching or changing anything:

Ride Height Mode: INVALID.
Front Right Voltage: 2.26 V.
Front Right Height: -42.5 mm.
Front Left Voltage 20.4 V.
Front Left Height: 43.1 mm.
Rear Right Voltage: 1.39 V.
Rear Right Height: 56.4 mm.
Rear Left Voltage: 3.26 V.
Rear Left Height: -47.8 mm.


I then entered the calibration mode allowed the car to rise & then took these measurements:


Front Right: 800 mm.
Front Left: 825 mm.
Rear Right: 726 mm.
Rear Left: 760mm.

Then after calibration, I took these measurements:

Front Right: 825 mm.
Front Left: 805 mm.
Rear Right: 760 mm.
Rear Left: 730mm.

Foxwell said:

Ride Height Mode: INVALID.
Front Right Voltage: 2.44 V.
Front Right Height: -55.4 mm.
Front Left Voltage 20.7 V.
Front Left Height: 41.6 mm.
Rear Right Voltage: 1.23 V.
Rear Right Height: 42.8 mm.
Rear Left Voltage: 3.17 V.
Rear Left Height: -54.5 mm.
Front Left Offset: 432 mm.
Front Right Offset: 328 mm.
Rear Left Offset: 757 mm.
Rear Right Offset: 20494 mm.

So it's safe to say this calibration didn't work

I know it's had rear sensors a couple of years ago by the previous owner but I'm thinking due to that huge Rear Right Offset always being really high all the time maybe it's worth a punt at getting a pair on bay de la E for £26.99?

@backinblack Did you ever manage to get yours working again? If so what seemed to do the trick?

I appreciate all of your help & thank you again !!!

Regards Harry

I just recalibrated again, it isn't totally level but it's close enough for now.
The car is currently broken otherwise I would check what my Foxwell says. Hopefully she will be running again next week and I can check.

The canbus error is normal and clears with the steering lock to lock.
I think if you can get somewhere near and it is safe to drive I would leave it alone for a bit and use it. Take it up to motorway speed if it is behaving rationally to see if it adjusts and and also off road and access heights leaving plenty of time in between as in hours or days.
Sometimes mine will sit with the light flashing and never reaches the solid off road height led, if I roll back and forward with a stab on the break it does or take it around the block. Mine never seems happy with just trying to adjust heights stationary.
You may have partly worn height sensors giving intermittent readings, mine has freaked out a few times if it has been on a ramp with the wheels hanging down, probably caused by questionable height sensors.
Have you checked all other systems for faults as the canbus is shared i believe by several other systems or they are linked.

Was everything ok before replacing the height sensors or what lead you to change them , they can be put in back to front but i think you would be having more trouble if you had.