I have no ACE... the rams are still there..

When I briefly test drove my Disco, it set the red ACE light and binging off within about a mile of the garage. No doubt thanks to me thinking bloody hell that's a sharp bend just here, and going on the brakes a little harsh (first time in the vehicle, first LR of any sort).

After picking up the car on Friday, and getting more used to it, I noticed a lack of warning lights on the dash during self test... where's the ACE? Where's the oil pressure light?

Back I went yesterday to get the oil light sorted. Turns out to be a broken wire to the switch. The mechanic asked me if it had had a clutch change? Yes it had! Sifting through its old paperwork - new clutch and dual mass flywheel about 2 years ago . There you go he said - wire could have got wrenched during that and finally given up the ghost. Sure enough there was an old crimp down there!

Whilst we were looking under the bonnet he showed me the idler pulley....where the ACE pump should have been. Did they remove it in the week before I got the vehicle (the bracket does look shiny)? Was it already missing and someone previously forgot to reprogram the electrickery properly? (Bearing in mind, bar the usual stuff, I hadn't much clue about some of the stuff under the bonnet.)

MOst of the other lights come on during self test (yes the 3 amigos are there, and they extinguish, but they are waiting to ambush me one day - ABS, TC and HDC). However, I'm still missing the handbrake light, transmission overheat light (it's a manual btw so no auto box temp/mode lights) and the transfer box in neutral lights.

ANYWAY! The rams are still on the vehicle and the ACE part of the reservoir is still full of fluid. What should I do? Do I absolutely positively NEED to get some non-ACE bars on the car? It handles fine to me. I'm not going to reef into corners at Mach 1 like I used to in my shed of a 1.6 Astra. I can feel some body roll of course, but not as much as I would have expected from this kind of car, even without ACE. I was pleasantly surprised.

If I eventually get around to fitting normal bars, could I sell the rams? Where might the plumbing be blocked off if the reservoir is still full?

Thanks,
Diff.

Well - the ACE part of the reservoir isn't..... there's only the one filler cap!! D'oh - If I'd have somehow discovered where to drain the reservoir via the ACE, then the steering fluid would have gone with it! If I had a braincell I'd be dangerous

Diff.

ace and pas are different reservoirs though look as one ,if you havent got a working ace then you need non ace roll bars etc ,insurance would look dimily on it in event of an accident id imagine

Thanks james - just to confirm the reservoirs are actualy separate despite the fact there's only the one filler cap?

Is there any difference in stiffness between the ACE bars and the normal anti roll bars? i.e when off road - ACE not active - the bar flexes the same as a normal bar?

Don't know if the insurance will look dimly on the fact there's no air bag suspension on the rear either...

Thanks.

Diff.

theres 2 with ace and pas or at least on the ones ive seen , non ace bar is more effective as roll bar than ace thats not working

The PAS/ACE reservoir on mine has separately marked min/max lines for both systems and a moulded line between the two, but the filler is at the front. Strange...

If the non ACE bar is more effective than defunct ACE, she'll handle like a sportscar! Like I said, I was pleasantly surprised by the on road manners..... Could the rams be locked to a set position?

Thanks for your input so far

Diff.

DIFFLOCK66 said:

The PAS/ACE reservoir on mine has separately marked min/max lines for both systems and a moulded line between the two, but the filler is at the front. Strange...

If the non ACE bar is more effective than defunct ACE, she'll handle like a sportscar! Like I said, I was pleasantly surprised by the on road manners..... Could the rams be locked to a set position?

Thanks for your input so far

Diff.

Click to expand...

i did mean non ace bars should be more effective ,locking rams would hinder roll bar effect

Mine has ACE and is an early 99model,mine has a single reservoir but twin caps,never seen one like you describe.

My Disco categorically does NOT have one of these:-



She just has the single filler large reservoir

Hmm full ACE bypass kit including bars on ebay £280

Diff.

Curiouser & curiouser - My google trawling led me to this:-

ACE - Active Cornering Enhancement

And I quote, with my emphasis:-

"If you break the lines while driving you will not notice anything abnormal. So LR incorporated a red flashing light and a buzzer. If the warning light glows orange, you have a problem and the system has switched to locked actuators, thus acting as heavy sway bars. If the light goes red and the buzzer goes on, you lost so much fluid that the pump can be damaged. Theorhetically the system closes the lines before this and switchs the pump to bypass.In this case you will notice much more body roll but you can still drive.

Diff.

if rams lock youd have drivers side more solid than passenger ,as ram only works on that side

She doesn't appear to drive like that.

Diff.

DIFFLOCK66 said:

She doesn't appear to drive like that.

Diff.

Click to expand...

without looking at what our car is actually like and has fitted its hard to say ,only that suspension etc should be correct

HenryD said:

Mine has ACE and is an early 99model,mine has a single reservoir but twin caps,never seen one like you describe.

Click to expand...

Ones that left the factory without ACE looked like this

99 04 Land Rover Discovery 2 Power Steering Reservoir | eBay

When I removed the ACE from mine (two pot reservoir) the kit included a metal insert, kind of like the insert you get in plastic plumbing pipes, to place in the output nozzle of the reservoir after removing the pipe to save having to buy a new reservoir.

Did you buy it from a dealer?

biggeeeee - that's the reservoir I have, only it's newer and in better nick than your example link

Yes Steve D - had a discussion about swapping out the sway bars, they suggested I go to a scrapyard to get S/H bars.

Dropped by my local garage (not a LR specialist but they have all sorts of vehicles in, and we go way back - fixing my Trans Am etc.). One of the guys took her out for a spin and the verdict was that she corners well, not biased to left or right.

My guess, until I get someone to rock the car whilst I'm watching the ram, is that it has a mechanical lock so it's solid OR, like most hydraulic systems (JCBs etc.) both sides of the piston have fluid, thus stopping it from moving.

I'll look into getting them swapped out anyway... then I can get rid of the valve block and associated pipework.

Diff.