J

jonnybazuka

New Member
Hi,

We purchased our forst Disco yesterday which we are really chuffed with (on the whole). It's got the characteristic sunroof and minor box oil leak but given the cost of the car, we're not really bothered and will get them fixed in good time.

I was inspecting the engine bay more thoroughly when we got home with it last night for the first time and noticed that the ACE fluid tank was empty - I mean there wasn't a drop in it!! My immediate reaction was "where's the warning light?!" but on even further inspection I figured that there was a nifty peice of insulation tape engineering on the dash. I removed the dash and the sh1tty piece of tape and hey presto... an amber warning light. :doh:

On checking the service history, it seems that a LR garage/ franchise have given the system the snip; "INVESTIGATE WARNING LIGHT AND LOSS OF FLUID - CARRY OUT BYPASS - FIT NEW PULLY AND BELTS - FAULT FIXED".

Reading other posts on this forum, the ACE seems to be a well respected (albeit problematic) system so the question is.... what should we do??

Thanks in advance,
John
 
It would seem that they have decommissioned the ACE system on the vehicle.

I would probably go and ask them what other work was done.

It seems that they have changed the pully and belts for a non ACE vehicle. Ideally they should have swapped out certain suspension components for non ACE ones. But a lot of people don't.

They may be able to tell you exaclty why the ACE wasn't working - possibly because of a leaky pipe or pump etc. In any case it would be useful to know. ACE works very well when working properly. The difference between having ACE and not having ACE is quite noticable.
 
Thanks for the swift response Snowey.

One thing that I forgot to mention was that one of the pipes attached to the fluid tank is bent double, clipped and sealed with what looks like wax - I assume a sure sign of a decommission.

Just for peace of mind, do you think that the car's safe etc? I wouldn't like to be casually driving down the road and the thing flip over or anything with no warning! Is the only down side the inflated body roll?

Thanks again
 
From my experience, driving a D2 with the ACE not working is rather like driving a D1.

My D2's ACE was not working when I first got her.

If you are not going to have the ACE then it may be a good idea to modify the suspension to non ACE standard. I know this involves changing out certain bits but these can eb bought cheap SH, so it needn't be too expensive.
 
I,m slightly concearned that the ACE side is empty.

The PAS and ACE share the reservoir, and although there is a " wall " in the tank seperating the two, this is below the " MIN " mark for both.

At best, your PAS fluid is too low.


Del.
 
Just to add.

My Disco has,nt got ACE, and although I hear how good it is, I cant fault the way my car is on road.

I,m sure fitting standard anti roll bars wont be to difficult or expensive.

Del.
 
Ok thanks again.

Do you know which components in particular we need for the suspention modification if we decided to go down that route? Is it a big job in terms of labour etc?

Del, thanks for your response. I believe that the ACE originally had a leak and therefore would have naturally emptied over time I guess?? I don't suppose the garage would have refilled it knowing that it would not be used. I was under the impression that the ACE system used a slightly different fluid to the PAS so surely the design would nhot allow them to mix?
 
Both systems share the reservoir.

Theres a divider in the middle, which, I guess, stops the tank completely emtying if one or the other system leaks. ( I know this cause i just replaced my steering box and the ACE side did not empty below the " MIN " mark ).

I havn,t looked at my anti roll bars that closely, but theres not too much to them.

I,ll have a look tomorrow and get back to you.

There may well be someone on here that may know more.

Del.
 
Cheers for the link. We will get to a garage and get a quote for the work etc , but just so we have an idea of the work to be done...... is the anti roll bar the only thing that will need changing to make ours fully none-ACE?

Are there any more bits that would ideally have to be changed?

Many thanks (again!!)
 
Front and rear anti roll bars.

Also, they need to have removed the pump and fitted it with an idler pulley otherwise the pump will seize due to lack of lubrication as there is no fluid flowing around it any more.

Dunno whether there could be insurance implications for removing ACE though - I suspect they would try to claim it was a suspension modification from 'standard spec' for your car, as it originally came with it.

Mine is needing a new front actuator and new pipework as things are corroding/leaking and it's a damn expensive system to keep running :-(
 
Tell me about it!! We've only had the thing 24 hours and we've already found a few small niggles that are turning out to be significant!!

The thing is we don't know what was actually wrong with the system until we can get in touch with the garage that gave it the snip - tomorrow with any luck. I'm guessing it was something fair catastrophic though because it cost over £200 to add the pulley and bypass the ACE.
 
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