WhydidhebuyaP38?

New Member
Hi Guys

We have a P38 X reg 4.6 V8 vogue

2 months ago we had all the airbags replaced as they were leaking and perished.

Since then we have had a weird problem. It will go up and stay up, but then sometimes the front collapses and takes a while to come up but the worst one is when you have been driving it, go in a shop and when you come out the whole suspension is as flat as a pancake and refuses to budge.

However if you can get it home and leave it overnight, the next day the compressor works overtime and the car comes up after about 10 minutes.

Any ideas as this is really really annoying and it has been back to the garage that replaced the air bags twice when it was flat and as soon as they drive it into the workshop it comes up.

There are no diagnostic lights or faults showing when they hook up their testbook.

Has anyone any ideas what this could be?? Or where to start looking.

This never happened before the airbags were replaced, it was sometimes slow coming up but never failed.

Thanks
 
Leaking airline where it goes into the airbag, or maybe they strained a height sensor when the airbags were changed. You sure there are no faults logged?
 
Definitely no faults logged at all which is why its a puzzle. Garage says drive it on bump stops until it logs a fault. but we drove it for 5 miles from where it went flat to garage and still nothing registered. Garage was hopeful that it would register as it was flat, but as soon as he turned his back to get testbook the car suspension came up.
 
Definitely no faults logged at all which is why its a puzzle. Garage says drive it on bump stops until it logs a fault. but we drove it for 5 miles from where it went flat to garage and still nothing registered. Garage was hopeful that it would register as it was flat, but as soon as he turned his back to get testbook the car suspension came up.

If it's on the bump stops, there are only really two reasons, a hard fault or lack of air pressure which should also log a fault.
Could be a bad connection in the EAS box or the compressor not making enough pressure, also worth checking the under bonnet fuse box for signs/smells of burning.
If it's already on the bump stops, IMO driving it like that will not cause it to log a fault, the ECU has probably shut down and is not looking to log faults.
Could be that the garage test system is failing to communicate with the EAS so not seeing the faults.
 
The compressor was running but it was hot. the garage has said that the compressor is ok. we even tried leaving a door open so the compressor can fill the reservior and not try to fill airbags and reservior at the same time.

The garage is a land rover garage but not a main dealer, would a main dealer have more equipment to trace the fault?

We dont know if the height sensors were recalibrated when the airbags were replaced or if they need to be.
it can be fine for 2 weeks and then suddenly it will just go.
 
The compressor was running but it was hot. the garage has said that the compressor is ok. we even tried leaving a door open so the compressor can fill the reservior and not try to fill airbags and reservior at the same time.

The garage is a land rover garage but not a main dealer, would a main dealer have more equipment to trace the fault?

We dont know if the height sensors were recalibrated when the airbags were replaced or if they need to be.
it can be fine for 2 weeks and then suddenly it will just go.

If done properly there is no re-calibration necessary when changing the airbags.
I suggest you check the compressor output as described by Wammers in the "how to" section, if the compressor is good then I reckon you have a leak, could be the diaphragm in the valve block, check for air coming out of the exhaust on the valve block.
 
Leaking seal within the solenoid block, thats what i've traced mine to. I'm no expert compared to the senoirs on here, but I did all my leak tests until only the seals within the block could be at fault. I was going to get a 2nd hand block and get a seal kit so i could rebuild it then swap it over.
 

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