My Big Fat Costco fail

[umbertob]

You can't really "lock" the suspensions by setting them to high / off-road position. You just give yourself or your mechanic more clearance to preciely position a jack (or lift) at the jacking point(s), and let the car do some of the heavy lifting before you start, that's all. The affected suspension will still drop all the way as you jack the corner up, regardless of which height you start from: normal, off-road as the manual recommends, or even access height if don't mind the exercise. That's why you really need a high reach jack if you do this in your garage - or you can trust the dinky scissors jack that came with the car, it's not confidence inspiring but will work fine in a pinch and as long as you are on perfectly level ground and position it exactly under the jacking point. That scissors jack doesn't fare well in even slightly offset positions, and I'd rather not use it unless I don't have another choice handy.

When you are done, regardless of which height you set before jacking, the car will most likely be in extended off-road height, but you will be notified of this when you turn the engine back on and you will simply touch the height control switch in the car to knock it back down to normal height before driving away (as a matter of fact, you should probably do this while the car is slowly rolling.)

 

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You can't really "lock" the suspensions by setting them to high / off-road position. You just give yourself or your mechanic more clearance to preciely position a jack (or lift) at the jacking point(s), and let the car do some of the heavy lifting before you start, that's all. The affected suspension will still drop all the way as you jack the corner up, regardless of which height you start from: normal, off-road as the manual recommends, or even access height if don't mind the exercise. That's why you really need a high reach jack if you do this in your garage - or you can trust the dinky scissors jack that came with the car, it's not confidence inspiring but will work fine in a pinch and as long as you are on perfectly level ground and position it exactly under the jacking point. That scissors jack doesn't fare well in even slightly offset positions, and I'd rather not use it unless I don't have another choice handy.

When you are done, regardless of which height you set before jacking, the car will most likely be in extended off-road height, but you will be notified of this when you turn the engine back on and you will simply touch the height control switch in the car to knock it back down to normal height before driving away (as a matter of fact, you should probably do this while the car is slowly rolling.)

Let me ask a question. If you can't lock it then why when you go to an airport and leave your car for a week in the normal height position you will come back and the air compressor motor will run to pump up the air in the suspension But if you leave the car in the same conditions with it in the off road position and you don't have any leaks in the system it will be at the same ride height as when you left it?

 

[umbertob]

I have no good answer... The car often self levels a few seconds after you park it and every few hours, and by raising it to off-road height my guess is that you have done the bulk of "leveling" yourself (next time, try lowering the car to access and then raising it back up to normal height before exiting the car and and leaving it for a week. Assuming no leaks, height should stay pretty much unchanged until your return.) It also depends on how much passenger + cargo weight is unloaded and loaded back into the car as you leave or after you come back. Lots of variables.

 

[toddjb122]

Not sure. the manual defiantly says in the High Position. Try it and see. get back to us on what happens.

Like I said, I think if I'm unlucky enough to get a flat tire, I'll put it in off-road height. There's no lock for that, though.
However, as far as putting it on a lift, I'm 100% sure no mechanic has ever done that in the last 13 years I've owned one of these. Well, 95%... I don't know what the dealer did because they never let me back in the work bay. My mechanic does have arms that he slides out to support the vehicle prior to lifting. That is likely what the OP's Costco shop did not have.

 

[Azoo]

I agree with everything umbertob said so far....

I changed my tires recently at a local tire place and they used floor jacks 2 wheels at a time. They did the fronts first and the rears after. when they were done the truck in all 4 corners was in off road height. When i got in the car i forgot to lower the car back to normal driving height and once i drove over 50km/h i got a warning saying the car is been lowered to normal driving height.

 

[Davidinseattle]

just pulled out my manual. It says

"WARNING
Make sure the air suspension is set to off-road height. THE JACK WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BE LOCATED TO THE JACKING POINT WITHOUT DOING THIS."

Hmm, wonder who their translator was from the queen's english to US LOL.

At any rate, it also shows the jack points on the frame rail. Now I understand why costco didn't want to lift it without the "tabs" on their lifts as the jack points are where the rails come up form the tires/suspension area to the bottom of the floorboards. It appears to take an upward sweep. So, without the pegs/tabs, the would not be able to lift them in that spot. In my opinion, this has nothing to do with the air suspension. Another posters suggested that as well.

 

[The Rover]

Can anyone confirm if you really need to lock the suspension in low or high before a lift? I have NEVER seen a mechanic do this to my LR3 or LR4. As stated above, I heard it was a Discovery issue and I have heard that it's no longer required.

What I suspect is that if you are jacking it to change a single tire, it would be beneficial to lock it, which is why this may be in the manual. In that way you don't have the suspension compensating for the raising you are doing to one tire, and potentially changing the balance point, and risking the vehicle falling off the jack. So, it may be more of a liability issue in that sense (thus the recommendation) than a need for damaging the air shocks.

2013 LR4. There’s no high position lock. It’s low only. Same was true for my 2007 LR3. See the lock symbol. If you don’t lock it, the suspension keeps trying to compensate and that leads to failure/breakage/expense beyond that which was originally intended.

 

[umbertob]

The access height "lock" mode only prevents the car from automatically rising from access back to normal height until you reach speeds up to about 20 mph. It is designed so you can drive at a decent clip inside low overhead clearance parking structures and garages that you could not otherwise enter at regular height (not locking access height would cause the car to automatically rise when you reach speeds as low as 8 mph or so.) It doesn't prevent your suspensions from extending all the way when you jack the car up, though. Again, although the car will look like it's on stilts, nothing gets damaged if you follow the instructions on your manual - the suspensions are designed that way. If anything, locking the car at access height will make it challenging to slide and position a floor jack under the 4 jacking points on the chassis.

 

[Jomcool]

My vote says the Costco folks that can't properly lift an LR4 with a typical shop lift aren't qualified to work on one. Go somewhere else...quickly. While my two-post lift has several different optional add on pedestals to reach hard to reach frames such as an F-250, my LR4 doesn't require them. The standard setup works well and can land on the recommended lifting points no sweat. And...my lift is an old school Ford Rotunda from a Ford dealer who went out of business. Perhaps the new fangled lifts aren't as good. On second thought, I'll bet they screwed up someone's Rover and decided they can't do it. Probably a good policy for them.

 

[toddjb122]

Yup, agreed @Jomcool. The only time anyone every refused to work on my car was in 2005, when I had a 2005. Brand new design and the shop didn't yet have any of the settings in the computer to do an alignment or something. I think that's a good policy... if a place doesn't think they can work on the car (whether they are correct or not) drive it out of there! Bad things will happen.

The access height "lock" mode only prevents the car from automatically rising from access back to normal height until you reach speeds up to about 20 mph. It is designed so you can drive at a decent clip inside low overhead clearance parking structures and garages that you could not otherwise enter at regular height (not locking access height would cause the car to automatically rise when you reach speeds as low as 8 mph or so.) It doesn't prevent your suspensions from extending all the way when you jack the car up, though.

Yes. THIS.