LR4 vs LR3 Air Suspension Struts

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

bbyer

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Posts
895
Reaction score
151
Location
Alberta
Quick question:

I am about to change the Struts on a friend's LR3 (they are leaking).. I know that the LR3 struts have a different part number than ours, but from the outside they appear to be identical to the LR4 strut.

Could that different part number just mean updated seals and such on the LR4, but essentially the same strut?

Thanks in advance,

Mike
I do not know about now, but when the LR4 first arrived in Australia, the blokes were changing out the factory LR4 air bag and shock assemblies for factory LR3 units.

The spring rates or whatever were / are different at the time of introduction and the perception was that the LR3 units were better tuned for rough conditions.

Me, I would be installing LR3 units unless I was looking for the boulevard ride, and then it would be on all four corners.
 

jwest

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2008
Posts
2,041
Reaction score
409
Location
Seattle WA
I do not know about now, but when the LR4 first arrived in Australia, the blokes were changing out the factory LR4 air bag and shock assemblies for factory LR3 units.

The spring rates or whatever were / are different at the time of introduction and the perception was that the LR3 units were better tuned for rough conditions.

Me, I would be installing LR3 units unless I was looking for the boulevard ride, and then it would be on all four corners.

That's an interesting note I had not heard of before. Makes sense why the lr4 feels a lot more dampened if it's not simply due to the geometry and few small parts in the front end suspension.
 

bbyer

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Posts
895
Reaction score
151
Location
Alberta
That's an interesting note I had not heard of before. Makes sense why the lr4 feels a lot more dampened if it's not simply due to the geometry and few small parts in the front end suspension.
My view is that the LR4 is tuned for pavement more so than what the LR3 ever was.

I find that on what I call corduroy - that is lots of smaller regular recurring bumps, (including railroad tracks), that the LR3 is superior to most. It is certainly better than an F-150 or most pickups. Those vehicles tend to go sideways when the road is rough whereas it seems the faster one goes in the 3, the more stable it is.

Locally there is a main rail crossing with 3 sets of tracks. I can go over them at speed whereas most vehicles slow to a crawl. Even then, snow lumps frozen to the suspension gets thrown off even at a crawl. My problem can be not remembering to slow down if following the pack.

That was pretty much what the problem was in Australia; on rough roads, the 3 just drove better than the 4, and hence where it mattered, the owners installed the LR3 airsprings in their new 4's.
 

jwest

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2008
Posts
2,041
Reaction score
409
Location
Seattle WA
jwest, i have a question related to Bilstein strut for LR4

Bilstein has AIR SUSPENSION STRUT sold as assembly module, but only for front


what about the rear one?
I know there is OEM AIR SUSPENSION STRUT sold as assembly module for rear
but Bilstein just has shock only for rear

I do see Air Spring For Electronic Air Suspension (EAS): Rear For LR3, LR4 And Range Rover Sport sold online.

Can I buy this air spring and rear shocks only to substitude the assembly module?


thanks

I think you can pull some interface parts off an old rear strut but having gone through this, I'd just go with the oem or factory parts like seen on Rovers North.
 

manoftaste

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2006
Posts
618
Reaction score
194
....

This was an issue in Australia when the D4 first appeared - blokes who had replaced their 3's for the new 4's, were complaining about the ride - that they could not fly over corrugated trails as they had in the past. Some of them were taking the new 4 air struts out and replacing it with older 3 stuts. As to if LR subsequently made changes to the D4 suspension, I do not know.

Very interesting, bbyer. This is one of the first main thing that I had noticed when I migrated from my LR3 to LR4. The LR3 suspension was very well setup, the truck would literally "float" over the light and sharp bumps, corrugated type of surfaces, uneven raised/lowered concrete joints on the freeways, etc, all while keeping composure. The suspension tuning also helped that secured feel while driving during rain and on wet surfaces.

LR4 on the other hand gets unsettled very easily and the front end gets thrown off course quite easily on those very same surfaces. Better tire selection helps to mitigate the issue a little but its really not as great as the LR3' setup was. Also, during rain, even with excellent tires, LR4 feels a bit less planted than LR3, and that lighter-than-LR3 steering weight also adds to that feeling.

So yes, on corrugated type of surfaces, running an LR4 fast would be a little bit of nightmare, as I faced the similar situation a few months ago here at Joshua tree geology drive and other dirt roads there.

LR3 handled city streets really well.
 

mklinker

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2018
Posts
115
Reaction score
31
Location
boston, ma
From what I understand, the LR4 struts have a different "spring rate" from the LR3. I think that means softer, but that is subjective. The bottom line is that yes, there is a design difference even if there is no physical difference.

This was an issue in Australia when the D4 first appeared - blokes who had replaced their 3's for the new 4's, were complaining about the ride - that they could not fly over corrugated trails as they had in the past. Some of them were taking the new 4 air struts out and replacing it with older 3 stuts. As to if LR subsequently made changes to the D4 suspension, I do not know.

They might have different damping, but spring rate should be the same because they are both air shocks...
 

bbyer

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Posts
895
Reaction score
151
Location
Alberta
They might have different damping, but spring rate should be the same because they are both air shocks...
I guess you are saying the design of the shock absorbers within could be different but the rubber of the bladder on both would act the same.

I could accept that; I do not know much about suspension design, but something is different in the assemblies I would hazard to say.
 

jwest

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2008
Posts
2,041
Reaction score
409
Location
Seattle WA
I guess you are saying the design of the shock absorbers within could be different but the rubber of the bladder on both would act the same.

I could accept that; I do not know much about suspension design, but something is different in the assemblies I would hazard to say.

The easiest thing would be the dampers to affect the feel of the handling. The spring rate is going to be the air pressure, the volume of air in chamber, not so much the rubber I would venture to guess.
 

manoftaste

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2006
Posts
618
Reaction score
194
They might have different damping, but spring rate should be the same because they are both air shocks...

Not so sure about that. My reasoning is that even though its air, they could have just as easily decided to redetermine and revise the set amount of air for all four corners for the desired ride quality that the engineers (rather, the suits and the bean counters in this particular case) deemed needed at standard height mode. And, then they could have re-tuned other parts of the suspension to compensate or accommodate the revised air amount.
 

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
36,223
Posts
217,600
Members
30,474
Latest member
sawcut
Top