As long as I'm ditching the air suspension...

[sine mora]

Headed outside today only to see my Disco II had taken on the stance of a low rider. It looked like the ol' girl's rear wheel wells were resting on the tires! She returns to this position shortly after being parked... A short time searching on the good ol' rover forums tells me what I already figured: 140K+ miles has taken it's toll on some portion of the air suspension system (I know there's some techy sort of term for it... but it escapes me) and I can either spend $$$ on trying to repair the air system or just switch to springs. Last time I checked, there weren't any piles of cash lying around my place so I'll be switching to springs.

No big deal right? So here's the thing: Lifting the ol' girl up an inch or two (I'm not really interested in much more than that) has been on my wants list for a while, although the original plan was to take care of more pressing issues first (pesky fluid leaks, etc.). I'd like slightly larger tires as well for just a bit more capability on the handful of days a year I take her out through the woods. I get to shopping for a kit to replace the air bags and my eye is caught by "Heavy Duty Coil Spring - 1.6 inch lift". Strangely enough, it's cheaper to buy a pair of these springs AND the individual pieces of the "kit" than it is to just buy the standard air-to-spring kit.

Am I missing something? Assuming I also buy the same type of springs with the same lift for the front, is there anything else I must buy before tackling such a project? Can any fella with a few tools tackle this project or am I going to need some special tool? I'm assuming replacing the shocks is also recommended, but could I hold off on those until I locate the missing cash pile? Will this moderate 1.6" lift require any other replacements/changes to the rover such as drive shafts etc?

I'm also curious if there is some way to disable the warning light that I'm sure will be lit once the air bags are a thing of the past?

I'm looking at buying whatever I need for this project from a couple of different places, to include Strutmasters (saw the handy coupon!) Rovers North, or Atlantic British.... For the sake of conversation, here are the three pages that I've been looking at:


Rear Air Suspension Coil Spring Conversion Kit


Coil Spring - Performance Yellow - Rear Heavy Duty - 1.6 Inch Lift - Pair

Coil Spring - Performance Yellow - Front Heavy Duty - 1.6 Inch Lift - Pair

I am planning on taking care of the drive shaft(s) that seem to blow up on high mileage disco IIs at the same time.... Guess I'll close this ridiculously long post now to go look for a guide on how to perform that job.

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

 

[sine mora]

Just found OME springs of similar nature adding as much as 3" of lift.... decisions decisions....

 

[tjp74]

Have you sprayed some soppy solution on the airbag to see if you have any leak? Not sure why people are ditching air suspension but I see pair of new aftermarket airbags for less than $200 on internet and changing is really simple. I would think that's cheaper than converting to coil spring? If it was air compressor/valve block issue, I see good used ones on ebay for not much.

Is air spring that hard and expensive to fix?

 

[hawkster]

I had Coil suspension on my Disco 1 and it felt real harsh compared to the air suspension on my Disco 2. I'm in agreement with tip74. The air suspension and ACE are incredible features that make the vehicle amazing. I would just get the parts on-line if there was a leak and change them out.

 

[sine mora]

Well.... switched to the springs mentioned above yesterday. Proved to be a heck of a job for this novice, but I had help from a good friend who knew what he was doing. The ride is more stiff, but not to a point that it annoys me, at least not yet with just a day's worth of driving.

The monroe shocks I bought at the local parts store were not the right ones, so I'll be replacing the shocks again soon, as well as some other parts underneath that looked a bit rough. I suppose I'll need longer shocks to make up for the mild lift (about 1.6" per spring manufacturer, seems more than that to me..)

Drive shaft rebuild is next priority (have considered disconnecting it altogether to keep it from damaging other parts in the event of a failure... although I'm not sure how big of a job that is...) I've developed a new vibration that is only present when I'm on the accelerator (regardless of how fast/rapidly I am accelerating) and that's made me quite nervous as well.

Then the oil leak(s), then new tires, then a new bumper/winch/brushguard, (I trashed the old bumper in the last trip off road...) then a roof rack, and the list goes on and on and on...