I am so appreciative of all the informative responses. I'm so glad to have access to good information through this forum as well as speaking with Eric at Lucky 8. I'm already feeling some anxiety leaving me as I'm becoming more familiar with my first Land Rover.
To start, I live in Woodstock, Ga (small town on the north side of Atlanta OTP). I noticed the it sitting lower in the morning and raising to driving height when I started it up. I did pull the fuse, but couldn't discern any particular corner lower than the others in the morning. Eric (really nice guy) at Lucky 8 suggested to follow the air lines with soapy water and look for bubbles. I was having trouble following the air lines as it snaked through the chassis. I decided to take it to a local shop (European Auto Repair on Canton Hwy). I brought it in early morning and listed my concerns as having a broken disc pad wear sensor (I'm the dumkopf who broke it doing the brakes), a metallic rubbing sound from the rear end at low speeds, and some negative camber wear on the rear tires. It was 3 days before they had a chance to look at it (I was told they had to take care of their "regular" customers first, not first come first serve but "regulars" first). The mechanic said the right rear strut air bag was shot, need new compressor and when I asked about the metal rub sound, and informed him when I did the brakes the plugs on the rear rotors were missing, he looked at me like I was nuts and said the sound I heard was the air leak. When he quoted me $1800 in parts and 7 hours of labor, I told him I think I could get them at a better price and asked for the keys, they then charged me $190 diagnostic. Really, $190 diagnostic and no work done. I may have been spoiled but it's been my experience that a diagnostic was only billed if work was to be done and then part of the hourly rate.
I promptly took it to another shop where they were able to agree that the right rear air strut was bad, outer bladder was disintegrating and the inner bladder was leaking. They said my compressor was running strong and had no problems. Long story short they also identified a small oil leak, and noted that the front right bearings were starting to show wear. Now, they had a hard time finding the rear air strut and also said they could only find it at the LR dealership ($800), and it would be two days. I ordered two rear air OEM struts (as they said the left rear was holding air, but was showing a lot of cracking on the outer bladder) and had them fed-exed overnight to their shop from Atlantic British for $821. Also $420 labor to install both. Owner told me he will have me up and running and ready to be picked up by close of business today.
I will let you all know how everything turned out.
Thank you all again for your feedback.
Brentski
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