?99 D2 with ACE/SLS and 65K miles. I came out after driving to work to find the rear end on the axle stops. Driving home didn?t change anything. I don?t hear the compressor running and the off road height button just produces a blinking dash light with no raising the rear end. Oddly, last night when I shut the ignition off I did hear the compressor continue to run. It ran for more than 10 minutes before stopping. I don?t know if this event is related or not? I have a shop manual which describes the system well, but has little about troubleshooting other than plugging in Testbook to read any fault codes (nearest dealer is hours away and I probably wouldn?t use them anyway). So far I?ve checked he applicable fuses, they?re fine. A search on this forum produced nothing like what I?m experiencing. Any ideas or suggestions as to where to start troubleshooting?
SLS Bottomed Out!
- Thread starter DWB
- Start date
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frickjp
Guest
Check fuse link in engine bay You most likely have a leaky bag or two. If you let it cycle to long, it'll error out and it's a trip to the dealer. I have some used bags and a used compressor around.
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frickjp
Guest
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syoung
Guest
or it will happen in another year while wheeling, but why chance it? we had more than one rover i sold come back for the SLS. and boy were they pissed! finally they ALL converted to springs and have been happy campers.
i would drive past the shop and see a D2 with its ass on the ground and wonder how long they had to drive like that.
fix it once and you have a better truck in the end. off road and on. not to mention more reliable. what are you going to do when you are on vacation with the fam and 600 miles away?
i would drive past the shop and see a D2 with its ass on the ground and wonder how long they had to drive like that.
fix it once and you have a better truck in the end. off road and on. not to mention more reliable. what are you going to do when you are on vacation with the fam and 600 miles away?
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frickjp
Guest
We have a lot of SLS Discos out there. The most common failure is a bag leak. When they fall down overnight, most folks get a clue and bring it in before the compressor runs itself to death. We converted one to springs, because it needed a compressor ($850) and both bags ($600). Of course, it had been falling down overnight for months.
We don't have too many off-roading soccer moms. SLS is far more comfortable than springs, consistent ride and headlight aim regardless of load. My wife filled the back of ours with bags of dirt. Filled. Top to bottom. It drove in level. With springs, it would have been on the stops. Then she returned $200 worth of bags of dirt. A dumptruck dropped 10 times as much for $50. Whatever happened to dirt cheap?
We don't have too many off-roading soccer moms. SLS is far more comfortable than springs, consistent ride and headlight aim regardless of load. My wife filled the back of ours with bags of dirt. Filled. Top to bottom. It drove in level. With springs, it would have been on the stops. Then she returned $200 worth of bags of dirt. A dumptruck dropped 10 times as much for $50. Whatever happened to dirt cheap?
That's why we turned in our '01 on the lease...a month before it was up, I ran upstairs from school to tell my mum that the car "fell"...it went back up after we drove it over 7mph (out of the garage basically), but it happened several more times, and we didn't want to take the chance. That's part of why we didn't get an '04 Disco - the '01 had exponentially more problems compared to the '94 (body damage not included), especially for those first 3 years. Good thing it was all under warranty. Even without the SLS on an '04, we didn't trust the other doodads. D2s are just problematic to us...
Just MHO...
Anyway...if the problem persists, I'd reccomend swapping it out for coils. The SLS is pointless and lame, anyway - I never noticed any difference, except that it hissed when we got home and were unloading. Of course, we didn't go rock crawling with it, either (afraid under lease!)
Just MHO...
Anyway...if the problem persists, I'd reccomend swapping it out for coils. The SLS is pointless and lame, anyway - I never noticed any difference, except that it hissed when we got home and were unloading. Of course, we didn't go rock crawling with it, either (afraid under lease!)
we never had a customer complain about the spring swap in any of the D2s. and i drove them many times and actually felt they were tighter on road. guess i am just use to stiff suspensions in my trucks. i like them that way.
for me it serves no purpose or usefulness. especially when you compare to what can happen and very often does.
SLS is great for shops. repeat customers for sure.
for me it serves no purpose or usefulness. especially when you compare to what can happen and very often does.
SLS is great for shops. repeat customers for sure.
frickjp said:
you are an LR tech right? then you should know better no? or do you REALLY believe in the air bags? oh, i get it. you know how to fix it!
garrett said:
Has anyone seen an under 48K mile D2 SLS (and I'm not talking ACE combos) fail while offroading? Usually when there is a bit of consensus or conventional wisdom here against something, there are countless stories posted that back up the opinion. I can't find any trail stories to back this up (help me out here, searching is not finding anything for me). I'm sure I missed one, but I'd expect to find a ton of them, seeing the strength of the opinion. To the contrary, I've easily found posts of people saying they've had good luck. One in particular saying he beat the shit out of them and has never had a problem.
I have to defer to you guys with years of offroad experience, but without solid evidence why someone within warranty should be worried about this, I can't be convinced. Axles fail from time-to-time, so should we all just go back to the Flinstones and have two stone disks on a wood stick and pedal with our feet? Of course not - just buy and carry a spare and take some tools. Can an airbag be replaced on the trail? If so, why not carry a spare, even at $600 (though you could easily get a low mileage one from all the folks converting to coils!)? It seems a small price to pay to not have my loaded down 2" lift reduced to a 1" lift with my ass dragging the ground trying keep the bumper off the rocks. No wonder everyone wants a better rear bumper for approach angle. Just look in the photo section here... loaded down discos scraping their ass getting over a big step. With a Rovertym 2" lift (3" actual) plus almost 2" more from the SLS... what's not to like? That's a 5" lift in the rear for god's sake! I mean, with the D2, there's so much electronic that can crap out anyway, why fret about the SLS, too? Plus SLSers will never pop a rear spring out and have to limp home all zip-tied. My wood block vs. your zip ties? I'll take the risk until I see hard evidence (or I make an ass of myself limping back on the bump stops chewing up my tires).
JamesWyatt said:
hehe, yeah, cuz some of us never brag about shit like that.
ok, at about 10K miles. death valley. how about that? JamesWyatt said:
let's hope you aren't convinced the hard way.
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theotherside
Guest
This is making me nervous. I've got the SLS in the back of my rover, and while I've towed with it a few times, I don't tow enough to justify it. Let's hope they stay together.
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syoung
Guest
I tow with mine and I'll NEVER tow with the non-SLS 04 ever again. I added heavier coils and all that crap to the 04S and the 04 G4 with SLS is so much better at towing it's like night and day.
Get some bags off someone who converted theirs- they don't take up much room in the storage bin- if you're that paranoid. Besides, if you are paying $600 for bags you just aren't shopping around cause they're nowhere near that much unless you get boned by suggested retail at a dealer.
Get some bags off someone who converted theirs- they don't take up much room in the storage bin- if you're that paranoid. Besides, if you are paying $600 for bags you just aren't shopping around cause they're nowhere near that much unless you get boned by suggested retail at a dealer.
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wildhorses
Guest
What in the hell would you want to tow with a disco anyway? They are not made for towing- get a vehicle that is to do that kind of heavy towing - say something with 7.3 or 6.0 liter displacement. And why the hell would a soccer mom want a disco when they are fine with a mini van or a car type suv like a jeep or honda. Next, you will be wanting to lower the disco and add hydraulics to make it bounce like a low rider too. This is the problem with americans we get something that is not what we need then bitch about why it does not do what we want it to.
syoung said:
even better. Advance Auto Parts is selling the bags. then you are even MORE likely to blow one. well wait...maybe you are less likely now since they are not LR. hmmmm. this is a tricky one.
it's a gamble and you have a good chance of them failing. i just don't get it. i know if my mother or father was running the SLS i would change it out in a heartbeat.
sorta like preventative maintenence in my book.
wildhorses said:
steve young is a member of the circus and tows all kinds of things. ferris wheels, deep fryers, etc.
yeh......they do suck. well unless you get up into the 4.6 trucks. they are cetainly better, but still not great. the short wheelbase kills their ability. not to mention the weak 4.0 in the earlier trucks and the short track of these things.
only times i tow are short distances with about 3-4K behind me. slow and VERY careful.
syoung said:
I was totally guessing on the price. Yeah, I'd hope to find them cheaper.
From the instructions in the tech section on converting to coils, it doesn't seem too difficult to replace an airbag. Is this any harder than changing an axle? Can it be done without a floor jack?
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frickjp
Guest
wildhorses said:
Let's see. A ski boat. A utility trailer. Two other boats from storage to the river in the spring and back in the fall. Other busted Land Rovers on a trailer. Snowmobiles. Others tow jet-skis, horses, assorted other junk. I have a customer who drags a 22' Dauntless 350 miles on weekends during the summer with an '04. Probably around 4,500 pounds. That big square hole in the back where you put the recovery strap can actually be for used towing stuff.