The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[garystockton]

Looks like I'm a victim of the dreaded suspension sensor failure on my 2005 120 series LC5.    

Decided to drive it in to work this morning (couldn't face another day of other peoples coughs & colds on the bus) and all of a sudden the suspension went rock-hard, and it felt as though I had a flat!  Pulled over, checked it all out - the tyres were fine (not surprisingly - they're Cooper Discoverer STTs   ) but the rear end was way up in the air.  Wouldn't respond to the ride-height setting switch either, until I switched it all off and re-started the vehicle.  Did this twice on the short ride in to work (only about 6 miles or so).

So it's back to Toyota for a fix-up - thank goodness it's under warranty, and Julian hasn't had a go at the suspension yet!!

Will report back on what they find, and replace.  My front right caliper is sticking, too, and I think there's potentially an issue on the rear drive shaft splines (seem to 'stick' and then release and feels like someone just rolled into the back of the vehicle as it releases ...) so a few things for them to resolve.

This seems to be a not-unheard of issue - TLC120 has a lot about it, not on the Prado 120 (don't know if they get them over the water?) but certainly on the other shared base platforms - and the parts are expensive.

I just knew I was going to have hassles with all the electrickery ....

Cheers

[Google]

[Nuclear Chicken]

Bummer. Let us know how you get on. I've an LC5 too and it's '04. Only 60k miles though. I'll be having a good look at the calipers this w/e too.
_________________
'04 KDJ120R LC5. Died 17th Dec 2010. RIP.

[garystockton]

Yep, will do - and I've only just turned up 25k miles  

The Canadians reckon salt damage on the sensors (but given the state of the Lincomb mud, it may be that    or the Welsh river-roads we drove ...).  That could be the cause of the sticking caliper too - was on my list of 'to-do' items tomorrow, so will see how I get on ..

[Desperatezulu]

Bad luck, Gary! Sorry to hear of your misfortunes - at least it was close to home in sunny Scotland and not 800k's from anywhere in the deserts of Africa!
I saw your comment on the thread for an outing to Salisbury Plain and wondered what was up....

I take you haven't added the OME suspension bits yet? I bet Toyota would love to pick on that as a cause of the problems  

Anyway, best of luck with the repairs and I hope Toyota sort everything properly and it's all covered by the warranty!!

Cheers,
_________________
Andrew

'98 LC80 4.2TD VX 24v

[garystockton]

Ja, thanks, Andrew.  And yep, damn glad Julian hasn't done his thing yet on the suspension, because they would certainly blame that, as we'll be 'tweaking' the sensors to generate 25mm lift in the back as standard, with another 25mm available in 'high' mode    as well as chucking out the TEMS bits for the shocks  

They won't be too happy about that, I reckon!!

[Landcrusher]

Damn!

LC
_________________
HDJ 80 but still a 90 owner at heart (yeah right!)

[garystockton]

Dunno that I said 'Damn'     A tad harsher, IIRC     Good thing no-one could hear me.

Anyway, it was interesting to see just how hight the suspension could go     Looked like it was on stilts - almost NO wheel in the arch - all out on display.  In fact, I think only the shock being extended to maximum travel stopped it  

[Olazz]

[14all_and_all41]

I've had similar problems with mine, 03 LC5 40Kmls, although I think self inflicted.

When steam cleaning the under body for waxoyle treatment, I think I induced some water into the plus/connectors. Could never get the height set right, I also adjusted them myself so the ride height was about 10mm lower to get into my garage, but the body as noted would reach some interesting heights you'd think the shocks were about to pop their cylinders!

Anycase, I removed and stripped the sensors, pretty basic, resistance linear strip with metalic slide. There not sealed units, 3 philips screw remove the cover, then contact cleaner and cotton bud can be used to clean the metalic strip,  and silicone greace the rubber seal and re-install.

Only thing to note the seperation between opposing ball joints is pre set at the factory, so when removing avoid disconnecting on the axle slide (unless you mark) remove the complete assy from the chassis taking the axle tramp bar with it.

I did clean mine but the metal was so contaminated on the drivers side that it still didn't work so, fortunately I picked up a 2nd hand set of of e bay (I think Toyota is around £300 each) fitted and all well.

If only my engine could be fixed so easily!

[leon]

was playing about with my AHC couple of weeks back ......i ended up setting the ajustable rod's at about 2.5 cm so i can still get in multi story car park's  

any ways piont is one problem to be avioded is  the amount of droop left in the suspension. If you lift too much, your suspension (shocks) will "knock" (top-out) when going over bumps. Here's some advice from ATS4X4:

[garystockton]

Thanks for the tips, folks

I'll have a look at the sensors tomorrow - I suspect that same cause, i.e. a power washer, post-Lincomb, so I'll have a look.

ITO replacing the suspensions, there will be new, longer-travel shocks, but more importantly there will be travel-limiting straps at the rear to prevent the air-bags from becoming dislocated and falling out!

We'll see how it all goes

Olazz - I love my Coopers.  Admittedly they've not been on long but they were fantastic at Lincomb and are great on-road too.  I've been following the drama in SA and it seems to be a bit of a storm in a teacup - one or two unhappy guys, a lot of very happy users.  There are issues, but they seem to be common to BFGs as well, just not in such quantities.  My tyres are the newer ones, with the tri-guard sidewall, and I must say that cornering on-road is way better than what I had from the Dunflop GaanVreks  

[wildsmith]

[garystockton]

Hi Jon,

Yep, the suspension is totally different.  What the 100 AHC has sounds like what my dad's old Citroen D Super 5 had?  He always said it was a car way ahead of its time.  

The 120 has electronically controlled shocks, with actuators on the top that adjust, I think, the valving to create either softer or stiffer damping affects based on driving style, road surface and also through a rotary switch on the centre console, allowing soft or stiff settings to be chosen as an over-ride.

The front coils are standard springs over adjustable shock.

The rear 'springs' are in fact air springs, connected to a little on-board compressor that allows the vehicle to auto-level, and allows the driver to lift or drop the rear suspension from another centre-console switch.  The drop is about 20mm, and puts the rear down on the bump-stops and is only really used when loading the rear - at speeds over 10mph it lifts back to 'normal' on it's own. The high is about a 25mm lift and is useful when off-roading, but at anything over 30mph it drops back to 'normal'.  This is all based on the sensors and the adjustment mechanism, similar to the ones pictured above, but only for the back.

The tweaking is done by setting the AHC to recognise a new value as 'normal' and from there you can still get ~20mm difference each way.  New shocks without the TEMS bit on all 4 corners, and uprated springs (e.g. OME or similar) up front will complete the upgrade.  The rear air-springs are kept, as is the auto-levelling function, so it'll be great for overlanding - whether there's 0kg or 400kg in tha back, it'll always adjust to standard height.  Got to fiddle the ECU as well to prevent it going into emergency limp mode when no TEMS shocks detected  

Hope that makes sense?  

BTW - how's the repairs to your 100 progressing?

Cheers

[leon]

here's a drawing of the LC5 back end you can see it's indeed nothing like the AHC on the 100's   reminds me on the "surf KZN130" it had the same kind of set up with eletronic controled shocks


_________________
Should I have these bit's left over ?
1998 V8 LC Amazon VX work in progress
2008 pug boy
2009 pug boy
2010 pug girl
         ^ dogs

[garystockton]

Was just busy saving that lot!! Anyway, here are some pics:

Compressor and LR air spring:


Air Cell:



Front shock TEMS connector: