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ACE Valve Unit Failure

T

Today42

In Second Gear
Hi,
New here and seeking some advice, guidance as a novice.
I have a 52 Plate Discovery, recently the ACE Warning Light came on, went to my local dealer for check, they believe it is a fault in the ACE Valve Unit as it is giving an over temp and pressure reading, which they cannot reset. they have suggested that to fit a new unit, approx cost £800, will also involve replacing the pipes, which is a horrible job and could cost a further £1500 in parts and labour. Their advice is to de-commission the ACE, deactivate the pump, and reconfigure the belt and pulley, so the car becomes affectively a non ACE vehicle.

Anyone any views on this? Obviously handling will be very different, any other impacts or considerations? I am not a mechanic so apologise if I have some of this wrong or confused.

I think the car is worth about £6.5K, so a >£2K bill is very significant, but loathe to just turn it off without some thought or options.

Thanks in advance.
 
New Valve Block .. that seems a little hasty IMO .. there are loads of things to try before that .

http://www.discovery2.co.uk/ACE_transducer.html

This would be my guess as the most likely cause by a long long way . 80 quid (plus 1 maybe 2 hour labour from a good land rover independant if you dont want to tackle it yourself .. adviseable if you are not rather 5 spanner as if you do strip the thing .. then you really *will* need a new ACE block ) and it should sort it our for you . Failnig that you should be able to put up a Valve block 2nd hand for maybe 100/200 quid , Dont think there should be a shortage of them as they seldom fail ..

The other possible Fault is the ACE ECU itself could be faulty . 50 quid for a second hard one and 1 hour to fit that .

Post your location and we can maybe point you in the direction of a good local independant Land Rover Garage who will sort you out.
 
Ah you have a good selection of indies around there who will hopefully be able to help . (you may even get someone on the forum tip you the nod )

I use Kings Langley Land Rover. Tel : 01923 261284 ask for Roy. They are "affiliated" to a main dealer (owned by the same person) but are proper independents who understand that the older Land Rover takes a different approach to maintenance i.e not just replacing everything as if its a new car so maybe more suitable for you to use that the direct main dealer (which is from the price quoted what I think you had gone to ) . Explain the situation and see if they can help , they will at least give you a good second opinion on it.

Others that spring to mind near by are Aylmer in Bell Bar 01707 665588 and AJD in Hoddesdon 01992 445634 . Dont have any experience with them other than word of mouth . Maybe others can vouch directly for them .
 
Today42 said:
Hi,
New here and seeking some advice, guidance as a novice.
I have a 52 Plate Discovery, recently the ACE Warning Light came on, went to my local dealer for check, they believe it is a fault in the ACE Valve Unit as it is giving an over temp and pressure reading, which they cannot reset. they have suggested that to fit a new unit, approx cost £800, will also involve replacing the pipes, which is a horrible job and could cost a further £1500 in parts and labour. Their advice is to de-commission the ACE, deactivate the pump, and reconfigure the belt and pulley, so the car becomes affectively a non ACE vehicle.

Anyone any views on this? Obviously handling will be very different, any other impacts or considerations? I am not a mechanic so apologise if I have some of this wrong or confused.

I think the car is worth about £6.5K, so a >£2K bill is very significant, but loathe to just turn it off without some thought or options.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Strange, no temp indication / sensor or fault that can be generated by the ACE system.

Is the warning light red or yellow ?

If the Transducer fails, then the ECU cannot determine the pressure and will throw the yellow light and shut it down. Both the electrical DCV's (directional control valves) are replacable, as is the Pressure transducer, the only bit you cannot change is the pressure control valve, why I dont know because its obviously screwed into the block, so it must come out, I would suggest its more to do with the fact they dont supply it as a seperate part more than anything else, but the electrical part of the PCV is replacable.

I think I would be tempted to replace the transducer first, check all the exisiting wiring to the PCV and DCV's and go from there.
 
Urban Panzer said:
Strange, no temp indication / sensor or fault that can be generated by the ACE system.

Is the warning light red or yellow ?

If the Transducer fails, then the ECU cannot determine the pressure and will throw the yellow light and shut it down. Both the electrical DCV's (directional control valves) are replacable, as is the Pressure transducer, the only bit you cannot change is the pressure control valve, why I dont know because its obviously screwed into the block, so it must come out, I would suggest its more to do with the fact they dont supply it as a seperate part more than anything else, but the electrical part of the PCV is replacable.

I think I would be tempted to replace the transducer first, check all the exisiting wiring to the PCV and DCV's and go from there.
Click to expand...


The light is Amber, I was not driving the car when it first appeared, just after Christmas, but it has remained Amber. Under the investigations quoted on the bill they have included the following:

" Investigate ACE warning lamp illuminated - pressure fault and temp faults logged unable to clear"

Apparently it was giving the temp and pressure fault with the car cold, so they have assumed a faulty Valve block.
 
Today42 said:
The light is Amber, I was not driving the car when it first appeared, just after Christmas, but it has remained Amber. Under the investigations quoted on the bill they have included the following:

" Investigate ACE warning lamp illuminated - pressure fault and temp faults logged unable to clear"

Apparently it was giving the temp and pressure fault with the car cold, so they have assumed a faulty Valve block.
Click to expand...

Pressure fault points to the transducer, still cannot see where the temp fault would come from as there is NO temp "circuit" in the system, + that would not happen if you was not driving the car when the light first appeared because the fluid would have been cold.

If it was my car, I would first substitute another ECU to eliminate that, then I would go for the pressure transducer after that.

Not saying I can read anything different, but I have a Nanocom and Im only in luton, your more than welcome to run it over and we could see what that says ref the fault.
 
Hi all,
This is my first post so bear with me.. Urban Panzer...I've got the same problem :( ..amber ACE light constantly lit. Following a lot of google searching I followed this link (http://www.discovery2.co.uk/ACE_transducer.html) and swapped the ACE transducer (bought mine for 62quid new). I've still got the amber light on. :( Any ideas?
Fluid level is ok - always at MAX. Do you need nanocom to reset ACE after working on it? I've not touched the ECU or accelerometer.
 
Without having the codes read in the ECU its difficult to say. The write up does explain it could be a "pot shot" for a fix, a definate fault code is better to start with.

An amber light is always a "mild" fault as opposed to red which normally means lots of money. It could simply be an accelerometer has gone down or out of cal possibly, but with out reading the ECU it would be another "pot shot".

If the ACE ecu detects no fault, it should put the light out on its own.

Anyone here close to you that could maybe help ?

http://www.nanocom-locator.co.uk/
 
Thanks for the link to nanocom-locator. Andy in Oldham is prob the closest to me. I'll drop him a email, hopefully he'll be able to help :)
Realised that it was a "pot shot" to replace the transducer...only had my landy since jun10..(its early days of LR ownership for me)...and already finding I'm collecting spares for the "just in case" times :(
Biggest problem to sort out yet is water in the drivers footwell. I've had all the rooflining out, all the seats and carpets, both sunroofs out completely and resealed them. And it still leaks!...after all its a land rover.
Is it worth buying a nanocom/hawkeye? Seen a few on second hand on ebay and thought about getting one.
 
greenmonster said:
Hi all,
This is my first post so bear with me.. Urban Panzer...I've got the same problem :( ..amber ACE light constantly lit. Following a lot of google searching I followed this link (http://www.discovery2.co.uk/ACE_transducer.html) and swapped the ACE transducer (bought mine for 62quid new). I've still got the amber light on. :( Any ideas?
Fluid level is ok - always at MAX. Do you need nanocom to reset ACE after working on it? I've not touched the ECU or accelerometer.
Click to expand...

As has been hinted the ACE ECU does not "Log Faults" it just reports them if they are present and throws the Warning Light , no warning light , no fault will be obtainable on the ECU . If the Warning light is on then its quite possible because of that it is the ECU itself . Had this very issue myself. If you can get a hold of another one to swap it to see that would tell . They dont need to be "programmed" just swap it over . its mounted under the dash passenger side. I think from memory there may be more than 1 revision so get the right one , the going rate is (was) about 50 quid for a second hand one..
 
23skidoo said:
As has been hinted the ACE ECU does not "Log Faults" it just reports them if they are present and throws the Warning Light , no warning light , no fault will be obtainable on the ECU . If the Warning light is on then its quite possible because of that it is the ECU itself . Had this very issue myself. If you can get a hold of another one to swap it to see that would tell . They dont need to be "programmed" just swap it over . its mounted under the dash passenger side. I think from memory there may be more than 1 revision so get the right one , the going rate is (was) about 50 quid for a second hand one..
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info ...I'll pull the ECU out and find out which one I've got.
 
Hi Greenmonster,
Leaky Landrovers, we had the same problemon our DiscoII TD5. Threw several hundred pounds at the sunroof seals etc.
Turned out to be a badly fitted front screen seal, identified to us by a good Autoglass screen fitter, so we replaced the screen via Autoglass - paid the excess and cured the leak...!
Try it. ;)
 
Thanks Taxus. Contacted my local Autoglass, they won't touch mine because it has a snorkel attached to the A-pillar
will have a ring round for a fitter that will take a look
 
I had mine replaced by autoglass and i removed the snorkel prior to them arriving. I dont think the fitters like discovery's much, and they certainly DONT like heated disco screens so take your snorkel off before they arrive and make em a cuppa (if they come to you)... My drivers footwell gets wet also... is it right that my insurance covers the replacement of a windscreen for a leaking seal???
 
guy did autoglass do your screen thru insurance ? if so they should of used new seals so the work is under warrenty with them - if you paid for a screen yourself they should of offered you the choice of new seals ?
 
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