Front airbags over inflate...

M

mk8fanatic

Registered
I just bought another 97 mark that has a few problems with the suspention. I ordered new front airbags because the leak over night, and the air pump is new and works fine.....the broblem is that they over inflate and dont ever let any air out. Would this be a ride height sensor, or perhaps both? Both front right and left go up evenly but way too high.
 
There's one sensor each side but if the bags are inflated any, inflating one side will raise the whole front end as the opposite side will just have less load. I may not be even, but it will be up.
 
turn off the air ride, jack the front up, take the wheels off, grab an 11 millimeter wrench or socket and loosen the nut on the bottom stud where the height sensor is snapped onto, loosen the nut and slide the stud up till it stops, then retighten but be careful how much you tighten it, they tend to snap, do this on both sides, put the wheels back on and let the car down and turn the air ride back on and fire the car up, see if the front drops, if it drops too much for you, follow the above steps again but this time slightly lower that stud down till you get the height you want, i personally would leave the studs up all the way, it will set the car down lower. you can do the rear one this way too, its behind the drivers rear tire.
 
over inflate

over inflate

I think what your talking about is lowering the front by repositioning the ride height sensors.....I have done this to my blue 97 mark to make it lower than factory but this car is VERY VERY high in the front! So high in fact that I do beleive it will blow out......I actually got it to not leak overnight by replacing a valve on one of the bags, I guess that if one sides sensor is out it can over inflate and bring the other side up with it aswell. I will install the new airbags and valves tomarrow and try to get some new sensors as I think that both front sensors are bad.
 
Here's an idea for a test. Jack the front of the car off the ground with the suspension NOT turned off. The car should see the front end as high and vent the bags. Lower the car back down and see what position it settles at(it should e dropped). There may be a delay but I'm not sure how long.
 
The way I understand it, if the car commands a vent and it does not respond, a 'check air suspension' warning is triggered in 45 seconds. That being said, if the car thinks it is at the correct height... it almost has to be a false sensor reading? :rolleyes:
 
one thing i saw last month in my shop on a mark we bought from the auction, and i have only seen this once, the car was very high in the front, but more so on the driverside, for the life of me i couldnt figure out why, but after pulling the wheel off i knew something was wrong, and big time wrong, the strut was way longer then it was supposed to be, and it almost scared me to see the size of the inflated air bellow, so i hurried and let the air out with a 12 volt power supply, after letting all the air out and removing the strut from the car i took the nut off the top of the strut and removed the top strut cap, ( 2nd gen strut ) and low and behold i found the problem, at some point in time a serious amount of water made it into the strut, and rotted the case around the strut catridge so bad that the strut catridge split in 2 pieces inside the air spring housing, well, since that happend there was no where for the strut to go except up, causing the air bellow to stretch an unreal amount and making the whole strut itself like 6 inches longer. it was a very scary site to see the strut like this and all i could picture was the bellow exploding in my face the second i touched it! i should have taken pics because in 7 years and over 400 mark VIII's i have never seen this happen to a strut.
 
New sensors.....Still over inflates !!

New sensors.....Still over inflates !!

OK....I have put on a new pump, new airbags, new valves, and new ride height sensors and still this car refuses to vent and or stop inflating at any point. What do you guys think about the brains or control module being screwed up? I have to manually let out the air out and turn off the trunk switch when the height is about normal or else this car will look more like a monster truck!
 
That's about all there is left?

Even then it seems odd there would be no 'hard fault' and subsequent "check air ride' message.
 
To be honest I cant really leave it air up for too long before flipping the trunk switch because it is way too dangerous! I am quit certain that if I let it go and go it will at least blow off the dryer! I mean you can fit a basket ball between the tire and the fender! I have done multiple air pumps,air bags , height sensors on these cars as everyone in my family has one and I have two now...........But this one is straight up making me frustrated as all heck. What would you call the brains anyway?,... the air ride control module?
 
It is well hidden in the passenger side kick panel to the right of the glovebox.

airsuspensionecu.jpg

Air Suspension Index
 
I guess since my father has done the coil conversion I will have him send me the one out of his car......any difference in the 95 and 97 suspension ECU?...if this doesn't work I might find the nearest cliff...lol
 
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