Air suspension went 4x4 on me!

M

Melmark93

Registered
My 93 has only 17,xxx miles on it, but I worry about parts
going bad due to age. While at the gas station I got a wild
idea to shut off the air ride to see if it would stay up.
I drove about 4 mi home and parked in the garage. Everything
looked ok. The next morning the car was at the top limits
of the suspension (looked like a 4x4). As soon as I turned
on the ignition, it dropped to normal. What's going on????

The car has been riding like there's no damping in the shocks and
the sway bars are broke. It's like bouncing on a beach ball.
When I pull over and get out to check, the ride height is correct
and doing the bounce check at each corner gives good strut/shock
damping. I took the BFG drag radials off so that Goodyear Eagles
w/ 30psi are on all 4 wheels. For the first 3 blocks after I put
it on the ground it still drove like a drunken sailor, then it
firmmed up. Does a gen 1 Mark display errors on the Message panel??
Any ideas???

Mel C.
93 garnet/grey
 
RE: Air suspension went 4x4 on me!

When you parked the car in the garage with the air ride off, did it get warmer overnight? That could explain the 4x4 look.

Did you check to see if the sway bar is broken? The rear sway bars are prone to breakage. Not many fronts fail, but you can check it out anyway.
 
RE: Air suspension went 4x4 on me!

The garage temp may have been 10-15 deg. warmer. I'm surprised
that it would raise the air-ride pressure that much.
The sway bars and bushings are all ok, which is why I blamed
the soft sidewalls and lower pressure (26lb) in the drag radials.
However, after putting the Eagles back on the rear, the problem
was still there for about 3 blocks.
If a valve was sticking and keeping too much pressure in one or
more bags, would the system display an error on the Message
Center??? A 97 Continental I had displayed these errors.
Mel C.
93 garnet/grey
 
RE: Air suspension went 4x4 on me!

It should display a message if it can't get it to the proper height.

I'm assuming you checked everything out, and all the sensors and everything appear okay? It's probably a clogged vent solenoid.

I'm surprised the sway bar is okay, so many of them break. When you said it was riding like it had no sway bar, i figured that's what had to have happened.
 
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