Hello all,
Thanks for all the info on the air bags and my car's sag issues. I understand that the thread strayed a bit off course and needed to be locked, but a few kind folks seemed genuinely interested in what's developed, so I'm picking it back up here.
Off topic a bit, but nothing much happened the last few days since I just got back from a total blow-out weekend at Indy. My first Indy, my first time at a race track! For those who have never been, this is something YOU MUST experience once in your lifetime. For those in the know who have been there once (or many times), now I understand why you guys love it. Great race day and great party in the Coke lot across the street. My head still hurts!
OK, back to the car. I'm still not sure I have my hands all around this thing just yet, so bear with me here just a bit. The car raises up when moving fast or first started, and lowers when driving slow or stopped. I get that, and I hope I have that much right.
Now, I pull my car into the garage every night, so the car lowers. I assume that the car doesn't stay in its "raised" position all night, that would seem like a waste of time, so I'm assuming that the car drops down and the air lets out of the bags. Does ALL the air go out, or only some?
In the morning, I get in, and before I start it, the car is in its lowered position. Is this correct? Should the bags be raised? Or are the bags supposed to hold some amount of air, and its this "residual" amount that is leaking out. Again, I'm getting confused as to why some are saying that the bags have "leaked overnight", since I'm not sure why they should be holding air all night anyway. As you can see, I come by this "newcomer" moniker the honest way .... and I'm still a bit hung over from Indy.
In addition to being confused as to why a car sitting all night is supposed to have any air in its bag anyway, the next thing that has me confused is this: normally I start my car and immediately back out of the garage. I pull out, my back tires and then my front tires pass the 1 inch lip of the concrete where the garage floor meets the driveway. Probably takes no more than 7 seconds from the time I started the car until the front tires drop down that 1" lip. In normal time, that 1" lip is no problem at all. But these days, when my front tires pass that 1" lip my car bottoms out fairly roughly. I don't see how 7 seconds would have been enough time for these bags to inflate. Do I need to change my start up procedure, and start the car and wait for a while to let the bags fill up. Why don't they tell you these things when you buy the car?
One final thing to mention, I don't think I did before. For a long time, can't say for sure but it feels like forever, when I get out of my car and turn it off, I hear a pretty loud buzzing noise, runs for about 30-60 seconds. Seemed louder in cases where I turned on the car and then turned it off real quick, like when it was parked in my driveway and I was just starting it and moving it into the garage. I mentioned this to a mechanic at my dealership, and he told me it meant that the air pump (for the bags, I now presume) was going bad. Hmmm. and yes, on many occassions, but defintely not always, I get the "check air suspension" status message. I never quite understood that one, now I guess I do: my bags have not fully inflated after 90 seconds. My car bottoms out every morning now, but I don't see that message but once in a while.
Later on I'll tell my tales concerning the "fun" I have had at my dealership, but for now I think its best if we stay firmly planted on the issues and keep this thread unlocked!
::roll:: ::roll::
Thanks everyone --
Marc
Thanks for all the info on the air bags and my car's sag issues. I understand that the thread strayed a bit off course and needed to be locked, but a few kind folks seemed genuinely interested in what's developed, so I'm picking it back up here.
Off topic a bit, but nothing much happened the last few days since I just got back from a total blow-out weekend at Indy. My first Indy, my first time at a race track! For those who have never been, this is something YOU MUST experience once in your lifetime. For those in the know who have been there once (or many times), now I understand why you guys love it. Great race day and great party in the Coke lot across the street. My head still hurts!
OK, back to the car. I'm still not sure I have my hands all around this thing just yet, so bear with me here just a bit. The car raises up when moving fast or first started, and lowers when driving slow or stopped. I get that, and I hope I have that much right.
Now, I pull my car into the garage every night, so the car lowers. I assume that the car doesn't stay in its "raised" position all night, that would seem like a waste of time, so I'm assuming that the car drops down and the air lets out of the bags. Does ALL the air go out, or only some?
In the morning, I get in, and before I start it, the car is in its lowered position. Is this correct? Should the bags be raised? Or are the bags supposed to hold some amount of air, and its this "residual" amount that is leaking out. Again, I'm getting confused as to why some are saying that the bags have "leaked overnight", since I'm not sure why they should be holding air all night anyway. As you can see, I come by this "newcomer" moniker the honest way .... and I'm still a bit hung over from Indy.
In addition to being confused as to why a car sitting all night is supposed to have any air in its bag anyway, the next thing that has me confused is this: normally I start my car and immediately back out of the garage. I pull out, my back tires and then my front tires pass the 1 inch lip of the concrete where the garage floor meets the driveway. Probably takes no more than 7 seconds from the time I started the car until the front tires drop down that 1" lip. In normal time, that 1" lip is no problem at all. But these days, when my front tires pass that 1" lip my car bottoms out fairly roughly. I don't see how 7 seconds would have been enough time for these bags to inflate. Do I need to change my start up procedure, and start the car and wait for a while to let the bags fill up. Why don't they tell you these things when you buy the car?
One final thing to mention, I don't think I did before. For a long time, can't say for sure but it feels like forever, when I get out of my car and turn it off, I hear a pretty loud buzzing noise, runs for about 30-60 seconds. Seemed louder in cases where I turned on the car and then turned it off real quick, like when it was parked in my driveway and I was just starting it and moving it into the garage. I mentioned this to a mechanic at my dealership, and he told me it meant that the air pump (for the bags, I now presume) was going bad. Hmmm. and yes, on many occassions, but defintely not always, I get the "check air suspension" status message. I never quite understood that one, now I guess I do: my bags have not fully inflated after 90 seconds. My car bottoms out every morning now, but I don't see that message but once in a while.
Later on I'll tell my tales concerning the "fun" I have had at my dealership, but for now I think its best if we stay firmly planted on the issues and keep this thread unlocked!
::roll:: ::roll::
Thanks everyone --
Marc