Strange air ride problems...

N

Nojuego

Registered
Well this might sound strange but here goes. About 2 weeks ago I changed out my shocks. A couple days later, the back end was slammed to the floor overnight. About a week afetr that, I left the house, back end on the floor, get to school, the thing is way too high in the air. Good thing is, this made me realize that my drivers side rear bag is leaking a bit. I suspected the compressor at first, now I think it may actually be either the sensor or the solenoids. Anyone have any ideas as to what may be wrong?
 
You can turn your switch off for a day or so and see if one side leaks. Did you jack the car up without turning the air ride off? If you have a leak and let it go too long you could overwork your compressor and cause it to fail. The air springs often will leak erratically because the rubber deteriates in the folds of the bag. There is a lot of self help on American Air Systems as well as replacement parts.
 
If i were you i would get the coil over conversion kit. itll save you time and money especially if you have to replace your bags. Air ride is great but it is a pain.You can get the kit from 600-900 depending on who u get it from.
 
So what your saying is....the rearend went down at first, but now it stays really high? My first thought is that maybe the rear sensor popped off one of the ball studs. This happens sometimes when the car is driven with no air. (Its made to do this rather than break)
 
American Air-1 said:
So what your saying is....the rearend went down at first, but now it stays really high? My first thought is that maybe the rear sensor popped off one of the ball studs. This happens sometimes when the car is driven with no air. (Its made to do this rather than break)
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I did not think of that and it makes complete sense now. I'll have to check it in the morning see if that's the culprit. Hopefully that's the current problem and I can get back to figuring out why it went down in the first place.
 
J said:
Thats an expensive kit! You can get a coil conversion kit for under 400 bucks!
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well crap i got screwed over on that one. i paid almost 8 for mine. Ill know where to look if i wanna go w a lowered stance. Thanks
 
Well I got under the car this morning. The sensor was not off the ball stud. Instead, it looked like an elbow. I was able to pop it off the ball stud and slide the internals back into place but I fear it is pretty much done. Any way I can test to see if it's still good?
 
The Height Sensors can indicate only three conditions: vehicle at trim height, vehicle above trim height and vehicle below trim height.
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I can find no component tests for the sensor(s).
 
Well did it still work ? I happened to have one fall out of it's sleeve while I was rebuilding a front end, and when I gently put it back together it still worked, and that was several years ago. It didn't however bend in half. I am sure you will be able to find a used sensor.
 
I'm gonna see if I can get the codes pulled. I had air ride errors before this happened. Errors would pop up on the highway mostly which led me to believe it wasn't venting so the sensor could still be good but it might not be venting due to the problem from before. If I can grab the codes i'll be able to see what was wrong and can probably figure it out or at least narrow down the possibilities.
 
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