Suspension Height Issues - Bad Air Solenoids?

B

bsaco

Registered
Hi guys,

It's been awhile since I've been around. But I've still got my 98 LSC, it's still only got 69K miles on it now. Part of that is becasue the car sat in storage for about 3.5 years from 2005 thru 2008. And is still pretty much just one of my weekend driven cars now.

OK, now to the current problem I'm dealing with. I seem to be having some kind of issue with my air suspension leveling. Everything seemed to be working fine until this past week when I noticed the car sitting a little funny in the parking lot. I've been driving it to work for a few weeks now while getting some stuff fixed on my usual daily driver 86 LSC (another fun story...lol) which is still running strong with 288K miles. It seems that now not all of the corners are dropping to park height when I stop the car and get out. I do hear the car release air when I close the door. But when I walk around the car and check, the left sides F & R have dropped down about an inch, but the right sides F & R is still up higher. When I start the car back up, it pretty much levels out again. I've also had it where just the front left dropped, but the rest all seemed to stay higher, the left rear was a little lower, but not even with the front. Now the car is sitting with the left side lowered and the right front seems to be higher than the right rear which is still up high, almost as if the front right is inflated more. I'm wondering if the right front solenoid will not release any air and the system pumped a little more in while trying to level something out. What I worry about now is possible extra overinflation if air will not release at all, cuasing the air strut to rupture if it gets too much. At least then it would be easy to see, but is it a bad air solenoid, or a sensor, or the computer? I know in the past few weeks the car was lowering at speed and coming back up to height, as I do remember seeing it rise back up while at a stop light right after coming down from speed. But I haven't been able to notice that lately the past few days, it could not be working and not lowering, could just be hard to notice, or I didn't get fast enough and then stop fully to see it happen.

So I check my service manual, and it looks like I pretty much need the supension test computer to plug in and try to read codes and run any tests. But since I don't have one of those laying around, can't do that. The suspension doesn't seem to lose any air height overnight, so I'm guessing I don't have a leak, it seems like it is still controlled and the original air bags are still all good. I'm now going to guess that I possibly have some bad air solenoids that are sticking. If that's the case, I figure I can pick up 4 new ones, put them in, and hope that is the cheap fix (I could get lucky...lol). Or I've got some other sensor issue, or a bad suspension computer. Unfortunately no real easy way to check that without the test computer the dealer has.

So does any one have any suggestions or things to try out? Or should I just go buy 4 new air solenoids and see if that works? Or should I just take it to the local dealer now and take the hit? Think I'm still safe to drive for now? (I'm planning to keep driving it for now until I see something really bad out of whack) Or park it until I can do something once I see suggestions or get it to the dealer? Good thing I've still got one more car left to drive in that case...lol

Thanks in advance,
Bill
 
The first thing you need to do is go to www.americanairsuspension.com and read their trouble shooting info. There is a complete series of info you need to isolate the problem.
This company is a good supportor of all the Mark guys and is very helpful if you call.
Just off hand I would say you have a leak in the left front air bag. The rear airbags will follow however the front tells them to, meaning if you adjust the front airbags unequally, the rear wil also be unequal. So, if the left front is down, the left rear will be also.
 
Thanks for the reply Whiplash.
I'll see if anything there gives me some things to try out. It could be a leak somewhere, but I'm not sure it is since it doesn't totally deflate or leak down any more, I've seen that happen before on my Mark VII when bags have gone bad which I've replaced before, but that's a different setup that just keeps the height the same all the time. The car vents and lowers, but only on left side now it seems, the right side doesn't vent for some reason. Once you start it up, it levels out. And once parked, it doesn't seems to leak any more air out than the height it lowered to on the left side by venting after closing the door. I was able to notice it rise back up after coming down from speed and stopping. But sitting in the car I couldn't tell if it was only the left side doing that, or if both sides were working eaqually, I could just see the front and rear come up since I was stopped and had a reference point on the car looking out in front and back to see the view change from the seat. I wonder now after some reading there if the vent solenoid on the compressor is to blame, but it seems to be venting fine for the left side, unless there is a separate vent for the right side, which I don't believe there is, so I'm confused. Oh well, hopefully I get a chance to play with it this weekend and see what I can figure out.

Bill
 
Thanks for the reply too Driller. A bad solenoid is what I was possibly suspecting, but I was hoping someone could point me to some way to check that out without the test computer, since I'm also not getting any check suspension error code on the display, so the car doesn't think anything is wrong now either. At least if go buy 4 new air solenoids and replace them, it's still cheaper than a new front air strut...lol

Bill
 
if it was mine, I'd pull the front solenoids, install new o-rings and swap them back in opposite sides. ;)
 
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