Allroad Air Suspension Problems

[hubblaz12]

I’m glad you like it,

Does your car sink at all if left parked? Leave it on lowest setting and report back if it sinks

Best Regards

Andy

Hi,

I left the car overnight "jacked" on level 1 and didn't sink. On another hand, it took him 10 min and two restarts to get to lvl 3. Yellow warning light went off just after 1 min of work, i have restarted the car again and again yellow light after 2 min, restarted it (was on level 2) and get to level 3 after another few minutes. 10 min in total. Could that be because internal surface of the cylinder is pretty tattered ? Or something else ? Thanks for help :-)

[bagpipingandy]

Hi yes if the cylinder is badly scored the piston ring will not work well, a good compressor will lift up one level in 20 seconds, I can provide new cylinders too, see link:
Air suspension compressor cylinder repair kit - wabco compressor | eBay

Any questions please just ask

Best Regards

Andy

[hubblaz12]

Hi,

I should thought about that earlier. Do you sell just a cylinder ?

[bagpipingandy]

Hi, I could but the piston ring will be damaged, I if fitting a new cylinder you should change the piston ring, any damage to the piston ring could then be transferred to the new cylinder it’s not good practice

Best Regards

Andy

[Amphitryon]

I am little puzzled now. My allroad has been slow to lift and has now crossed the threshold where it will sometimes put the suspension warning light up on the rev counter and need the ignition to be turned off and on again to complete lifting. Normally I am not aware of the compressor but I got out of the car and listened last night and it does sound a touch rattly. I have order an original bagpipingany kit to fix it.

For leak checking, things seem a little strange. On level three it never goes down, as expected, and usually it doesn't on level two either and I don't think I have ever parked it on level one but on Saturday it dropped from level two to level one while parked for 3-4 hours in a car park. I was thinking it might have sprung a big leak but then, after getting it back up to level two it stayed there for the rest of the day and through the night.

Last night I got in the car and started the engine and it showed level two but then, in less than a minute, showed level one and then struggled to regain level two, i.e. it took turning the ignition off and on again to complete the lift. When I returned home I engaged jack mode and measured all round from the wheel centre to the top of the wheel arch getting the following measurments:

OSF: 395mm, NSF, 393mm, OSR 405mm, NSR 405mm

A few minutes ago I remeasured and got exactly the same except the OSF which was 393mm, i.e. it appears to have dropped 2mm but given I am finding the wheel centre by eye I am not sure if this is significant - it could be within the tolerance of my measurements. When people have seen one corner sinking, how much movement have you typically seen? Also does anyone else have a more accurate way of measuring?

What I am wondering here is that we often go out as a family and get out of the car at slightly different times. As people get out I can here the suspension re-adjusting for the reduced load. Is it simply that when we all get back in again it now has more load and needs to add air to the bags but the compressor is too inefficient to do that in a timely manner? The time it dropped in a car park was a time when the whole family were in the car.

[54A4Avant]

Not clear to me how long you waited between measurements, but 2mm is inconsequential. Not uncommon that the air springs only leak when car is at level 2 or 1. Higher settings can close up a leak.

Give it an overnight test in jacking mode and dynamic mode engaged.

[bagpipingandy]

The car moving 2mm is ok, when you have a leak it will drop all the way down, your symptoms of dropping 1 level are exactly a weak compressor, rather than have enough air to lift, the car lowers itself the the next level and banks the air in the tank. Fix the compressor and that will cure the symptoms. If the car were to drop all the way down very low then we are looking for a leak

Regards

Andy

[Amphitryon]

Thanks, guys. The 2mm, assuming my measurement was even that accurate, was over about 12 hours as I took the first measurement last thing last night and the 2nd one about 11am this morning. I'll wait for my ki, fix the compressor and hopefully all will be well.

[Amphitryon]

So to report back, the bagpiping andy kit arrived very quickly but unfortunately I pulled a muscle in my shoulder so had to leave it an extra week. Getting the cover off the compressor didn't go as well as I had hoped - one of the three studs broke off as I turned it and I found the opposite end had been glued on with epoxy. so that only leaves the centre one usable.

I found it easier to remove the plastic pipe that runs between the two parts of the compressor first as that allowed easier access to remove the outlet pipe and it took a bit of fiddling to get the electrical connection off the solenoid, while the motor connection was simple. The tab connecting the temperature sensor to the compressor had broken so there didn't seem to be any easy way to reattach it.

When it came to removing one of the Torx bolts I had to try the wire brush and WD40 and even then the Torx seemed to be getting rounded so I had to use mole grips. Once off, replacing the piston ring was very straightforward once I had checked I could tell which was the right way up. Needless to say I cleaned the threads with the tap and used the new bolts as well as the new seal.

Performance-wise I am now get 1 minute each to lift from level 1 to level 2 or level 2 to level 3. I think some people have had better so not perfect but certainly much better than before. I think I remember there is a timer for 2 mins after which it gives up and it had jus started to go over that.

I do wonder if I am missing an air filter. The flexible rubber hose that I believe is the intake pipe seems to be open-ended.

[Amphitryon]

So to follow up on my own post, and having read back through this thread I suspected a pipe that was already disconnected when I first took the cover off may have been the missing air filter. Is this it:

filter.jpg

Right on the left of the picture the rubber hose is connected to the spare wheel well but seems to be kinked at that point. Is the canister towards the right of the picture supposed to be in the clip immediately to its left? I can't put it in there without the hose to the compressor coming undone. I can't see that I have done anything odd with routing that pipe. Is the answer to just get a longer length of it? Is there any special I should look for?