Allroad air spring gone west - is it safe to drive?

[cpeace]

doe sorry i was look at the joind date.... sorry.

nooo ya cant finish the thread there! lol what was the conclusion? I'm having the same problem right now. hello to you all too by the way, sorry i know this is over a year old.

[bagpipingandy]

Phutters, If all up and running as "normal", and no leaks seen, the next area would be look at the level sensor & connections on that corner, check the connection is clean, sensor located ok, and no issues there, a fault scan would also be usefull so see what errors are shown, the hissing you heard (if no leaking found with the spapy water) could just be the valve block/compressor venting air outside which when mine went, I also thought it was coming from the airbag as it was such a large volume of air, and the car just semed to melt into the ground until it hits the bump stop. Not a feeling you wish on another allroader not a nice feeling at all!! heart sinks as does the car.

regards

Andy

[Phutters]

Hi Andy

Latest developments.

The offending spring didn't go down again between Tuesday morning and today. All the connections and sensors are okay, the bag has been checked for leaks at every conceivable level between one and four (inclusive) and is airtight. There are no fault codes showing anywhere.

The upshot of this is that there are two slightly perplexed people left scratching their heads; me and the local specialist ace geezer-type bloke who has been trying unsuccessfully to find something wrong with it.

And he refused to accept anything for his trouble, which is jolly nice, although I suspect (as I'm sure he does too) that it won't be the last time that this thing is going to be up on his ramps.

Incidentally, I looked back over my shoulder at the car as I left it there this morning, and I swear it smirked at me.

[All-rod]

Now you mentioned you heard it hissing, where was it coming from? the affected corner or rear of car? If is the front then is possible it is the top seal wore out and not making proper contact. Next time it happens have spray ready and spray it all around the spring to pinpoint the culprit. If is rear then probably sensor or distributor block related...

[Phutters]

Now you mentioned you heard it hissing, where was it coming from?

The affected corner.

The bloke looking at it did have one suggestion as to the possible cause, and that it might not have been coincidental that the car had been balancing on a pair of trolley jacks at the tyre place a little while before the incident.

He was a franchise mechanic before setting up on his own, and while he is far from the kind of feller who would make a grandiose pronouncement about having solved all of these cars' suspension foibles in one fell swoop, it might be worth mentioning what he thought it could have been.

He thought that having the suspension completely unloaded - dangling, in effect - while up on the jacks may have disturbed a seal on the affected corner, which caused the subsequent deflation.

He has had experience of this happening before on other Allroads, and now takes the time to raise the suspension to level four and back down again once out of jacking mode and before driving off to make sure that the strut seals are properly seated under compression, as it were.

I'm only relaying what he said, and I can only reiterate that it was no more than a suggestion on his part.

[allan_audi]

He thought that having the suspension completely unloaded - dangling, in effect - while up on the jacks may have disturbed a seal on the affected corner, which caused the subsequent deflation.

I don't think this is possible, the air springs are bolted to the top carriers, so even if they are unloaded they're held tight against the seals.

I've had similar problems to this when garages don't use jack mode, even when you tell them to.

I don't know if you did put it into jack mode yourself or whether the garage did it, but I always make a point of doing it myself.

[Phutters]

...but I always make a point of doing it myself.

Likewise.

It's one of those owning-an-Allroad things you don't forget.

Whether or not the theory holds water doesn't really matter at the moment. It's all working fine with no leaks, and it strikes me that in the absence of any actual evidence as to the cause there probably isn't too much to be gained by fretting about it.

So I won't.

Until the next time.

[cpeace]

this is all sounding very familiar to me too, as my problem seem to start after i changed the disc's and pads, i didn't know there was a jacking mode! so how that work if you dint mind me asking? I'm just about to get at least the fronts changed to arnott gen II

[allan_audi]

Likewise.

It's one of those owning-an-Allroad things you don't forget.

Whether or not the theory holds water doesn't really matter at the moment. It's all working fine with no leaks, and it strikes me that in the absence of any actual evidence as to the cause there probably isn't too much to be gained by fretting about it.

So I won't.

Until the next time.

Ok, thats good, it wasn't lack of jack mode, then I suspect that there was some problem with the control. I think its unlikely that the hissing you heard was from the air spring. More likely from the valve block, ie. it was commanded to vent. This and the fact that it happened when you opened the door, which activates the suspension control.

I suspect maybe you have a level sensor on the way out, and the jacking caused the sensor to go out of limits. I had a front drivers sensor fail and the suspension did some strange things. I could occasionally see a flicker on the dash (thought I was going crazy), but it came on completely on the way up to Loch Lomond. A check of the fault codes showed level sensor had failed. I checked the output with a scope and it was completely dead.

Just an idea....

[allan_audi]

this is all sounding very familiar to me too, as my problem seem to start after i changed the disc's and pads, i didn't know there was a jacking mode! so how that work if you dint mind me asking? I'm just about to get at least the fronts changed to arnott gen II

Whenever you lift an Allroad you are supposed to put the car into Jacking Mode, this stops the controller trying to adjust the height. Jack mode is entered by pressing and holding both the up and down suspension buttons together until the warning light comes on the dash. Do the same to exit jacking mode, ie. warning light goes out.