I have 4 wheel air system on my '98 Expy w/5.4L and 4X4. Replaced compressor for air ride suspension on my truck...well...sort-of...here's the story:

1 - 100K mile warranty expires
2 - With the completion of step 1, Air suspension stops working about a month later at 104K miles (of course!). Rear of truck is riding on the rubber stops. No warning light to "check suspension", no fuses blown, nothing obvious.
3 - Troubleshoot leveling sensor on rear and seems to work OK.
4 - Bring to local Ford dealer and diagnoses problem as "seized compressor and smoked relay". For a mere $800 he claims he can get me back on the road. Of course that's just an "estimate".
Knowing I can't get a compressor elsewhere, I reluctantly grab my ankles and tell him to go for it. He has to order the compressor.
5 - Thanks to FTE website which I had recently stumbled upon, I get information on Strutmasters.com (1-866-597-2397). They rebuild compressors for Expy's and sell them for $150. Includes 12K mile/12 month warranty. I order a compressor from them as well as a new drier for $40. They shipped 2nd day air from NC to CT for $16.
6 - I gladly tell Ford dealer to take a hike and a mere $150 later he gives me my keys...$68 diagnostics fee and $75 "restocking" fee for the $360 compressor he had to order (*******s!)
7 - Find a relay at a different Ford garage ($96 - every garage I checked same price). Not available anywhere else but Ford.
8 - Remove old compressor and see one small difference between that and the new one. With nothing else to do all weekend I slap in the new one and try it out. Need to remove washer reservoir (3 bolts) to get at it. Need to remove battery cover to remove reservoir. Compressor is rubber mounted to a stamped steel mounting plate. You need to remove the whole assembly which is attached with 3 bolts

Compressor works great but...it's not doing anything to the *** end of my truck

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...hreadid=117203

 

Sorry...disregard above post...here's the whole story:

I have 4 wheel air system on my '98 Expy w/5.4L and 4X4. Replaced compressor for air ride suspension on my truck...well...sort-of...here's the story:

1 - 100K mile warranty expires
2 - With the completion of step 1, Air suspension stops working about a month later at 104K miles (of course!). Rear of truck is riding on the rubber stops. No warning light to "check suspension", no fuses blown, nothing obvious.
3 - Troubleshoot leveling sensor on rear and seems to work OK.
4 - Bring to local Ford dealer and diagnoses problem as "seized compressor and smoked relay". For a mere $800 he claims he can get me back on the road. Of course that's just an "estimate".
Knowing I can't get a compressor elsewhere, I reluctantly grab my ankles and tell him to go for it. He has to order the compressor.
5 - Thanks to FTE website which I had recently stumbled upon, I get information on Strutmasters.com (1-866-597-2397). They rebuild compressors for Expy's and sell them for $150. Includes 12K mile/12 month warranty. I order a compressor from them as well as a new drier for $40. They shipped 2nd day air from NC to CT for $16.
6 - I gladly tell Ford dealer to take a hike and a mere $150 later he gives me my keys...$68 diagnostics fee and $75 "restocking" fee for the $360 compressor he had to order (*******s!)
7 - Find a relay at a different Ford garage ($96 - every garage I checked same price). Not available anywhere else but Ford.
RELAY INSTALLATION...
- Located in front of right front wheel from under bumper. Mine was tie-wrapped sort of out of the way but pretty much exposed to any and all road grime slinging off my right front tire for 104K miles. Relay is about 4" X 2" with cooling fins. A 4-prong harness clips into it. I mounted mine further up out of the way...hopefully it will last another 104K miles.
8 - Remove old compressor and see one small difference between that and the new one. Also notice some nicks in wire-harness insulation exposing bare wires. With nothing else to do all weekend I slap in the new compressor even though there is a small difference and try it out...compressor works but does not pump up the rear of my truck (DAMN!). Check around for leaks...nuthin'.
9 - With nothing else to do I decide to repair the harness on the old unit and give it a try just for kicks. Start truck and VOILA! My previously diagnosed "seized compressor" has magically come alive (double *******s!)

COMPRESSOR REMOVAL/INSTALLATION:

- Remove wiper/washer reservoir (3 bolts) to get at compressor (need long ratchet extension). Need to remove battery cover to remove reservoir. Unclip 2 wire harnesses to washer reservoir level switch and pump. No need to remove hoses from pump. BE CAREFUL BECAUSE PUMP IS PLASTIC AND SMALL NIPPLES WILL EASILY BREAK! With some aggrivation, the reservoir will come out and you can move it aside.
- Compressor is rubber mounted to a stamped steel mounting plate. You need to remove the whole assembly by removing the mounting plate which is attached with 3 bolts. The drier is about 3" dia X 6" long cylinder that twists directly into the head of the compressor. I would recommend removing the drier before trying to pull the compressor assy out. Air lines to your suspension hook to the drier (1 line if you have rear only suspension, 2 lines for front/rear suspension). This was the biggest pain in the *** of the whole job...getting those tubes out of the old drier and into the new one. I ended up cutting them as close to the drier as possible with a razor blade. YOU CAN NOT REUSE DRIER IF YOU DO THIS, YOU CAN'T GET TUBING PIECES OUT OF THE FITTINGS! Others may have better luck but I just could not get the tubing out with-out just cutting it. With this in mind, I would strongly recommend buying a new drier as part of this job.
DRIER REMOVAL...
- Cut the tubing (see above). Remove phillips head screw that connects the bottom of the drier to the mounting plate for the compressor (shorty phillips is a must). Twist the drier out of the compressor head (GENTLY! drier is made of plastic). There is a small o-ring that fits around the nipple of the drier where it fits into the head of the compressor. A new o-ring came with my new drier - just make sure the old o-ring isn't still in the compressor head when you install the new drier! Grab your new drier and firmly press the air tubing into the fittings on the drier...if you can pull them out easily you have not pushed them in hard enough and they will leak. May need to trim some of the insulation material around the tubing to get it into the drier fittings far enough for them to "grip" the tubing effectively. Insert drier nipple into compressor head (with o'ring!) and twist into notch in compressor head (gently!). Add screw to bottom securing drier to mounting plate.

Back to compressor removal...
- With drier removed and out of the way unclip wire harness for compressor. Here's where the difference comes in from my old unit and the new one...there is a 3/4" nipple coming out of the compressor which has a hose attached. This runs down about 8" to a small plastic piece screwed onto the mounting plate. I later discovered this is the INLET to the compressor. The new compressor has a much smaller inlet hole underneath the unit with no hose attached. Regardless, to get the compressor out you still need to remove the 3 mounting plate bolts. Once the unit is removed from the vehicle, if replacing with new unit you will have to take the mounting plate off the old one and put on new one. This requires TORX bit (can't remember size...about a T15 or T20).
- 3 rubber shock mounts were in sad shape...luckily my new compressor had new ones and I was able to replace them. IF YOUR COMPRESSOR SEEMS LOUD THIS IS PROBABLY WHY!! You may just need to replace the 3 rubber shock mounts. Try strutmasters.com, maybe they will sell them to you???

After all this what can I say?

This Ford dealer (Plaza Ford, East Lyme CT) is either incompetent or crooked as hell. They hosed me out of $75 for a "restocking charge", and charged me another $70 to tell me my $360 compressor was seized. I later find out my compressor is fine.

Strutmasters.com is a legit company and was very helpful. I told them my story and they said they would fully reimburse me for the compressor they sent. They were very helpful on the phone.



below is the thread I hopped on to start all this...figured I'd start over for the last chapter.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...hreadid=117203

 

I would not make a judgement on this one incident with your Ford dealer. A technician made a bad call. If you experience this type of treatment after several visits, then I would say you labeled the dealership correctly. As for the restocking fee, it does seem high to me.

 

I'm not one to badmouth dealers just for the sake of it....I do much of my own work and understand sometimes things are not as they seem when doing your own wrenching. I don't feel any regets for bashing the dealer on this one...it's obvious to me that they went out of their way to get me to replace my compressor with very little work on thier part to verify if that was the problem. I'm not a "factory trained" mechanic and I don't have access to the diagnostics equipment and resources they have and I figured it out in one afternoon in my garage!!! They flat out tried to get me to pay for something I didn't need.

I'm sure the diagnostics code does not say "seized compressor" which is what they told me was wrong with it. I expect them to be up front and say something like "we're not sure but you may have a bad compressor - we need to do more diagnostics to confirm". They chose to lie to me...I will now choose to bring my business elsewhere.

 

If the dealership does a follow-up call, tell them exactly how you feel!
I did that at my dealership and recieved a second follow-up call to tell me that the service advisor I had problems with had been fired for the stuff he pulled.

 

Just got off the phone with strutmasters. You don't cut the hoses to the dryer. You push in the orange ring. This releases the clamp on the white hose. Kind of like a Chinese finger puzzle. Comes right out.
Just wanted to complete the instructions.

Thanks to all. My compressor and dryer should be here on Monday night.

Note. I had to remove the battery tray on my 5.4. Couldn't get the washer tank out from around the dryer.

 

Dang! So that's what those rings are for, similar to what the front air shocks have. I cut them as that's what was advised here. Oh, well, the good thing is I have reinstalled the orange rings for the air drier (just went out to check it), so I should have the right way to remove them next time if I need to. I'm not so sure about the front shocks, I can see green rings, I hope those are the equivalent of the orange rings. Of course, I hope my new front air shocks can outlive my XP

In both cases (air drier and shocks), I barely have enough length after cutting. I hope future installer will be advised to do it properly. Funny thing is, I also was able to talk to Strutmaster when I bought the air-drier (my compressor is still good, but decided to get a new drier because it is apparently a preventive maintenance, both for my new shocks as well as the compressor), but I didn't ask how to do the removal. Their call was pretty much a marketing conversation about conversion to springs which I politely turned-down.

Good info ckutter.

Thanks
Orlee

 

My front shocks (before I switched the truck out to regular shocks/springs) had green rings on them.

 

I did re-install them then (the green rings) when I installed the new air-shocks because I can see the green rings. Thanks.