Air Suspension
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Originally Posted by vze2sgxa
Every once in a while, on long road trips, the passenger side cut off switch will get bumped (feet, bags, luggage on floor, maps...) and when it does, the suspension light comes on; usually, this happens (to me, anyway) when I'm on a turnpike or highway and have to drive a bit to get over to the side of road and turn it back on. Point is, during that driving, even with a lot of cargo or people weight, the truck (4wd LLS) still stays pumped up with the switch off, which always suprised me, I would have thought it would have run down to the rubber stoppers, but it stays up. Another thing I have noticed (related to your observations) is that when I park the truck in the garage after driving it, if I lift the hood and listen carefully, I can hear the new compressor I put in last year start to bleed down a bit, a short hissing noise, sounds like air is escaping, but it only lasts for 15 sec or so, it must be normal because the noise stops and the truck settles level. Just some of the performance characteristics that I have observed. Seems to run fine, though. However, we are approaching a seven year old car (mine's a 2000) and I am not convinced that there are'nt some small leaks in those rubber bags in the back LLS part. The rubber can't stay viable forever. Haven't found any leask yet, but I'm buying a set of air bags just in case, from Strutmasters or whatever vendor everybody recommends here. Hope this helps.
Ever have your compressor kick on with the truck off? Caught me off guard the one time it happened.
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Yeah it has kicked on momentarily when my truck was off. Last night i turned the switch off and my truck stayed the same level all ngiht, but when i gotin it to drive it to work by the time i got there it had went back down...so i turned the switch back on and it came back up....so far it is still up...
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Yeah it has kicked on momentarily when my truck was off. Last night i turned the switch off and my truck stayed the same level all ngiht, but when i gotin it to drive it to work by the time i got there it had went back down...so i turned the switch back on and it came back up....so far it is still up...
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From: Grand Rapids MI
Originally Posted by SMIGGS
Same as mine. I have a 2000 with the LLS and I bought it used so I'm not sure if this is the original compressor. Everything you describe happens on mine also. I also can hear clicking and a release of air right after I shut the vehicle off ( up to 1 minute ) so I'm guessing that is normal?
Ever have your compressor kick on with the truck off? Caught me off guard the one time it happened.
Ever have your compressor kick on with the truck off? Caught me off guard the one time it happened.
The bleed down after the clicking is normal lowering of the truck.
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Ok hold up, is it or is it not true?...When the bags are fully inflated and the switch is turned off, the bags should not bleed down at all and if they do that is the sign of a leak....The reason i am asking is because the bags don't always bleed down, sometime it can sit for hours and never drop an 1"....seems to me if there was a leak every time it would come to rest in any circumstance the bags would bleed down...
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From: Grand Rapids MI
Ok..Here goes...one more time. This was taken off the American Air suspension web site....
The Ford shop manual recommends performing a soapy water solution for air suspension leak testing. While this is the absolute sure-fire way to leak test, if you don't have the right equipment and/or experience, the results of your test may not be conclusive. The equipment I'm speaking of is not the soapy water solution, but more the vehicle lifting equipment needed to allow you to get under the car and see most of the air spring/strut...."WHILE THE WEIGHT OF THE CAR IS ON THE AIR SPRINGS/STRUTS". An example of this would be a front end rack. The kind of rack that is used to align a vehicle and that the technician has to drive the car up onto. If the rear of the car is on the ground, you can't safely get under it to visibly see all around the air spring/strut. Using a front end rack, you can lift the vehicle up in the air and safely see the entire rubber bladder while performing the test. The problem is, most novice mechanics don't have access to a front end rack. With that being said, I have a much easier and safer approach to leak testing. I will explain this later on, but first I want to explain a few things.
First of all, the rubber used on the air spring/strut gets dry rotted mostly on the fold of the rubber, or where the rubber folds around on the bottom. This folded area of the rubber gets the blunt of the punishment and dry rots at a much faster rate than the rest of the rubber. Because this area dry rots faster than the rest, this is where your leak is going to be 99.9% of the time.
The reason the air spring/strut will leak sometime and not others, has allot to do with temperature and most importantly, where the fold of the rubber is. The area of the rubber thats on the fold, will change with vehicle height. In other words, the fold of the rubber will be in a different area while the car is being driven (city height) as opposed to when it is sitting still (vented or parked height). If the dry rotted area of the rubber is "On the Fold", this will open up any cracks in the rubber and allow air to escape.
Keep in mind that ALL the air springs/struts have their own solenoid. The solenoid acts as a gate for air. No air should go in or out unless the solenoid is opened up by the module. By turning the suspension switch off, your disabling the solenoids, thus no air should escape....unless of course theres a leak.
First of all, the rubber used on the air spring/strut gets dry rotted mostly on the fold of the rubber, or where the rubber folds around on the bottom. This folded area of the rubber gets the blunt of the punishment and dry rots at a much faster rate than the rest of the rubber. Because this area dry rots faster than the rest, this is where your leak is going to be 99.9% of the time.
The reason the air spring/strut will leak sometime and not others, has allot to do with temperature and most importantly, where the fold of the rubber is. The area of the rubber thats on the fold, will change with vehicle height. In other words, the fold of the rubber will be in a different area while the car is being driven (city height) as opposed to when it is sitting still (vented or parked height). If the dry rotted area of the rubber is "On the Fold", this will open up any cracks in the rubber and allow air to escape.
Keep in mind that ALL the air springs/struts have their own solenoid. The solenoid acts as a gate for air. No air should go in or out unless the solenoid is opened up by the module. By turning the suspension switch off, your disabling the solenoids, thus no air should escape....unless of course theres a leak.
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