Z2023524

Hey all my 01 AR suspension has me stumped hoping for some advice.
The facts:
Everything was fine til a week ago and the sus.lvl light started flashing on the highway and by next day stays on full time.
Took it to mechanic he said he thought compressor maybe failing, go ahead and drive it, once she drops down and won't come up bring it in for new compressor.
I just installed bagpipeandys compressor kit, seems to be working good, was working ok before but I thought might as well give it a shot.
I've check airbags for leaks - none that I can see. Not loosing air.
When car is started , sus lvl light is on, it raises up to level 1,2,3. Won't go to 4. When it stops on each level the car is not level. Passenger Side is lower, both bags.
It pumps up pretty quickly and does not appear to be loosing air.
***** the drivers side both bags are 1"-1.5" higher than the passengers side on all levels 1-3.
And the drivers side rear is the highest of all.
When attempting lvl 4 the drivers side rear bag goes up but the other 3 don't.
And last when measuring the ride heights none of the bags are the same, driver front and rear are high, rear is highest, passenger side is lower and front is lowest.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, was thinking control module ?.. Or level sensors but how would I know. Could one level sensor affect all the bags?. Or valve block???

Thanks again for any advice you may have sorry for long post.

Zach

amiram

Check for fault codes.

G0to60

You should scan it for codes with VAG COM in order to see what's going on. It would be a shot in the dark but it sounds like it may be one or more level sensors. One easy thing to do is check at each corner to see if the sensor is attached correctly to the control arm and that the wires are in good shape. Outside of that you will need to scan for codes.

Z2023524

Thx for responding, I was hoping to trouble shoot a little more before going back to the mechanic to be hooked up to vag com. He charges me $150 fort that.
One further note, last night I put it on jack mode to see what would happen over night. I took measurements at each bag . I've rechecked my levels it's been 16 hours. FR dropped 1/2'' , FL dropped 1/4", BR appears to have gone up 1/4" and BL went up 1/2".
Is this even possible --- in jack mode for the rear to raise over night. If I'm looking at the data my front and opposing rear bags dropped and raised the same amount. Am I crazy... If this is a closed system could air leave one bag and go to another?..

torturebori

I just rebuilt my compressor with the bagpipingandy rebuild kit and worked like a charm. How I went about it.

1.Watched both videos to determine if it was something I could do....yes I can
2.ordered the parts just under 50 dollars...
3.got my baby in the garage, put the suspension in service mode
4.took the cover/shield off the compressor
5.unhooked all electrical to compressor undid the airline from compressor to all other lines
6.figured I need glasses, bunch of dirt flying at you under there
7.disconnected the compressor from car via 3 nuts
8.cleaned the compressor on the outside well before opening it
9.undid the two screws as they show(please use WD-40 and let sit for a while)
10.cleaned off oring area very very well, do your best this is serious
11.replaced all parts in kit
12.put it back together
13.went to put it back in the car and this is harder than taking it off, so I used a extra jack stand to hold the compressor while i aligned it and got the nuts secured- trust me you want to do this
14.I also replaced every rubber hose(3) about 6 inches long each and put new clamps in as well.
15. once done with compressor, lifted the front to as close as possible match the height of the rear, 2 jacks, one on each side of the car in the front
16.took car off of service mode
17.turned it on and waited for the compressor to work, filling up the front
18.once that did it, i pressed level 2, once compressor stopped, i lowered it to the ground and the car leveled it self off and the dash light went off

May not be exact to what you want, but maybe set car in service mode, jack the car up to the same exact height as rear, take off of service mode while raised, compressor will run, once it is done lower the car, set level to three it should raise and it will reset. This worked for me. Light is gone and the car is running fine now

Z2023524

Hey as I mentioned in my opening thread I just used bag pipe Andy's rebuild kit 3 days ago. The problems persist.

bagpipingandy

hmm perhaps, stuck valve or bad level sensor, lets see what the fault codes show,

regards

Andy

Kneale Brownson

Couple visits at that ridiculous price gets you your own Ross Tech tool for testing.

What's your location? Maybe someone on the various forums has one.

PetrolBear

1. Yes, you might have corroded level sensor. Download ssp243 from the internet. If you are a DIY, you can clean these things yourself.


2.
Check again for leaks. It is not a random thing that the compressor went to heaven. There is a leak or there should have been leak/s. Check for leaks at level 1 and disconnect the battery. On this way you can close out any kind of level control module error or any similar things.
Background
A.
Bags practically do not loose air in case the valve body is closed (no power, no opening signals). It seems to me that I shot out my level control module by crossing over a "lake" with my AR in Transsylvania but luckily we could continue our holiday. To date, my AR went already 1000 miles (1600km) with a dead (or seemingly dead) LCM within the last 14 days. The front corners has been loosing some air during the last 700km (dropped 1,5 levels.. from 3 to 1-1,5 dependig on temperature, no levelling). But looking for the sometimes extreme terrains where I drove, with loads, it is no wonder (total offroad between pure stones of 10-25cm, mud, water..., sometimes very bad roads 40-50km long) Maybe my plastic lines/and the fittings released some air. The rear ones also, but minor amount.
If you have a bag leak, the corner drops around 1-1,5 cm per night. The whole axle drops because the LCM corrects the layout - > exceeding 5-6mm difference between left and right wheel, the higher will be adjusted, too (down..). That is why it is important to detach the battery, for a closer look.!

B.
Look after the thermodrift, too! Cold overnight weather can mean -5mm easily, especially at the front. Warming up can be the same. In sleep mode (car locked, you make measurements from outside) the valveblock does not blow up the bags to raise the car. That is why the factory prescribes Level 3 for parking.
ps. Without LCM module, at Level 1 the front bags come up 10mm(!) due to engine temperature and the heat effect of the work they do. At Level3 the front bags come up 20mm(!) in the same situation - after 30 minutes of driving. Their operational temp is around only 50- 55Celsius. So, temperature is important.