Air Suspension diagnosis question

[calalli]

My 95 had the front suspension replaced with strutmaster parts before I bought it, I did not really know much about the car and did not know to check that.

The rear is still on air but is showing some issues; occasionally when I start it the rear end is completely lowered and does not raise. If I stop and restart the car (sometimes it takes more than one attempt) the compressor kicks in and raises the rear and I am good to go. It is completely intermittent and does not seem to be a slow leak, it has occurred when the car sat for as little as an hour. I am guessing a bad height sensor but I really have no experience to go with.

I am considering converting the rear to strutmaster as well, is there any reason not to? I have seen the t-bird in a tux comments, but since the front is already done, I can't maintain a purists approach. I notice a bit of floatiness in the car now and would prefer to tone that down.

thanks,
cal

 

[olddavid]

If the rear lowers in "as little as an hour" you almost certainly have leaks. Easy to check with a spray bottle full of soapy water. My car is still on air, but being careful to maintain all other aspects like ball joints and tie rod ends and shock mounts in the rear are musts if you plan to keep and drive for any length of time. Or find a Thunderbird or Cougar with low miles and swap out the rears and make your car uniform. Your local PickAPart should be able to help for less than $75 and put your car back to driving with a day of labor. It isn't that tough of a job to replace. Or, buy the kit new from one of the suppliers and go from there. You Tube has a great video of the swap process. Good luck. Don't give up on the car.

 

[mikemark8]

If the rear lowers in "as little as an hour" you almost certainly have leaks. Easy to check with a spray bottle full of soapy water. My car is still on air, but being careful to maintain all other aspects like ball joints and tie rod ends and shock mounts in the rear are musts if you plan to keep and drive for any length of time. Or find a Thunderbird or Cougar with low miles and swap out the rears and make your car uniform. Your local PickAPart should be able to help for less than $75 and put your car back to driving with a day of labor. It isn't that tough of a job to replace. Or, buy the kit new from one of the suppliers and go from there. You Tube has a great video of the swap process. Good luck. Don't give up on the car.

+1-and, having had two marks, both on air (until i gave up on getting the 96 that i've had for 10 years to air up after replacing the rear bags with what i thought were good units)-i did a total strutmaster spring swap all around, and honestly now I can drive this any time I want and not be concerned with coming out and finding it slammed, or worse still, having it slam while driving (that happened to me once, no warning, in my 93-i replaced those fronts and got another 4 years out of it that way until it was broadsided in 2006).

Air is really nice when it works, but it is hard and expensive to keep it in good working condition, and it does affect reliability in that if something goes wrong, it is pretty much undriveable-do the rear springs, never look back, you will get more enjoyment out of your mark if you do.

 

[Calabrio]

My 95 had the front suspension replaced with strutmaster parts before I bought it, I did not really know much about the car and did not know to check that.

The rear is still on air but is showing some issues; occasionally when I start it the rear end is completely lowered and does not raise. If I stop and restart the car (sometimes it takes more than one attempt) the compressor kicks in and raises the rear and I am good to go. It is completely intermittent and does not seem to be a slow leak, it has occurred when the car sat for as little as an hour. I am guessing a bad height sensor but I really have no experience to go with.

I am considering converting the rear to strutmaster as well, is there any reason not to? I have seen the t-bird in a tux comments, but since the front is already done, I can't maintain a purists approach. I notice a bit of floatiness in the car now and would prefer to tone that down.

thanks,
cal

There's a lot of information missing here for a diagnosis. And also note, it could be combination of any of these things too.

1. If you find the car dropped, you could just have a leak in air springs. The pin holes are small, so on some nights the hole might be covered by the folds in the rubber.
2. If you're turning the car on and THEN it drops, I would suspect that the problem is the vent solenoid sticking open. Or the vents are opening and the pump doesn't have the force to generate enough pressure.

It doesn't sound like an issue with the height sensor.

As for whether you should keep the air ride, considering that you don't have it in the front any longer, there's no real reason why you should be compelled to keep it in the back. Perhaps you get a little benefit from the load leveling if you have stuff in the trunk, but otherwise, it'd make sense to just put springs.

You're not getting the ride quality, leveling, or aerodynamic advantage of dropping at 55mph, like the air ride once offered, so you might as well avoid all the aggravation and finish off the modification.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLbzr1cbPPU

 

[calalli]

Thanks for the responses. It dropped on me again and I was able to get the rear to raise by giving it a boost; lifting the rear a bit by hand. Won't bother with that again. Shocks and Springs are getting installed next week.