Filling bags with tire sealant

E

Ed Hall

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Other than the hole that houses the solenoid, is there a bigger hole I could put the sealant in? At the top of the strut, there is a big bolt. Does removing that bolt give access to filling the strut?

I should also mention that I am aware of all the consequences of this procedure. Also, this is actually a test experiment to test how this product works with this application. And no, it is not Slime.
 
if you want to ruin ALL of your suspension components, instead of just having one bad one, by all means do it.
 
Well if you truly don't care about the damage you are going to do to the bags I would recommend you just drill yourself a hole in the bag whatever size you want to easily fill it. Then you can really test the sealant to see if it fills that hole too! :eek:
 
DO NOT TAKE THE NUT OFF THE TOP!!! As for the sealant, I've got green slime in the front air springs on both of my Marks. I've got a '96 with Arnott front air spring/shocks that are over a year old. No problems yet...knock on wood. I've also got a 1997 LSC with some slight dryrot on the front springs. They were leaking down overnight when I got the car. I took them off and put some green slime in the springs and they don't leak down anymore. That's been over two months ago. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but since I could not afford new air spring/shock units for the '97, I had no choice. I put the slime in the new springs on the '96 as a precaution against dryrot. So far it has worked. I've heard about the crystalization of green slime and how it can damage the air spring. So far, I've had no problems. Also, I've got half a bottle of green slime that's been sitting on a shelf in my utility room for about 3 years and it is just as fluid now as it was when I first bought it.
 
thaywood,

I'm very glad to hear about your success. It's wonderful to hear about success stories from do-it-yourself shadetree mechanics.

Well, the damage is already done on my once prestine 97 Mark VIII. I pumped nearly a cup of the tire sealant through the solenoid hole. I know exactly where it was leaking and a small amount of the sealant oozed through the hole where it was leaking.
 
Another thing you might try as a temporary solution until you can get new springs: If the "hole" is a dryrot crack, they are usually concentrated around the fold where the spring sits most of the time. On the height sensor mount on the inner fender well, there is a nut that you can losen and adjust the sensor about half an inch up or down. Just move that adjuster down a little to raise the front or up a little to lower it. It may be enough to keep the dryrot crack closed during normal operation. I had to do that on my '96 for the rear springs because of a small dryrot crack on the drivers side rear. It has worked fine for several months now.
 
thaywood,

Thanks for the tip on adjusting the sensor. The dryrot cracks were indeed concentrated along the fold. All the sealant I put into the bag is now sitting at that spot. When the system pumped the bags up, a small amount of sealant seeped out of the crack and now the bag is holding air marvelously. I installed new O-rings on the solenoid and lubbed them with silicone grease. If the bag holds for several months, I'm going to put the sealant in the rest of the bags. The car still has the OE bags so I have a feeling the rest are probably close to breaking a leak as well.
 
Glad I could help, Ed. I have heard a lot of horror stories on this board about using sealant in the springs. So I'm not saying it's the best idea in the world. But if you need a temporary fix, I have found that the green slime does indeed work great. And so far, I haven't experienced the crystalization that others have. I was told on another thread that the green slime would crystalize and basically eat through the spring wall and eventually shred the spring. But like I said, I've had the stuff in my front springs for over a year in my '96 and a couple of months in my '97 with no problems. That's not to say it won't eventually happen. But not so far. Based on my personal experience, I'd say the stuff works great. Fix-A-Flat, on the other hand, may be a different story. I wouldn't recommend that. The reason I go with green slime is because it is designed to remain in a liquid state until it has to fill in a puncture or leak. Fix-A-Flat turns into a semi-solid and will eventually crystalize and cause problems. I'm on a limited budget so I have to find economical solutions to these problems and the green slime works for me. I hope you have the same success.:)
 
No real mechanic [even if he does work in the driveway] Would ever refer to himself as "shadetree". Sounds like you 2 found a thread for each other here.
 
1bad4.6l said:
No real mechanic [even if he does work in the driveway] Would ever refer to himself as "shadetree". Sounds like you 2 found a thread for each other here.
Click to expand...

I've got no problem with the term "shade tree mechanic". Back in the day, that meant that you worked on your own vehicles in your own yard under your own "shade tree". The term refers to a person who doesn't mind working on his own car and getting his hands dirty. I am a "real" mechanic. Have been for 20 years. And I'll call myself a shadetree mechanic all day long. Both my grandfathers were shadetree mechanics. My father is still a shadetree mechanic. And so am I. And proudly so.
 
mespock said:
Well Make sure we mark both of these cars as "Avoid Purchasing" incase they tries to dump them on the Membership ...
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Don't worry about that. I'll never sell either of my Marks. My wife loves hers and wouldn't get rid of it for any reason. And I love mine too. So I think they'll be with us for the forseeable future.
 
If it was pancaked, because of leaking bags...if it was my own car..I may try some fix a flat or the like, as an absolute temporary fix in the case of an emergency, until I could get it to my shop and fix it properly
 
Sapperfire said:
If it was pancaked, because of leaking bags...if it was my own car..I may try some fix a flat or the like, as an absolute temporary fix in the case of an emergency, until I could get it to my shop and fix it properly
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Precicesly! The only reason my wife's '97 LSC has the slime in the front springs is because the dryrot is very minor and the hydraulics are in perfect working order. The LSC's shocks are much stiffer than the base model and thus her '97 handles much better than my '96. I don't want to replace the shocks until they wear out. The spring just wore out first. So I shall keep it going until the shock wears out and then I'll replace both...if I can actually find LSC air spring/shock units. The ones from Arnott are nice and cheap (got a set on my '96 and they ride fine), but they are way too soft. I don't want to put those on an LSC. It would ruin the handling.
 
Uh, since when are LSC and base shocks/air struts different?
 
LaserSVT said:
Uh, since when are LSC and base shocks/air struts different?
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They sure feel different. I read somewhere, may have been in a brochure, that the LSC had stiffer shocks than the base. I know my wife's '97 LSC is a LOT stiffer than my '96 base model. And it handles much better. I can put all my weight on the front of the LSC and can barely push it down an inch. On the '96 base, it goes down quite a bit further. And those shocks are only a little over a year old. If they are not different, then my bad.

http://www.markviii.org/info/g2lscguide.html

Second paragraph about the LSC says that "Handling was stiffened by revalving the shocks." I don't know how accurate this info is, but it sounds right when comparing my base '96 to my wife's '97 LSC. The ride and handling characteristics vary dramatically between the two. The '96 is soft and fluffy while the '97 LSC is firm and taut. They ride like two different cars.
 
mespock said:
Well Make sure we mark both of these cars as "Avoid Purchasing" incase they tries to dump them on the Membership ...
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Everyone may rest at ease because the next place my once prestine Mark VIII will go will be to its final resting place at the junk yard or the crushers. I bought this car dirt cheap and it replaces my old rusty horrible oil burning 82 diesel Clunker Suburban with over 500k on the odometer that is soon heading to the crushers once I remove some parts off of it. I intend to drive this car until the wheels fall off. I bought this car for cheap transportation to go from point A to point B so I intend to keep it that way.
 
1997 Evergreen LSC with 66K on it? If you pour goop in the air ride I will do bad things to you on here. :mad:
 
This thread hasn't been set on fire for existing yet? Where is frogman? FROGGY OH FROGGY!!! Some quick put up the FROG light.
 
LaserSVT said:
1997 Evergreen LSC with 66K on it? If you pour goop in the air ride I will do bad things to you on here. :mad:
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Yes this car only has 66k miles on the odometer and was always garaged so the exterior and interior is in very good condition for a 13 year old car. The previous owner took good care of the car by performing all the maintenance such as having the oil changed every 3k miles. However, the car was costing the owner a fortune and the last straw that broke the camels back was when the front passenger bag started leaking.
 
UGH. If you are planning on keeping it forever you have two options. Keep in mind if you take care of the car and do the schedualed maintenance that it should last you another 350k+ miles. So you can eaither swap in some fresh OEM bags like I did and not worry about it for 10 years or swap in some quality coils and not worry about it for 6 years untill the springs sag.

If not then give me a couple months to come buy it from you. :)
 
Let them do to their Marks what they want/need
and why send them to a crusher?? Sell them to us for parts...I personally LOVE my Markviii, as long as I can keep it working, it'll probably be my last car
 
Yeah but you really should put any of that stuff in the air system cause it'll contaminate and get into every other part of it
 
Ed Hall said:
thaywood,

Thanks for the tip on adjusting the sensor. The dryrot cracks were indeed concentrated along the fold. All the sealant I put into the bag is now sitting at that spot. When the system pumped the bags up, a small amount of sealant seeped out of the crack and now the bag is holding air marvelously. I installed new O-rings on the solenoid and lubbed them with silicone grease. If the bag holds for several months, I'm going to put the sealant in the rest of the bags. The car still has the OE bags so I have a feeling the rest are probably close to breaking a leak as well.
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OMG :eek:

This thread fails in so many ways.

Perfect example why advice on the internet should be taken with a grain of salt.

I hope your sealant doesn't find its way into the rest of your system, if it does you can kiss your air ride good by.

Eddie???




Yes....





How much is that coil conversion???
 
Update:
Damage already done to what used to be virgin air bags.... The modified front passenger bag that was leaking is now holding air. I found the car this morning with the front suspension at the same heigth as last night when I parked the car. It did not settle one bit. The leak was large enough that the pump used to give up after 45 seconds. Since I have a gallon of this stuff, I'm thinking of putting it in the other 3 bags to extend their life. It's also going to be interesting to see how long this bag holds up. Also, the car rides and handles like a dream now. It used to bounce around and it was a challenge to avoid scrapping the bottom.
 
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