Front Air Suspension

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mistrz

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I'm looking for other's comments on this, so here is my short story...

Two days ago, it dipped down to 2 F overnight. In the morning, about 0800 (the Mark sits outside), the Mark looked fine. Then around 1400, when it had warmed to a balmy 18 F or so, I heard the stock horn alarm going off. No one had disturbed the car at all (we're way outside of suburbia - and there were no tracks in the fresh snow so I know that no one was even near the Mark), so I used my remote to turn off the alram. But then I noticed that the front end had bottomed.

Great.... :confused: we had replaced the Right Front airbag about 18 months ago when it was no longer holding air and everything was fine since then... but now ??

So I went out and fired up the Mark. Immediately, the compressor kicked in and the front lifted back up again to normal height. I've taken it out on the road since then, putting it through it "up-n-down" paces and everything seems fine.

The wife has the car now and there does not seem to be an issue - but we've had as cold - or colder - weather before, and the car has never sat down before.

Has anyone else seen this ? What about the car alarm? Is this a possible electrical issue? I have not had the chance to get into it over the holidays... I'm just throwing this out there to see if anyone else has seen this behaviour.

I know that all these Marks have their own spirits - maybe mine was just acting up over the holidays ?!?!
 
the stock alarm system in the gen2's looks at the height sensors, i leaned on mine once and it went off
 
OK - did not know that! :cool:

So in that case, it must have just squatted when I heard the alarm go off... :confused:

Has anyone else had that problem before ? The Mark has been in weather that cold or colder before and I never had it squat like that. FYI, it's a 97 LSC with about 143K on it.

Thanks for your input ! :Beer
 
chicken said:
the stock alarm system in the gen2's looks at the height sensors, i leaned on mine once and it went off
Click to expand...
that's a new one...on a 97 I know there is no way for the air suspension module to communicate any sensor data to any other module.
 
mistrz said:
I'm looking for other's comments on this, so here is my short story...

Two days ago, it dipped down to 2 F overnight. In the morning, about 0800 (the Mark sits outside), the Mark looked fine. Then around 1400, when it had warmed to a balmy 18 F or so, I heard the stock horn alarm going off. No one had disturbed the car at all (we're way outside of suburbia - and there were no tracks in the fresh snow so I know that no one was even near the Mark), so I used my remote to turn off the alram. But then I noticed that the front end had bottomed.

Great.... :confused: we had replaced the Right Front airbag about 18 months ago when it was no longer holding air and everything was fine since then... but now ??

So I went out and fired up the Mark. Immediately, the compressor kicked in and the front lifted back up again to normal height. I've taken it out on the road since then, putting it through it "up-n-down" paces and everything seems fine.

The wife has the car now and there does not seem to be an issue - but we've had as cold - or colder - weather before, and the car has never sat down before.

Has anyone else seen this ? What about the car alarm? Is this a possible electrical issue? I have not had the chance to get into it over the holidays... I'm just throwing this out there to see if anyone else has seen this behaviour.

I know that all these Marks have their own spirits - maybe mine was just acting up over the holidays ?!?!
Click to expand...
The alarm going off COULD be a flaky hood switch. The slamming issue I don't know but I am sure there are some on here that are better versed on the air ride system.
 
hell maybe, was leaning on the hood......

and mistrz, you got a leaking bag, see what side is lower
 
well, it did it again this morning :( - except no horn alarm. It was about 3 F last night. In fact, the front end looks just like your picture, chicken. Except that the rear end is the right height.

Which side is lower? The front side! It's not a single bag leak - it appears that when it reaches a certain temperature (and thus a critical minimum pressure), both front air bags deflate simultaneously. When I start the car, the compressor kicks in and lifts the front back up again and it will sit at it proper height until it gets really cold again.

I'm looking for suggestions as to where to start diag'ing this. What component controls both front bags, where if it had an issue (an adverse condition to really cold temperatures) that it would just release pressure ?

I could just hope that it wouldn't get into lower single digits, but that's not going to happen here...
 
mistrz said:
well, it did it again this morning :( - except no horn alarm. It was about 3 F last night. In fact, the front end looks just like your picture, chicken. Except that the rear end is the right height.

Which side is lower? The front side! It's not a single bag leak - it appears that when it reaches a certain temperature (and thus a critical minimum pressure), both front air bags deflate simultaneously. When I start the car, the compressor kicks in and lifts the front back up again and it will sit at it proper height until it gets really cold again.

I'm looking for suggestions as to where to start diag'ing this. What component controls both front bags, where if it had an issue (an adverse condition to really cold temperatures) that it would just release pressure ?

I could just hope that it wouldn't get into lower single digits, but that's not going to happen here...
Click to expand...

It may not seem like it to you but you do have one bag leaking. When one leaks, the other bag can not hold up all that weight. I had one bag leaking but it was a very very slow leak. the temp would have to be in the 40's or below or it would never leak down. If it ever hit the 20's, it would slam over night. Replace both bags with some Gen 2's if possible and your problem should be gone.

Try getting down in a push up position and hold yourself up with one arm and see how long you can hold it and then add the other arm and then you'll feel the added support.
 
may be so cold that the o rings in the selonide are leaking, I read someware if you take your selonides out Which you must have to change it 18 months ago, you should replace your O rings did you? cold shrinks things possible cause?
 
Sounds to me like the o-rings got brittle and the solenoids no longer held any air. Perhaps the the temp got so low, the o-ring contracted a bit and air leaked out.
 
mistrz said:
Which side is lower? The front side! It's not a single bag leak
Click to expand...
ill bet money it is a single leak. nolimit already summed it up, next time it drops take a tape measure and one side will be a inch or so lower. theres your bad bag
 
Mine was the pass side that had the leak. Kinda rare for it to be o-rings unless they have been tampered with but possible. The bag is a much bigger piece of rubber that can contract in the cold, making it's leak a lot quicker.
 
mistrz said:
Great.... :confused: we had replaced the Right Front airbag about 18 months ago when it was no longer holding air and everything was fine since then... but now ??
Click to expand...

It's probably the left front that is leaking then. It's a good idea to always replace both at the same time. The hydraulics will usually go bad long before the air spring will. So you have one relatively new shock on the right and an old, possibly worn out one on the left. The left spring probably has some dry rot cracks that will open as the cold temps cause the pressure in the spring to drop. So it would probably be a good idea to just replace that left side air spring/shock. That will most likely fix your problem.
 
mistrz said:
. We had replaced the Right Front airbag about 18 months ago when it was no longer holding air and everything was fine since then... but now ??
Click to expand...


Also, if you replaced that one air strut with an Arnott unit, in most cases, not all though, you're lucky to get one year or so out of them. If it was replaced with a new OEM strut, then the other bag is where I would put my money at.

I would just look on ebay and get yourself 2 used 97 or 98 air struts, (OEM) just so you'll have two of the same on the front with equal mileage on them if you want to get out of this as cheap as possible. Also, to be on the safe side, check the link below and get yourself two of the solenoids that have already been redone by someone that surely knows what they're doing.

http://www.americanairsuspension.com/cart/proddetail.php?prod=MK8-SOL
 
Thanks everyone for your input ! :Beer

It has warmed a bit by now, so I :think: I have a little bit of time to work on this.

I like the soapy solution, but nothing personal here, it won't quite work when its around 0 F! :D And I really don't relish the idea of crawling around on the ground at that temperature, either !!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

I did replace it with a new OEM bag on the passenger side, but didn't do anything with the solenoid O-rings. Hell, a bad O-ring brought down a shuttle, I guess that it bring down the Mark, too... :rolleyes:

So at this point I'll pay more attention to the action of the front left bag and start to put some $$$ away to get it replaced. That and I'll look at redoing the solenoids, too - sounds like a good preventative maintenance item. Besides, who knows how long these parts will be around ???? :confused:

I'll post back to let you all know how/what/when it works out!

Thanks again !!!! :Beer :Beer :Beer :Beer :Beer
 
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