Thread: L322 - air sus inactive (with a twist)

Why are you disconnecting the battery?. Pat

Originally Posted by catch-22

Have read many a thread about air sus inactive messages on L322 models. Mine has done it but there is something a little different about it this time. It usually happens with the battery has been disconnected. This time it happened of a morning (cold night) but what is different is that it also had the orange LED light on the manual suspension height switch not light up. This has not happened before and I cannot see anything similar.

Any suggestions?

I am not sure why this has happened but next time it does turn your steering wheel fully left and fully right. You are meant to do this after reconnecting the battery.
Regards paul

Hey there,

Any significant loss of electrical power will cause this to happen.

The cold morning thing suggests it might be that your battery isn't hacking the overnight cold.

It might not be charging adequately or perhaps is just getting old and not holding charge as well as when it was a young thing. While there may be enough to start your Rangie there might be too great a drop of volts to the systems during start. None of the ECU's on the L322, in my limited experience, like this much at all.

The message is usually displayed because the steering angle sensors have no relative position stored anymore. Although what this message has to do directly with the EAS baffles me.

Centre the steering before starting the car. Then, after starting but before driving, turning full left lock, full right lock and then returning to centre will reset the sensors.

Even some dealers (no names) have forgotten to do this.

Good luck. I hope battery failure (or disconnection) is your only trouble here.

Last time this happened to me it was because the front right strut developed a leak causing the compressor to have conniptions and a thermal shutdown.

Happy hunting.

Iain

I do turn the wheel left then right when the batt gets disconnected and it usually gets rid of the message....usually.

I will check the battery tomorrow morning. Either way I need to take it to have it reset although I will see if this can be done using the admin into the ECUs (there is a procedure which involves the chassis number to get in to it).

Hi again Catch-22,

Did some further reading on this and discovered that the lack of LEDs in the controls usually indicates a hardware error in the ECU. Notwithstanding the unlikely but possible case of the LED(s) dying.

This doesn't necessarily mean your EAS ECU is toast. It is also flagged by things like memory errors and calibration errors in the ECU. Both of these things can be brought about by errant voltages/spikes.

If you are only getting the "Air Susp Inactive" message and not it's companion message "Max Speed 60km/h" then the ECU is able to communicate with the height sensors and determine the vehicle is at an appropriate ride height.

So, long story short, it may still be your battery/electrics that are causing these gremlins.

Would be interested to know what you find on the battery front (or any other relevant area) during diagnosis.

Good luck with the magic reset routine.

Cheers,
Iain

Cheers Iain,

Thanks for going the extra mile. I am going to reset all fault codes now.

BTW - this is the procedure.

Resetting ALL Defect Codes

Ignition key must be “off”.
• Press and hold the Check Control button in the instrument cluster (RIGHT button), and turn the ignition key to the first position (KLR).
* You will first see "Check Control OK", some seconds later you will see "Test Nr.01"
* Push the left button on the instrument cluster to see the car's identification number. Add the 5 digits (not 6) together and write down that number, you will need it for unlocking all the functions. Example: A123457 will lead to 2+3+4+5+7 = 21
* Push the right button until you see "Test Nr.19"
* Push left button until you see the number that is equal to the one you calculated above
* Push right button again
* Using the left button select 21. Reset all defect codes
* Press the Right button to select.


More Instrument Cluster Tests

Ignition key must be “off”.
• Press and hold the Check Control button in the instrument cluster (RIGHT button), and turn the ignition key to the first position (KLR).
* You will first see "Check Control OK", some seconds later you will see "Test Nr.01"
* Push the left button on the instrument cluster to see the car's identification number. Add the 5 digits (not 6) together and write down that number, you will need it for unlocking all the functions. Example: A123457 will lead to 2+3+4+5+7 = 21
* Push the right button until you see "Test Nr.19"
* Push left button until you see the number that is equal to the one you calculated above
* Push right button again

1. Display Car's identification number, HW/SW version, construction date
2. instrument cluster self test. Will light up all lights and run all guages
3. Current consumption (liters/hour)
4. Average consumption (liters/100 km)
5. Current range
6. Remaining fuel in tank. Three sets of numbers: A/B/C. C=total amount.
7. Engine RPM / Coolant Temp (C)
8. Current Speed (kph)
9. System voltage at Term. "R" (Battery Voltage)
10. Country/Language (UK, US, Spa, Ger, Jap, etc.)
11. Units am/pm
12. Average Speed
13. ETA
14. Date of Software Mask
15. Production Diagnosis
16. ""
17. Display Vehicle Specific Data
18. Alarm Changeover (cont. vs. intermittent OBC chime)
19. Lock/Unlock
20. Correction factor for fuel consumption (nicht ändern!)
21. Reset all defect codes

Well that didn't work.

Have to find a way to check the pump and will check all fuses again. Car is not sagging and I cannot hear any air leaks.

Also battery read 14.36v so no issues there..

Bugger,

Sounds to me like your charging system is OK. Though at 14.3V I suspect that's not your battery under static load.

The vehicle not listing in any corner would suggest you probably don't have a leak anywhere. Though the system has been known to run the pump and bypass the reservoir to make minor adjustments if the height change is slow enough.

Hate to say though that it does sound like there is a definite problem in the EAS somewhere.

Have heard of things like the high pressure relief valve jamming and causing the pump to go on strike. It's a relatively simple and cheap part but a sod to get at, as it's right next to the pump. All of which is buried away in the spare wheel well.

Might have to find someone with the diagnostic tools to track down the actual fault codes being stored in the ECUs. This I suspect may be quicker than other alternatives. Shame we can't all have an Autologic or Faultmate in the garage. I don't!

Will continue checking a few things here in the meantime though and let you know if some other inspiration stirs a neuron or two.

BTW thanks for outlaying the "hidden" tests so clearly. Have never seen it this neat or concise anywhere.

Cheers,
Iain