Thread: Air Susp Inactive: Strut out. Airbag seems OK. No air from air-line.

Here's were we are up to now:
- put everything back together, even the leaking front strut
- Put in the fuses for the Air suspension
- Connected up jsp's AllComm connector and got that linked via the ODBII port
- Cleared EAS errors, sort of. I got an "Articulation Validity Fault" listed, and even after I have cleared the errors, I still have the same error showing on the AllComm software.
- Started up the car. The "Air Susp Inactive" message has GONE!!! YAY
- The orange LED dash lights for the air-suspension are now back on again, and the up down switch has lights as well again
- Compressor running - pumps up to pressure and switches off
- No air to any of the air springs at all

I just pulled the valve block again to check the central solenoid on the valve block (the one that I assume 'distributes' the main pressure to each of the 4 corners), to make sure that triggered with 12V (it did), so I can't work out why I have saggy airbags still.

I've tried switching to off-road height, and the dash says "Off-road height" and the top LED flashes (so it looks like it's trying to go up) but no pressure to the springs at all.

The whole car is up on jack stands, so there is no weight on the air springs. Is this likely to be causing an issue?

Any thoughts gratefully received!

Cheers
David

Originally Posted by spudboy

The whole car is up on jack stands, so there is no weight on the air springs. Is this likely to be causing an issue?

could be if the car is significantly higher than it would be normally - off the top of my head I think it's 110mm over standard height for a number of seconds it thinks it is hung up and won't do anything until it lowers (slides off the obstruction). 2nd thought - If the sensors are reading at or above standard height it won't inflate anyway.

Does allcoms give you testing options? for example nanocom will allow you to inflate a corner manually to test the valves. IIDTool for L322 let you Inflate All, Inflate Front (or rear), Inflate individual corner - its a very handy option.

Glad to see the leak was easy to spot.

My guess is that the computer thinks that the airbags have air in them and you have to depressurise them using testbook then repressurise using testbook. the suspension then also has to be calibrated using testbook.
From RAVE

Air suspension system - depressurise
and repressurise

$% 60.50.38

Depressurise
1.

Depressurise suspension using TestBook/T4.

WARNING: The air suspension system is
pressurised up to:

l

Up to VIN 106309 - 13.7 Bar (199 lbf/in2)

l

From VIN 106310 - 11.8 Bar (171 lbf/in2)
WARNING: Ensure dirt or grease does not
enter the system. Wear hand, ear and eye
safety protection when working on the
system.

Repressurise
1.

Repressurise suspension using TestBook/T4.

CAUTION: The air springs must be fully

pressurised before the weight of the vehicle is placed on them.

Thanks for those suggestions Harlie & Philip.

While I was thinking about this I had an "I wonder...." moment. Because I have been playing with the AllComm unit plugged into the front drivers side and resting on the seat, I had the driver's door open.

I wondered if having the door open might be inhibiting things (it won't lower etc when the door is open) and bugger me - when I shut the door and tried it again, I got air to all airbags!!

Am VERY pleased to see this happen

Have just called Island 4x4 in the UK and they are getting me a shipping price for 2 new struts later today. Hopefully it won't be stupidly expensive. Some parts I have bought have been more in shipping than the price of the part.

Re the features of the AllComms, I will have to explore it a bit to give you (Harlie) an answer about the corner by corner testing etc. Haven't seen it on there, but only used it for 10 minutes.

Thanks for all the input. Very much appreciated.

Gold - the door! So nothing wrong with valves, just needed those faults cleared. What faults did you have?

Did you get a copy of RAVE?

Pls let us know about the struts...

The fault I had (and still seem to have) is Articulation Validity Fault.

Even though I used the "clear the fault" function of the AllComms it is still there. However, the message on the dash has gone, so it must have cleared something.

I managed to get a copy of RAVE, and I've spent about an hour reading it today. The more I read, the more I think my Defender is the perfect car . An L322 is really just a mobile computer, full of sensors and busses and electrons. Brilliantly clever until it breaks!

Yeah - but the electronics give you some advantages as well. My point in post #20 was valid and would have saved all the time spent removing and testing valves, you would quickly see that the only issue was the leak. Disadvantages electronics brings is the whole disable everything pain. Granted coils do away with it all... But in the electronic game the first move is with a computer instead of a spanner (especially with EAS).

Articulation Validity Fault. Axle Articulation is a tested by the ECU where it compares the different pressures on an (axle) with the values from the height sensors, and / or extreme height differences between wheels on the same axle. the leak could trigger this.

Try clearing faults in the eas ecu then clear faults fromthe light ecu.

There is no manual control through allcoms of the eas, not like can be done with the free p38 software.