Nose down, arse up- your diagnosis?

**Strangerover** · 4th March 2014, 01:51 PM

So the Jolly Green Giant (2003 3.0 L322) is sitting in the driveway, looking most undignified. She disgraced herself yesterday by dropping to the bump stops at the front and pumping up the rear to offroad height and beyond, this on the way to the airport no less, where she was laughed at by common taxi drivers. This will not do.

Prior to this a couple of gentlemen who laughingly refer to themselves as 'mechanics'* had, in the course of replacing some control arm bushes, fitted a front height sensor back to front (is this even possible?), whereupon she locked at kneeling height and displayed various error messages. Of course, she waited a day to do this, having given no indication on picking her up from the 'mechanics' (oh the irony) that anything was wrong. Said 'mechanics' took her to an autoelec to have the fault cleared. I gather they must have discovered the height sensor reversal about this time.

Picked her up again, no faults showing on the message centre, sitting nice and high. Took me a few days to realise it was TOO high, didn't click util she told me off for driving over 50kmh while driving in 'offroad mode', except I wasn't.
These geniuses had set the height about 30mm over standard... whyyyyy? Why did they fiddle with the ride height at all? Must get around to having that looked at...

So cut to last night on the Tulla motoring out to the airport at a steady 101km, right side front starts to sink. Alarming to say the least. Suddenly levels again, then pumps up to OVER usual height. Then left starts to sink, now I'M wondering how Beelzebub got into the EAS computer and what the hell was he playing at. Pumps back up, front level again. Then front drops to bumpstops both sides like a catholic at confession. Meanwhile the rear is stuck up in the air like a Toorak matron's nose. Driver (me) feeling like an idiot in my luxury chariot that can't decide whether it's a latino lowrider or a Hilux with a 3-inch lift kit.

Long story short: car has suspension problems. Possible damage to parts unknown by mechanics. Current attitude of car suggests it thinks it's facing Mecca. Erratic behaviour of front suspension seems to rule out popped/leaking airbags, or it wouldn't have been able to pump itself up, right?

Ladies and gentlemen, your best diagnosis please. Extra points to be awarded for creativity.

*Eastern suburbs of melbourne, PM me for details on which computer wheel alignment shop to avoid...

**Homestar** · 4th March 2014, 02:27 PM

Any fault codes showing now?

A split airbag would make the EAS computer lock out the offending bag, so if 1 split, then it should just drop on one corner. This will flag a fault.

**33chinacars** · 4th March 2014, 02:57 PM

Sounds like a mad woman having a ****

Sorry can't be more helpful. If you haven't all ready buy yourself an IIDTool to clear faults etc

Gary

**Strangerover** · 4th March 2014, 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by bacicat

Any fault codes showing now?

EAS inactive
Self-Levelling inactive

It plays the messages in rotation, to cheer me up. First one, then the other. Great viewing for the 50kmh trip down the freeway, hoo boy was I popular.

Originally Posted by bacicat

A split airbag would make the EAS computer lock out the offending bag, so if 1 split, then it should just drop on one corner. This will flag a fault.

I'm assuming that the airbags are still OK since both sides pumped back up again, though I'm going to change them anyway for peace of mind. I'm just wondering what else has gone wrong to cause the erratic behaviour. I'm going to change the rear shocks too, any recommendations?

**justinc** · 4th March 2014, 04:24 PM

Have a read here.

Mk III Air Suspension

JC

**Homestar** · 4th March 2014, 05:36 PM

Ok, so it's had a fit - next step is to look at where it thinks the suspension is. You will need a diagnostic tool to do this. You can view the ride heights and see where it thinks it is compared to where it is. It will fault if it has been trying to raise or lower the suspension and not seeing the correct feedback from the sensors. I had a FR height sensor go in mine and it was all over the place - my best guess is that you have **** one.

**Homestar** · 4th March 2014, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by justinc

Have a read here.

Mk III Air Suspension

JC

Nice write up. Haven't seen that before.

**harlie** · 4th March 2014, 08:21 PM

Agree with Gav.

The computer knows something is wrong, plug into it and see what it reports. If the message is on the dash, there is faults stored in the EAS ECU.

Task 1. retrieve these faults.

At a guess you will find an out of range fault or moving in the wrong direction fault.

**Strangerover** · 4th March 2014, 08:39 PM

Well I'd like to do that, haven't yet ordered a scan tool, still undecided as to which one to buy. Makes sense though, I concur with Gav's assessment (hi Gav!). Any members with an appropriate device in eastern suburbs of Melbourne? The Google map is only showing one, and he isn't replying. I'm reluctant to let the 'mechanics' touch the car again, they've offered to try to sort it out tomorrow.

Thanks all for the interest and suggestions btw.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AULRO mobile app

**33chinacars** · 5th March 2014, 01:03 AM

Without paying big money most scam tools will be locked to an individual VIN #
My IIDTool is.
Gary

Thread: Nose down, arse up- your diagnosis?

Thread Tools

Nose down, arse up- your diagnosis?

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions