D4 Suspension Fault

[Geedublya]

I did a trip up into the Spanish Steps on Sunday. Everything was fine until I was driving out on the main road and I got a Suspension Fault just the yellow triangle and the warning message no lowering or other shenanigans.

These aren't unknown to me so I switched off and restarted, the fault stayed though. I cycled through the suspension heights and everything was working so we kept driving down to the lost city and back out.

In the Zig Zag carpark I reset my GOE rods back to the lower setting and tried another restart, the fault remained.

I drove back to Sydney with no problems and the suspension appeared to be working fine. Back home I performed a hard reset without success.

I don't have a code reader yet.. so I went down to British and Swedish at Narabeen and Mal put on the Autologic tool they use, first up we saw 3 height sensor errors, we cleared those but the fault remained another check and there was just the left rear sensor error. I went and checked the rod and it appeared ok through the wheel arch (which is where I reach through to change settings), getting underneath though you could see the sensor arm jammed right up and the GOE rod was bent in a U shape.

I pulled the rod out and with a bit of straightening and twisting it looked normal, I stuck it back in and another scan NO ERRORS.

I suspect a stick or rock hit the sensor arm pushing it up and bending the rod and jamming the sensor arm up. I'm suprised the computer didn't have a hissy fit and drop me to the bump stops as in the past when I have had sensor issues on both the D3 and D4 it has. I'm also suprised that I could cycle through the different heights. In the past when I missed resetting one GOE rod the suspension kept trying to level and failing until the compressor overheated and then it would drop to bump stops. It appears if the sensor is too far out of range it ignores it.

I don't know if the original rod would have bent or snapped. The GOE rods can bend fairly easily in one direction so I'm not sure which would be better. The material the are made from is definitely good stuff though, after bending it straight there is no evidence that it was out of shape so far.
I do carry spare front and rear sensors with original rods so a broken rod isn't a show stopper for me.

Anyway just another thing to check if you get a suspension error.

[Graeme]

It appears if the sensor is too far out of range it ignores it.

Yes, if the sensor value is considered invalid then the system will operate on 3, albeit without some refinements.

[gghaggis]

Hi Geedublya,

Must have been quite a hit to push the sensor arm up high enough to bend the rod into a U! The rods are made of material that will bend rather than snap, so obviously they worked. If there's any after-effects, let me know and I'll send you out a replacement rear rod.

Cheers,

Gordon