The last couple of days I'veI've noticed that when parked for a couple of hoursmy suspension drops to it's lowest setting. The manual says that load and temp could result in suspension adjustments, but doesn't specify what the suspension would do. Given the last few nights have been the coldest since I picked up the car in Sept, I'm thinking the lower temp causes the car to drop until started again?
When I start the car, it raises itself automatically to the 2nd setting and operates fine while driving.

Any input would be great!

 

You either have a small leak in both front airbags or the air block in the back of the car (next to the compressor) is leaking. If you look under the car in the rear you should see a black plastic block with several different color tubes coming out of it, thats you air lines.
Spray the block with soapy water and check for bubbles, if non there do the same to both front air bags.

 

Thanks for the info. It's actually the rear that seems to be dropping. I'm gonna take your suggestion and check it in the am.

 

Well the rears almost never have problems with the bags, just the front because they do a lot of turning. I would suspect the air block then.

 

If it is a leak, is there a short term risk of burning out the compressor?

 

Yes you can wear out the compressor in a hurry depending on how bad the leak is, if its running all the time to heep the car at ride height it will burn out in a matter of months.

The compressor isn't cheap either.

 

Good call on using the soapy water...It's the rear driver side bag that's leaking. It's a small leak, so it takes 6 or 8 hrs for it to drop completely. Into the shop it goes on Tues. In the meantime, I'm going to keep the suspension set on the lowest setting to try and minimize the workload on the compressor. (not sure if it really matters, but I'll do it anyway)

Thanks for the info

 

Good deal, yeah it should help keeping it on the lower setting.

 

I have a follow up question on this. My 02 allroad does the same thing, but it is the front drivers side that drops. I have been keeping a close eye on it and this is what I have determined.

1) It is not consistent although colder weather seems to make it happen. Days can go by without any problems. In fact, when the car is on the level one setting it seems to be worse??? I have switched to the level two mode and it happens less freqently. I would assume that a leak is a leak and the level setting would not affect the frequency of the problem. (Am I wrong?)

2) A month or so ago I got a level sensor fault for the Xeon head lights.

1 Fault Found:
00774 - Level Control System Sensor: Left Rear (G76)
28-10 - Short to B+ - Intermittent

Could it be possible that this is the real problem? Do the two systems use the same sensor?
If the level sensor is malfunctioning then it would attempt to readjust the height of the vehicle based on an improper reading.

Regardless I think I need to investigate this issue. Does anyone know how this sensor works? Is it just a simple potentiometer?


( FWIW Some other fault codes came up when I did the scan, but they are unrelated. (Mapped cooling system, door locks and a fault from a new key that I had made which didn't work.))

Thanks,

 

I just wanted to post an update. Last night I decided to get a bit more scientific about the problem. Here is what I did.

1) Raised the air springs to the maximum setting and then locked it.
2) Brushed both front air springs with soapy water to see if they were leaking (They were not.)
2) Recorded the clearance at each wheel.
3) This morning I rechecked the clearance at each wheel again and they were the same.

So at this point I thought that my air springs were okay, but not so fast. On my way to work this morning I started having problems with the air springs..... A quick stop proved that the front drivers air spring is leaking. The system will no longer inflate that spring. Having them inflated all night must have caused it to fail in some way.

Does anyone have any advice on where I can purchase a replacement air spring? How long of a job is it? Does it require any specialty tools?

Thanks,
Wendel