I don't have the swan neck. It's aftermarket although that too is on my list to swap.
My mates got some real high axle stands. Can i put it on extended ride height and then deflate it down onto the stands with eas unlock?
From what i've read, you don't need to remove the rear wheels but for the fronts, it's best to take 'em off and remove the liner. Is that right?
That's right, no need to remove the rear wheels. For the fronts it's easier to remove the arch liners but I found that you can pull the liner outwards and jam a WD40 can in there which gives enough room to get in and change them with the liner still in place. Not quite as easy but quicker.
Smashing. I'll gather the tools in prep. Hopefully weather behaves.
No objections to the extended ride height and lowered to axle stands idea then?
Not at all, saves lots of jacking. However, you'll probably find that without any weight on them, the bags won't fully deflate and there will still be a bit of pressure in them. Soon comes out when you pull the lines out though.......
Orangebean wrote:
Morat wrote:
Confucius he say: He who does use Axlestand shall become Axlestand.
Confucius was a bit of a twonk then. I use many axlestands, and, last time I looked, I hadn't become one?
Yeah I cocked that up didn't I :)
I did my front bags earlier this year.
I lifted the vehicle and supported it on the chassis rails. I then used the jack under the wheel hub to lift and the lower the axle as required to get the bags in and out.
Lifted it a little to take the strain off the pins - they came out super easy then - and lowered the jack to pop the spring out.
New spring in, jack up to meet the upper mount and slide the new pins on.
All bags replaced. Took me 5 hours. Had a right chew on getting one of the rears out. It was proper stuck in the hole.
So now i can be confident that my bags are good, i can turn my attention back to the block. Just been out for a drive and when i pulled up outside my house and put it in park, compressor kicked in and kept going. No reason for it to. Car was at standard ride height for the drive and didn't move up or down so there was no reason for the compressor to be chiming in. Especially not for any length of time. I may have a secondary issue. Perhaps dodgy pressure sensor? I've seen a test that story wilson does about seeing if the circuit is open or closed. I'll give that a go.
Went back out and tested pressure switch. Open circuit. Strange since like i said, went for a drive and the height never altered
Started car and compressor ran for about 15 seconds then cut out. Retested and switch is now closed.
Those rear bags can be a PIA, I always cut them with a hand saw across the top if there stuck, makes them easy to remove.
Been on a 15 mile round trip this morning. I think the problem is cured. Compressor kicked in a couple of times briefly i assume to top the pressure up. No running for long periods especially at traffic lights or roundabouts. I suppose i need to get used to normal compressor operation.
Fingers crossed!
Alas, i do believe my compressor is coming on and off still. However, now i'm sure i've got no leaks, i reckon that the front left height sensor maybe to blame.
I've said in the past about waiting at traffic lights. If you have your foot on the brake, but then put it into park and take your foot offthe brake, the car naturally moves forward a mm or so and the height seems to fall ever so slightly.
Today whilst changing the droplinks, i had a look at sensor heights with EASUnlock. The car was sat level in the garage and the Front left came back at 147 whereas the front right was 135. Methinks this is fishy.
Any way to check a height sensor?
Can i replace with a secondhand one if needed??
You can check the sensors at the ECU connector. Check Rave for the pinouts.
You can replace the sensor with used ones but you will need to re calibrate the EAS after. If you have never done it you can swap the sensors from side to side to get a new wipe on the tracks internally. I can't do this due to the bolts and salty roads in winter.
It isn't much better over here, I've never managed to remove one without resorting to the angle grinder.
So a new bolt would be advisable before i start pratting about with it then.
As the height sensor has a multiplug on it, can i just unplug it and check the ohms with a multimeter? Would it be as straight forward as one probe on each pin and wind the sensor through it's axis? Does anyone know the range it should be? I assume it would be linear?
Can't tell you the range but it's only a standard pot so if you measure resistance between the outer two pins that will give you the track resistance. Then measure between one of the outer pins and the middle one, it should vary between almost zero and whatever the resistance of the full track is as you move the arm. The usual failure is wear at a certain point on the track so you'll need to move it very slowly to see any drops or jumps in resistance. An old school analogue meter would be better than a digital one if you have one.
Was thinking an analogue would be better for the job. My mate will have one.
As for calibration, do i need to make the wooden blocks and do the whole car on every height setting? Or can you just do the one sensor?
Actually, forget the bit about calibration. I'll just do the job properly and calibrate the whole car!!!
I'll use this guide
You can't do just one sensor. The whole idea of calibrating it is to get the car sitting dead level even if the sensors are all giving very slightly different readings, which they do. A bit of wobble in the mounting holes or manufacturing tolerances in the resistor track (even good quality pots are only specced to +-5%) are going to give different readings. If you were to change just one height sensor and not recalibrate, then that one could be trying to make the car sit slightly higher which would make the opposite corner sit lower so the system would be constantly fighting itself trying to get it right.
You don't HAVE to do every height, you could do standard height and then deduct the same number from all of them to get Motorway height and add the same number for high, but it still wouldn't be spot on.
Thanks Gilbert.
Is it right that left and right sensors use different pins, thus by swapping them you fix it because it's using the pin/polarity that's never been used?
You're mirror imaging them so the bit of track that was used at high settings is used at low settings and vice versa. If you look at the diagram, they are configured as a potential divider, one end of the track goes to ground and the other end has a fixed voltage from the ECU so the position of the arm will send a voltage to the ECU which it converts into a number. It is just the polarity of the wires which are in a non-reversible plug that makes sure the readings will still be the same when you swap them. Which I know is completely different advice than that given by a self opinionated Admin on another forum but we all know which orifice he talks out of.......