This P38 is testing my sense of humour... I think since owning this I have averaged about 48 hours of worry free motoring before the next major system failure - today EAS..

I was just playing with the nanocom this morning in EAS resetting ride heights as it was a few cm higher on the right than on the left, on level ground. So obv the EAS was having to work a bit harder than usual, and it was hot... I got the settings I wanted, but now I have ended up on bump stops, and can't get to any other ride height. The Compressor works still, and the whole system was working fine before. No discernible leaks. So either something simply failed, or I was wondering if the Nano has some functionality that cd have disabled EAS ( as a result of me messing around). I'm looking for the quick win before I have to go through things methodically - seems like something gave out on me - any quick things I should try before I have to start pulling EAS apart?

Is it showing all 4 lights on the height display? That signifies a fault condition. On the Nano, go to Faults, read the faults, clear the faults and then exit out of it. You should get 3 beeps from the dash and the 35 mph message then it will clear and all burst into life.

If only it were that easy... but no, no faults...for good measure I did hit Clear Faults a few times regardless, but nothing. I also pressed the up/down selector on the dashboard a few times and at certain points it seemed to move a bit,and at one point came up v slowly to standard height. But the default setting is access light lit, standard light flashing. Is this sounding like a compressor rebuild?

Ok - I think the primary reason is operator impatience... after watching an RSW vid it was suggested that you let the car run with a door open so that the EAS pump could spend all its time filling the tank...I let the pump run for 10 mins, it then cut itself off, I closed the door and it immediately climbed to standard height. Possibly the compressor needs a helping hand in future and so I'll rebuild the pump anyway at some point. Back to the air con again now !!

If the tank is empty and it's otherwise happy just waiting for pressure, the desired height led will be flashing, and current height will be solid. If pressure doesnt appear in X minutes, you'll get a fault code.

If mines been sat for a few weeks the tank gets empty and it can take a few minutes of driving before it actually gets to ride height.

Stripped the compressor yesterday - the piston seal was starting to deteriorate, sorted now. BTW, through necessity I had to replace the seal without removing the piston from the motor housing (basically because the internal grub screw was not giving a mm, and threatened to strip). In many ways it's easier than removing the assembly to do it, and I used a wood chisel to pry off the brass collar, rather than a screwdriver - since it gets into the groove left by the old seal much better. You still need to remove the end cover from the motor though, to stop the piston flopping around while you're working on it, I just jammed a piece of wood in there to stop the rotation and brace the bottom of the piston against the housing. I'm an EAS virgin no longer

Just deleted your post that you asked to be deleted only to find the main screen showed no posts in Oily Bits. So I'm posting here to let you know I've done it and remove the No Posts message......

Just posting to say that I didn't see the post either.

Congrats on fixing your compressor though. My RR looks like a Basset Hound bitch taking a piss. There's not a huge angle, but enough to let you know that something is going on.

Is it about to take a piss... of coolant or something Miles ? ;-)

heh it's not losing any fluids right now (beyond the usual requirement to top up the oil). I think there's a leak in the back of the EAS somewhere.

My apologies as i guess this is a regular issue? But I am new to P38 ownership, although not unaware of some of the issues.

After 3 weeks of ownership I seem to have 2 errors [1 = central locking], with the EAS being the more immediate. Over the last 2 days 3 or 4 lights have lit up on the suspension settings whilst driving & the 35 mph max warning has come on. On 1 occasion i pressed the EAS lock switch [?] [to the right of the lights] & a couple of minutes later all went back to normal. But next time i started it up we were back to 3/4 lights on the dash & the 35 mph warning. It is difficult to say if the ride height is changing with all the lights coming on, I don't think it is changing, & the car drives fine even with the lights on. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

I bought a cable & CD from the internet before getting the car as it looked like it would be useful in the future, & looked on the following thread to try & get some guidance, but I am not sure if i am starting in the right place.

Many thanks
John
ttp://www.rswsolutions.com/index.php/p38a-eas-unlock-videos

Sorry I forgot to ask but what is the Nano?

Nano is the Nanocom Evolution (see https://www.nanocom-diagnostics.com/) which is generally accepted as the diagnostic tool for the P38. Not exactly cheap but can deal with all systems and not just odd things.

The free RSW EASUnlock software works and does a good job. Use it to read the faults and see what it is that is causing your issues. There's two fault modes to the EAS system. It will detect a fault and then shut down to protect itself from doing further damage. It will either exhaust all air from the system and drop you to the bumpstops or it will rise to the High setting. In both cases it will bring all the lights on and the dash will display EAS Fault, followed by 35 mph max.

Unfortunately, the rswsolutions page you are looking at shows the later, paid for V4 of EASUnlock and not what you will see on your screen. There used to be similar videos for the free version but it looks like he's removed them or hidden them somewhere. Where in the world are you?

Edited to say that I've just seen your identical post on the other side and you are in the UK (I'm Richard_G over there). That's a good start, what sort of are in case someone has experience locally (and won't tell you to rip it out and fit bits of bent wire instead).

https://www.rswsolutions.com/index.php/p38a-eas-faults

Might help

Thanks Richard/Gilbert etc. But your final line does not make sense has something been missed out?

I have looked at the other thread that was posted as well. Thank you.

I managed to get the OBD via USB connected to the laptop & followed the instructions from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=481kvauuOug

But when I pressed Initialise and the TX numbers & FF started, on the RX side all I got was PP [once] and then nothing else. I tried to start from the beginning on 2 separate occasions but all I got was the same. I checked I was on the right Comms [USB]. I had to connect the OBD cable to the USB one [both supplied with CD rom] in order to make it work.

I presume the engine is not on, but key is in position 2 with electrics on? Started car after & for no reason at all all was clear.

I did look under the car & it looked like 1 air bag was quite new, but the others clearly were not as there were clear signs of wear. From start up it generally lifts an inch or so at the front, but even after a few days left it does not go down much, certainly no different to leaving it overnight. There were no faults shown, all the boxes had a 0 in them.

Any ideas why I am getting a PP reading & not a response to the test signal? Also my One & Two Byte delay are set to 375, is this an issue?

Thanks

John

Having looked for a late model with LPG & the EAS there is no way i would contemplate changing to coil!

Gilbertd wrote:

Edited to say that I've just seen your identical post on the other side and you are in the UK (I'm Richard_G over there). That's a good start, what sort of are in case someone has experience locally (and won't tell you to rip it out and fit bits of bent wire instead).

I think the mangled bit in the middle of this was supposed to ask whereabouts in the UK are you? As someone else on here may be close to you.

I am in South Yorkshire.

Yes, there's an a missing, it should have said what sort of area in case someone has experience locally..

When you say it rise and inch or so, do you mean from the position it was left in? It will always drop very slightly as the air in the system cools down, so rising slightly as soon as you start it is correct. Unless you are getting the constant stream in the two boxes as shown on the video, then it isn't connected. Some USB-serial adapters work fine (usually ones using the FTDI chipset) while others can be very flaky. Have you installed the drivers for the adapter? What operating system is your computer running? What Com port is it setting itself up as? Ignition does need to be on or engine running.

If it’s had 1 bag changed, I would look at changing them all, a single bag change is a no no, as for you not being able to con each EAS software, check under the left seat, make sure it has a 5 pin relay, without it you can do certain things on the EAS, mine is swapped to a 4 ( it stops the self levelling when parked) but I keep the 5 pin in the glovebox