Well yesterday actually.

Summoned to Manchester for month over Christmas by the "official un-official kid sister" the big red beast appreciated the chance to stretch his legs and clear his sinuses over 300 odd miles at motorway speeds. I'd forgotten just how good the P38 is at the magic carpet bit when settled on a decent road.

But now we are here he has dropped down onto the bump stops so clearly a leak somewhere. Took about 3 - 4 hours to drop I think.

Is there anything obvious I could check, and perhaps sort with only my on car toolkit, 300 miles away from the big toolbox and the set of new airbags in the spares department?

If not is another 4 hours / 300 miles (mostly) on smooth motorway roads with a leak of that size likely to be OK without killing the air pump or thermal fuse. Should have been suspicious when he'd dropped after loading the night before and took about twice as long to lift as he normally takes on the odd occasion when I park in just the wrong place so he self levels down.

If worse comes to worse it might be possible to get the bags sent up and arrange fitting up here, assuming it is a bag. They are old enough that I don't mind changing on spec.

Clive

Start it up and see how long it takes to rise up to standard height and then see how long it is before the compressor shuts off. Once up to standard, switch off and pull fuse 29 (assuming a Thor, fuse 44 if GEMS). That will stop it from self levelling and is a lot easier to get at than grovelling under the passenger seat trying to find the timer relay. Then wait and see what happens. That will tell you if it is one corner dropping due to an air spring leak or something common to all corners.

Thanks for that advice.

It's well over a decade since I've had any non obvious suspension issues and I've forgotten all the tricks.

Should be able to find some time for that over the next day or four. When I'm not under orders!

Clive

Possibly the two ugliest words in the P38 lexicon:
Ball Joints.
Finally got psyched up enough to tackle these on Bolt.
Middling decent hand tools loaned by the local O'Reilly's auto parts shop.
Actually, the job was not as bad as I thought it would be.
4 hours for the first set an a bit over 2 for the second ones.
I would like to know what the proper press cup looks like for the bottom one?
Had to use a cut off wheel on the grinder to cut off the flange on the bottom of the lower to allow it to be
pressed out.
The first set only lasted 215k miles! (How many sets have you been through Gilbert?)
Glad I do all my own work as I imagine the current crop of ham fisted shop apes could really screw up the job!
With any kind of luck I will not have to do them again!

Bolt wrote:

The first set only lasted 215k miles! (How many sets have you been through Gilbert?)

Been changed once at about 300k so likely to need doing again in the next year or two. Did them on the Ascot before selling it and got to do them on the red 4.0SE when I get time. They don't seem to have much slack in them but the boots are perished and split so were an advisory on the last MoT (should really have been a fail but as the tester knows me his comment was, "I'll put them down as an advisory as I know you'll do them"). I've got them, just waiting for a spare day or two. The first set I did, I spent a weekend at it and did one side a day. To be perfectly honest, getting the ABS sensor out without destroying it is the hardest part of the job.

Glad I do all my own work as I imagine the current crop of ham fisted shop apes could really screw up the job!

After being quoted £420 to do one side by a local specialist and after a week was given a bill for £1080, it was that day when I decided that spending money on the correct tools and doing it myself was far cheaper that paying someone else to balls it up. I also work on the principle that if I do a job and have to bodge it for one reason or another, I know it has been bodged so know why if it fails. If I've paid someone else to do it and they've bodged it and it fails, I've no idea where to start.