I went to Germany this week and left the car at High, and disconnected the battery. I came back, reconnected, as I've done many times. Started her up no problem, and went to run an errand...but...no response when i went to lower the ride height. Being stuck at high is not the worst thing in the world, but i need to use it on the road tomorrow, so looking for a fix. The system has been fine for 5 years, but recently in the last few months it wd sometimes sag at the Rear RH corner when i left her parked. I'm convinced it was the system doing the deflating and not a leak... i could be shopping for 5 mins and would come back and it had gone down... other times it would just sit at standard, and it would sit at high all day long. But now as i say it wont adjust from High.... Well, I say wont, but i can plug nano in and make the car go up and down, all the sensor bit counts adjust dynamically. Fuses are ok, and switches test ok on the nano - except the raise/ lower one - which would be a red flag, but i took the switch of my other P38 and nano reads the same - no response to the ride height switch.... I'm suspecting the EAS ECU, which I suppose is easy enough for me to try... but, does anyone have any alternative theories?

Lol. Airbag as in spring... So I guess I cd mount it in a trolley jack, but I guess i'll just try it on the car.
Wd be fun to test a few SRS air bags though :-)

Is there such a thing as a bench test for an air bag? I have an old air bag that i want to test... short of fitting it to one of my fleet is there a way to do a leak test on one? Obviously a bike inner tube you can just hang up on a hook and see if it goes down...not sure how that translates to an air bag though... This may turn into a comedy thread of course...let's see

also - please post the pics

Nano will also tell you if the p38 has received a valid signal, so a good place to start.

Ferryman wrote:

I've seen Marty replying to someone where he states that the the small lip that goes along both batteries might contact both, resulting in only 3 volts. He says put a small strip of insulating tape on the battery where the lip passes to avoid this.

Aha - interesting idea.. that cd explain alot

do you have access to a nano? Did you reset adaptive values yet? Nano may reveal some odd readings on the sensors, if you post the readings up

lol...

I just did this on my "new" one....double fail - motor and non return valve. The NRV was completely blocked, so I suspect that went first, and then killed the pump. You can remove the fog lamp without too much drama, no need to remove the front bumper, but as Marshall says bumper removal is not that big a deal (if the bumper is not rusted on and the bolt heads are not rusted to hell). After the fog lamp is off, find yourself a small bore tube and bucket. Then - without removing any of the pumps... identify the dead rear one (it may not be where you think it should be, but probably outside left), and remove the pipe on it, stick your finger over the end and then stick your tube on it. Go make a cup of tea. The whole reservoir will drain without any fuss...remove pump (push fit) and multiplug, and then reconnect. For the NRV you need to lift the LH deck in the boot space and look around the area of the rear light cluster... you shd see the little sucker in there as it rises up inside the D pillar...you might need to use the little door for changing the light bulbs for extra access...
You get bonus points if you avoid getting any screen wash down your sleeve

Tnx gas man.... Looks great...I wd be interested in a couple if your son is knocking some out

Is your new shedder oem? Or diy? I need to replace mine next time the door card is off

I used a nylon trim tool to reasonable effect...putting a solvent anywhere near the gloop generally makes more of a mess...I wd just go with mechanical removal (and no chisel?!)

Hello gaffer... impressive fleet

I'm not patient enough, but good to know :o)

I didn't pull any of the micro switches apart yet, but i did wonder if the red/black nipple is a little "boot" fitted/ glued to the top of the micro switch?

tnx Richard - do you still have a link to the RS micro-switches i can't see anything similar myself. Anyway, the fix seems to have work so but it's always good to have spare stuff just in case ; o)

Interesting thread - starter motor failing to disengage is very plausible... As regards leaving these cars standing for any period of time...it takes less than a minute to pop the hood, remove the negative off the battery and slam lock the doors

closed circuit on the CDL microswitch... once i'd got the lock out then a bit of digging into the rubber behind the microswitch and it magically recovered, refilled with hot melt glue and fingers crossed it holds - seems to so far, although after i plugged the door lock back in the central locking had a few lock/ unlock spasms - don't know if that's normal ?
Has anyone discovered where you can get the microswitches from? just curious for next time...

Just because Nano says it can't communicate with the ECU it doesn't mean it's true...i was using mine just yesterday to interrogate the EAS and it gave me the same "can't communicate" message on the faults screen but all the ride heights popped up on the Inputs screen with no problem, including the live data

On that basis I have a lock i could use as a donor (came from PO) but having just stripped it, it looks like a right PITA changing the switch block from a right handed to left handed, and if it fails then back to square 1... I will check out ebay....as ever, tnx for the advice