check air ride system

bjlmk8

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After many happy miles my 95 mk8 just gave me the "check air ride system " message. Can someone tell me the best way to isolate my problem. I can no longer hear my compressor coming on when I turn the ignition on. I am pretty sure it's either electrical or the compressor is out. I have checked some of the fuses that my owners manual refer to as associated to air ride system, but I cannot find the relay for the comp. or the air ride sysstem. please help!!!! thank you..
 
bjlmk8 said:
After many happy miles my 95 mk8 just gave me the "check air ride system " message. Can someone tell me the best way to isolate my problem. I can no longer hear my compressor coming on when I turn the ignition on. I am pretty sure it's either electrical or the compressor is out. I have checked some of the fuses that my owners manual refer to as associated to air ride system, but I cannot find the relay for the comp. or the air ride sysstem. please help!!!! thank you..

The relay for the compressor is located on the bracket for the compressor and it is up under the passenger fender outside of the engine compartment. You can swap the A/C relay (if I remember correctly) to see if the compressor is still fine, or if it is the relay.

If you need a new compressor I would recommend purchasing a rebuilt one from Bluecollar (Eddie Spinks) from American Air Suspension. They are rebuilt to better than factory specs and are WAY cheaper than a factory replacement. I have had one on both of my Mark VIII's and would never purchase one from anywhere else.
 
1wykdmk8 said:
The relay for the compressor is located on the bracket for the compressor and it is up under the passenger fender outside of the engine compartment. You can swap the A/C relay (if I remember correctly) to see if the compressor is still fine, or if it is the relay.

If you need a new compressor I would recommend purchasing a rebuilt one from Bluecollar (Eddie Spinks) from American Air Suspension. They are rebuilt to better than factory specs and are WAY cheaper than a factory replacement. I have had one on both of my Mark VIII's and would never purchase one from anywhere else.

Thanks, I will check it out. I have removed the r/h inner fender well cover and I can see the comp. and also a round cylinder with 4 hoses coming out of it. I do not see a relay, but then again it's kind of tight under there. I do see some sort of round solenoid with 2 air hose on top and a 2 wire plug-in harness, could that be it??
p/s surely a leaking bag would not keep compressor from coming on would it??? as other threads have mentioned!!!
 
bjlmk8 said:
p/s surely a leaking bag would not keep compressor from coming on would it??? as other threads have mentioned!!!

Yes and no....yes it will over time, and what I mean by that is if you have a leak in the bag for a long period of time it can, and most likely will take the compressor out.

No, it will not right off. If you have a good compressor, and a leaky bag, the bag will not cause the compressor to not work....but as I stated above, it will over time. It will either take out the compressor or the relay for the compressor.


Thanks, I will check it out. I have removed the r/h inner fender well cover and I can see the comp. and also a round cylinder with 4 hoses coming out of it. I do not see a relay, but then again it's kind of tight under there. I do see some sort of round solenoid with 2 air hose on top and a 2 wire plug-in harness, could that be it??

I am not sure what it is that you see, but it is not round, here are a few pix of the bracket that the compressor is in, and the relay that is there is in the pic, and annotated. Hope this helps.....

compressorrelay1.jpg


compressorrelay.jpg
 
comp. relay

1wykdmk8 said:
Yes and no....yes it will over time, and what I mean by that is if you have a leak in the bag for a long period of time it can, and most likely will take the compressor out.

No, it will not right off. If you have a good compressor, and a leaky bag, the bag will not cause the compressor to not work....but as I stated above, it will over time. It will either take out the compressor or the relay for the compressor.




I am not sure what it is that you see, but it is not round, here are a few pix of the bracket that the compressor is in, and the relay that is there is in the pic, and annotated. Hope this helps.....

Thanks a lot for the pics, that really helped. I have taken the compressor out. I wired it to a battery and guess what...it runs, now do you think it could be the relay or do I need to look further. For example, would a bad drier somehow not let the system give power to the compressor??or some other bad accessory
do that also. I got my 'check air ride system' warning as I was comimg off the interstate, at about the time the system would be re-inflating for low speed setting.
Again, thanks for the pics and your help. Guys like u make this internet the helpful place that it is if u will just us it.
I am a sales rep. for NAPA H.D. and i have become convinced that sites like this one are so very valuable.
 
bjlmk8 said:
Thanks a lot for the pics, that really helped. I have taken the compressor out. I wired it to a battery and guess what...it runs, now do you think it could be the relay or do I need to look further. For example, would a bad drier somehow not let the system give power to the compressor??or some other bad accessory
do that also. I got my 'check air ride system' warning as I was comimg off the interstate, at about the time the system would be re-inflating for low speed setting.
Again, thanks for the pics and your help. Guys like u make this internet the helpful place that it is if u will just us it.
I am a sales rep. for NAPA H.D. and i have become convinced that sites like this one are so very valuable.

No prob....glad I could help a bit.

What I would do to check to see if the relay is bad is to switch the relay for the A/C to the compressor. If the compressor kicks in, then you know it is the relay.

No, a bad dryer would not stop the power from going to the compressor.

Here is a question for you....when you first get into the car, how long does it take for the 'Check Air Ride' error to come up? If it comes up right away (after the car has been off for a while) then you most likely have either a bac compressor, or relay. If it takes about 90 seconds for it to come up (give or take a few seconds) then it is most likely a bad compressor. Now, the compressor could be bad due to one of two possibilities.....1) could be from moisture in the system....not much you can do for that, but Eddie Spincks has a thing called the Spyder valve on his website American Air Suspension (and you can get a rebuilt compressor or relay from him as well...his compressors are rebuilt better than factory specs).....or 2) could be that you have a leak in one/both of the front struts.

Hope that helps.
 
update

1wykdmk8 said:
No prob....glad I could help a bit.

What I would do to check to see if the relay is bad is to switch the relay for the A/C to the compressor. If the compressor kicks in, then you know it is the relay.

No, a bad dryer would not stop the power from going to the compressor.

Here is a question for you....when you first get into the car, how long does it take for the 'Check Air Ride' error to come up? If it comes up right away (after the car has been off for a while) then you most likely have either a bac compressor, or relay. If it takes about 90 seconds for it to come up (give or take a few seconds) then it is most likely a bad compressor. Now, the compressor could be bad due to one of two possibilities.....1) could be from moisture in the system....not much you can do for that, but Eddie Spincks has a thing called the Spyder valve on his website American Air Suspension (and you can get a rebuilt compressor or relay from him as well...his compressors are rebuilt better than factory specs).....or 2) could be that you have a leak in one/both of the front struts.

Hope that helps.

well here it is..I re-installed comp. after checking that it does work. I then unplugged relay and connected leg A to leg B guess what?? compressor comes on. Now I have by-passed relay, compressor is running and building pressure but my car is not going up. It is flat on the ground of course from when I disconnected the air lines from the compressor. I am leary of letting the compressor run too long cause it's getting hot. any suggestions??? thanks
 
I would say that you either have a bad compressor, or you have a leaky strut in the front.

Here is one thing you can do......disconnect one of the air lines from the dryer, restart the car, and allow the compressor to kick in. Then, take your finger and press it up against the hole that you just removed the air line from. If you can hold your finger over the hole, even slightly, without the pressure pushing your finger out of the way, then you most likely have a bad compressor.

Another thing you could try is.........if you have a floor jack you can slide it under the front of the car and jack it up about 1 or 2 inches.....not too high, or the compressor will not kick on. If you do not have a floor jack, then you can use the factory jack from the trunk and jack up one side just a bit, and try to block the front end up with either blocks/bricks or something....again just a few inches at most. Then start the car up and let the compressor kick in and let it do its thing. Then, if you do not get the air ride message, then you most likely have a bad compressor. The reason for that is the car will be close to the ride height, and the compressor does not have to work that hard (because the jack is under the car) to get the car to ride height. Now, remove the jack and see if the car stays at the height it was....if it goes down, you prolly have not only a bad compressor, but bad/leaky bags.

Now, if you do the jack thing, and you still get the air ride message you prolly have a bad compressor, but that does not say that the bags are good. A way to check that is since the car is on a jack you can make a solution of soapy water in a spray bottle and spray the bag portion of the front struts and have some one move try to move the wheel up/down and see if you have any bubbles that come off of the bags.....if ANY bubbles are visible you have bad bags.

Hope that helps yet again......

Oh....check your inbox.....
 

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