Driving with Air Suspension turned off?

miatatomark

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My compressor's getting (to me) kinda loud. My air suspension seems to be holding up pretty good and operates as it should. My main issue is when I'm doing some running around town, every time I stop, the car vents down, then has to be pumped back up. Not sure why it does that, maybe ease of entry for getting back into the car? Does it help preserve the bags by not having pressure in them? Right now I don't have the funds or inclination to replace the compressor at this point. Need that fun money for tires/ABS fixes. I'm thinking that a simle solution would be instaling an in-cabin switch to bypass the switch in the trunk so I can control the air ride without having to access it from the trunk. Then I can turn it off until I get to longer stretches of driving and actually want the car to be able to vent down. I'm thinking the switch should be cheap (from a member with a spring conversion) and easily mounted in the cabin under the steering wheel. Wiring/routing from the trunk should be simple. One question is what would be the down side of driving with the air ride turned off? I'm not interested in "slamming the car", but if I do drive it with the air suspension turned off, whats the difference of driving if I turn the suspension off before it vents or after? Obviously, I'm not real knowledgable about how the air suspension actually functions(and many other things). Is this a stupid idea?

Bob
 
There is no issue driving with the switch off at any height.
If you want to move the switch to the cabin just move the switch that is in the trunk.
If you want to do it then its not stupid.
 
All,

Moving the switch or adding another switch has been done for a long time ! There are no bad side effects to the system ! Inside the console is a good location for the switch !

Good Luck,
Sonny
 
You're better off turning the switch off after the bags are inflated to "city driving height" which is the height that the car sees the least. The majority of the time the bags are vented down to parked height when the car is just sitting causing them to dry rot at that point making them more likely to leak..so if you're turning the switch off and leaving it off for extended amounts of time make sure its at ride height to limit leakdown. FYI the bags are always inflated, just not as much at vented height.
 
Your compressor is more than likely only loud cause the mounts are gone, new ones are cheap at american air.
 
I recently bought a blk on blk 97 from New Jersey. The compressor was also loud due to bad mounts. I drove it 1300 miles from New Jersey to North Port Florida with the compressor switched off with no problems. As long as you have good bags, you will be fine.
 
By the way, the compressor is very easy to open up and sorta rebuild. I took one that I had went to town with it. Lubed the piston lightly with silicone spray and gave it a good cleaning, etc. It ran much, much better.

And I agree, the compressors are really not that loud even when not working well, its those darn mounts that make it sound like crap.

In the end, American Air for the win on both replacement compressor and anything else air-ride related, unless you go new OEM. Which he may even have.
 
Anyone have part numbers for the mounts? Been looking for an hour and don't really know what they would be called. Using the word bushings gets everything but. Air compressor gets A/C info. This is the only thing I've found so far. Noise suppresion kit

http://www.suncoreindustries.com/20F-52-lincoln-compressor-vibration-isolator-kit.php

or this (same thing)?

https://www.arnottindustries.com/part_LINCOLN_yid2_pid7_gid13.html

Not sure why the suncore listing only shows three pieces and the arnott shows four. Gonna go ahead and order from Arnott and plan for a holiday project.

Looking for these I also found an on/off switch for $5 on ebay. Might end up doing both.
 
I usually leave mine off for a couple thousand miles until I need to bring it up some again. Mine are at park height, but not worried about the front air springs since they are new. The old rears however, time will tell... ;-)
 
Anyone have part numbers for the mounts? Been looking for an hour and don't really know what they would be called. Using the word bushings gets everything but. Air compressor gets A/C info. This is the only thing I've found so far. Noise suppresion kit

[url]http://www.suncoreindustries.com/20F-52-lincoln-compressor-vibration-isolator-kit.php[/URL]

or this (same thing)?

[url]https://www.arnottindustries.com/part_LINCOLN_yid2_pid7_gid13.html[/URL]

Not sure why the suncore listing only shows three pieces and the arnott shows four. Gonna go ahead and order from Arnott and plan for a holiday project.

Looking for these I also found an on/off switch for $5 on ebay. Might end up doing both.

These

[url]https://www.arnottindustries.com/part_LINCOLN_yid2_pid7_gid13.html[/URL]
 
+1 on the mount bushings. Do yourself a favor first off and peel the splash shield back to look for exposed shaft/threads or if you can reach it, tug the compressor to check for play. Mine are totally gone and have been for a while.
 
Make your own mounts, take a trip to the hardware store.

For $20, I won't have to second guess myself after going through the trouble of getting these on. If I had done it before and knew exactly what I was looking at, I'm sure the hardware store is a great alternative. I don't want to get into it then find out I can't cobble up something appropriate. This is probably one of the less expensive fixes on this car. Bottle of wax and leather treatment cost more than that!
 
Driving with system turned off is the method Eddie recommends to determin if your bags/solenoids leak. He said a common problem is the bags will only leak when driving which wears out your compressor since it runs more than it should.
 
Your compressor is more than likely only loud cause the mounts are gone, new ones are cheap at american air.

Make your own mounts, take a trip to the hardware store.

Back when I had air ride on my '93 & my compressor bushings wore out I grabbed a couple zip ties & it did the trick. Ran them through the holes & the compressor got quiet again. It ran this way until I switched to springs about 8 months later.
 
Wow. Mounts from Arnott just came on the big brown truck. I only ordered those Sunday night! Love fast shipping. I'll let you all know how they work soon.
 
I run mine off everyday and only turn it on once a week to top off the system. My drive to work is mostly highway speeds, but with traffic lights every 2-3 miles and it gets old constantly pumping and venting...
 
Back when I had air ride on my '93 & my compressor bushings wore out I grabbed a couple zip ties & it did the trick. Ran them through the holes & the compressor got quiet again. It ran this way until I switched to springs about 8 months later.

I wouldn't recommend this as a permanent fix as you could shorten the life of the compressor.
The compressor needs a soft mount to take up vibration created by itself.
 
I wouldn't recommend this as a permanent fix as you could shorten the life of the compressor.
The compressor needs a soft mount to take up vibration created by itself.

The mounts were there... they were just deteriorated. It's not like it was bare metal. I zip tied the rubber mounts so that they wouldn't fall off.
 

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