Replaced air ride pump, still doesn't work

[Ed Hall]

1997 Lincoln Mark VIII LSC, 66k miles

The air ride pump was not working so today I finally got around to replacing it. The problem is the replacement pump also didn't power up after getting everything hooked up. I also get a "Check Air Ride" message on the center information center. I examined all the fuses in the fuse panel under the hood and they are all good. What should be the next step?

 

[DLF]

Swap the ABS and air pump relays to test the relay.

http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/showthread.php?t=61918

 

[Roadboss]

If your car was slammed all the way, you should try raising it with a jack in the center of the cross member. You need to raise it just short of being level, this is so you get the ride height sensor back in range. It takes up to three full time outs for the bags to fully fill.

 

[chicken]

If your car was slammed all the way, you should try raising it with a jack in the center of the cross member. You need to raise it just short of being level, this is so you get the ride height sensor back in range. It takes up to three full time outs for the bags to fully fill.

if your pump is weak. when i was on a single comp it would take the full 90 sec from a drop to come up, but it would still be one cycle

 

[Ed Hall]

Update:
The pump now works and pumps the suspension up!! Thanks for the relay tip. Turns out, the relay was dead and not energizing the compressor.

One thing I noticed was after pumping up the suspension, I first turned off the pump switch and jacked up the front of the car to put things back together. As I raised the car off the ground, I could hear the air suspension letting air into the system. Once I got everything finished and let the car back down, I heard air venting out of the system and the car slammed to the ground. Once I started the car, it raised up to normal heigth. Is what I described normal?

 

[Roadboss]

If it stays you should be good to go, if not you may have a problem with a leak at the solenoids. Any time you jack the car up you should turn your air ride off. If not you can damage the sensors when you let the car down. If you look at the arrangement of the sensors and how they mount up you will see that lifting the car frame up makes the suspension computer believe that it should let air out of the system. The suspension has 2 actual heights it raises and falls to. Curb height (at park with doors closed ignition off), ride height (about 1" higher than curb), and finally high way speed height (same as curb). Hope this helps

 

[DLF]

Update:
The pump now works and pumps the suspension up!! Thanks for the relay tip. Turns out, the relay was dead and not energizing the compressor.

Glad I could help.