Right or Left front air bag?

Fundy1842

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Good morning all,

My Dad has a 1997 Lincoln Mark VII, in great condition / working order/ etcetera.

It has come to the point where once or twice a week when he gets to his car in the morning, the front end is down.

Having had a 1995 myself that I converted to springs, I am relatively familiar with the air ride on these vehicles.

However, my dad lives quite a ways away, and I am trying to get some guidance for him. Can someone please give me some advice as to how to determine which air bag is losing air? The compressor/blower seems to be working fine, so it is hopefully just a bag that needs replaced.

Along these lines, does anyone have a recommendation for where to purchase a single bag? Also, are there any further recommendations anyone has regarding other parts/ problems to look for while replacing the bag (relative to the air ride system)?

Thank you all in advance, I apologize if I did not dig deep enough to find a prior thread, but after searching the first and second pages under "air bag" i thought a quick post would do me better.

-Branden
 
it's possible that both are leaking, also possible that if you replace only the one that's leaking, the other one will start leaking pdq...replacing both may be a wise choice...some guys have found good prices on Amazon, oem is the best route. Arnotts are...well, not
 
Thank you I appreciate your help. I think that replacing both is likely the way to go. I will look around and see what I can find online as far as OEM bags.

Would there be a sound or anything that would be noticeable from one side or the other? I would still like to diagnose which bag is the problem.

-Branden
 
Thank you I appreciate your help. I think that replacing both is likely the way to go. I will look around and see what I can find online as far as OEM bags.

Would there be a sound or anything that would be noticeable from one side or the other? I would still like to diagnose which bag is the problem.

-Branden
there are probably more threads regarding leaky bags than anything else on the forum, a few minutes searching and reading will answer any question you might have. I'm personally not real knowledgeable on the subject, I've had coils for quite awhile and never even addressed replacing them when they started leaking. it can be a very expensive and frustrating road to go down, imo
 
reach under the car and squish the bags. one will probably be softer than the other.
if they are both soft, they both leak.
 
On my '88 LSC, the rubber bag had deteriorated from ozone and /or ultraviolet. They call it ozone cracking. This cracking happens wherever the rubber is flexed, and the cracks are parallel to the bend.

As the car bounces up and down, the upper part of these "springs" stays fairly straight. However, some of the lower part is folded over on itself. Some of this lower area goes from straight to a U-shape as the suspension extends and retracts.

That is where all the flexing occurs, and it is where the ozone cracking will be, in a ringed area down around the bottom. I had a million tiny cracks but only one or two went all the way through the bag. That was the source of my leak.

If the spring slowly deflates (perhaps overnight) but pumps up fairly quickly, I'd suspect a slight leak from a small crack. But it can quickly get bad enough where the pump cannot pump them up any more.
When the car drops all the way down the first couple of times, areas of rubber that have never been folded into that U-shape are now seriously bent. If that part has been hardened and weakened by ozone, this new bending can cause new cracks in new areas.

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I'd recommend a very close inspection of the lower parts of the front springs. Clean them up and look for tiny cracks. Spray some soap bubble solution around the entire lower spring(s). You might get lucky and see a bubble.

However, the leak may not be leaking all the time, but only when the rubber is bent to a certain degree, perhaps when the car is parked at a curb or on an incline, and the problem-wheel is slightly lower or higher than when on level ground.

I hesitate to recommend observing for bubbles while deflating and re-inflating because having any part of your body under the car or in a wheel well while this system is activated is very dangerous. The car can drop to the ground in about half a second.

But the springs are very easily removed and inspected. You don't even need to remove the tire. IIRC, the only tool needed is a screwdriver to pry out the square steel clip on the bottom.

====
I got two "new" ones from the self-serve wrecking yard for ~$10.

And run the self-diagnostic tests if this year-make has it. My '88 did. It activates all components independently and helps confirm they are functioning ok.
The test is initiated by first grounding a suspension-module connector in the trunk, playing with the ignition key... and opening-closing the driver door to progress through the several tests. I can look it up if you're interested.

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Edit:
I want to address your question of identifying the leaking spring.

No matter which front spring leaks, the whole front of the car will drop. One good spring cannot hold it up even if it contains normal air pressure. That spring just balloons under the double weight and the corner falls. Visually, there's no way to tell which is leaking.

And the leaking spring doesn't necessarily lose all pressure, so some sort of pressure-test would be inconclusive. I recall the leaker on mine still held lots of pressure. The bag was hard as a rock and, when turned, the solenoid popped out with that startling "bang" as it normally would. But it lost enough pressure for the car to drop. I don't recall the numbers but my guess is something like a 20% loss in pressure might be enough to drop the car.
 

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