P38A EAS Inlet Valve Stuck or leak?

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Montyjohn

Montyjohn

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My P38 has been playing a game of, I see you fixed this issue, here's another one for you... Suprise....

Anyway, I now keep getting EAS Fault messages on the dashboard.
Code using RSW tool is (Inltet Valve Stuck open).

If I clear it, it will work fine for a couple of days and the fault will return.

According to RWS site, it's more likely to be a leak than a stuck valve.

My car doesn't loose air overnight, sag, or anything like that. Doesn't appear to run the pump excessively.
Does this narrow down where I should be looking for a leak if I'm confident it's not the bags or pipes leading to the bags?

Since the inlet valve is at the top of the valveblock, I was planning on removing it in-situ to check the o-ring condition and that it's not gummed up.
Any other advise of what to check whilst I am in there?
 
Montyjohn said:
My P38 has been playing a game of, I see you fixed this issue, here's another one for you... Suprise....

Anyway, I now keep getting EAS Fault messages on the dashboard.
Code using RSW tool is (Inltet Valve Stuck open).

If I clear it, it will work fine for a couple of days and the fault will return.

According to RWS site, it's more likely to be a leak than a stuck valve.

My car doesn't loose air overnight, sag, or anything like that. Doesn't appear to run the pump excessively.
Does this narrow down where I should be looking for a leak if I'm confident it's not the bags or pipes leading to the bags?

Since the inlet valve is at the top of the valveblock, I was planning on removing it in-situ to check the o-ring condition and that it's not gummed up.
Any other advise of what to check whilst I am in there?
Click to expand...
The RSW software will flag that fault if the car fails to rise within the allotted time frame.
check the air tank for leaks and the compressor for good pressure.
A failing driver pack can also cause that fault but usually there will be different faults from time to time.
 
Thanks, worth pointing out that the fault will usually return 20 minutes into a journey. Never at the beginning. I assume this means it's not due to taking too long to rise. Unless it has a 20 minute allotted time to rise, but this doesn't sound likely.
 
Montyjohn said:
Thanks, worth pointing out that the fault will usually return 20 minutes into a journey. Never at the beginning. I assume this means it's not due to taking too long to rise. Unless it has a 20 minute allotted time to rise, but this doesn't sound likely.
Click to expand...
That does sound like it could be either the connectors in the EAS box or the driver pack.
 
@Montyjohn If the Inlet valve was truly stuck open, then the ECU could never lower the car while there's pressure in the tank.

Think about it. Assume car is a bit high somewhere. With the Inlet stuck open, there will be tank pressure in the main gallery.
When ECU opens exhaust & required corner valves, now some of the tank air will enter the corner, and the remainder will exit via NRV3 to the exhaust. The ECU will generally fault before all the air is gone !!

Generally all the "stuck" faults are either leaks, or intermittent connections between driver pack & solenoids. These confuse the ECU, which has fairly dumb software overall !!


1696687826113.png
 
I had a bit of a fettle today.
I couldn't find any leaks using the soapy water trick.
I removed the inlet valve Insitu and found nothing suspicious. All o-rings looked to be in good nick and the valve moved smoothly.
When deflating the system with the RSW software the tank failed to empty. It did let some air out, but then stopped after a bunch of clicks.

All electrical connectors were very clean.
I didn't remove the driver unit but the back of it looked a suspicious rusty coloured.

Anyway, after putting everything back together I remembered an old fault that it used to have where it refuses to rise out of access mode (a setting I just avoid now so forgot all about it).
It was about 30 minutes of idling, and 10 minutes of driving on bumpstops before it decided to spring into life again.

So I'll try another driver unit. Since they are cheap on eBay, I might buy a spare valve block and rebuild it in the evenings when the kids are in bed.
Swap it all over with a retired pump and see where that gets me.
 
Montyjohn said:
I had a bit of a fettle today.
I couldn't find any leaks using the soapy water trick.
I removed the inlet valve Insitu and found nothing suspicious. All o-rings looked to be in good nick and the valve moved smoothly.
When deflating the system with the RSW software the tank failed to empty. It did let some air out, but then stopped after a bunch of clicks.

All electrical connectors were very clean.
I didn't remove the driver unit but the back of it looked a suspicious rusty coloured.

Anyway, after putting everything back together I remembered an old fault that it used to have where it refuses to rise out of access mode (a setting I just avoid now so forgot all about it).
It was about 30 minutes of idling, and 10 minutes of driving on bumpstops before it decided to spring into life again.

So I'll try another driver unit. Since they are cheap on eBay, I might buy a spare valve block and rebuild it in the evenings when the kids are in bed.
Swap it all over with a retired pump and see where that gets me.
Click to expand...
If you look at the driver pack where the wires go into the potting compound, are there any cracks in the compound? The connectors may look clean, the the receptacles have a habit of becoming slack and so do not make good contact.
 
I didn't notice any cracking, but I didn't fully remove (just removed two accessible bolts and bent it back a bit) as I didn't want to remove the valve block with the limited time I had. Will check it once I have a replacement.
 
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