P38A EAS Self levelling and other strange stuff

Gidday all,

Been having a few EAS problems lately. I've had a crack at fixing it but seem to have made it worse.
A list of the events in order of occurrence follows. Compressor not switching an and off as it should, i.e. the EAS lights inside vehicle indicating suspension raising but no power to compressor and not running. I wired a switch to the relay that powers the compressor and switched it on manually when i needed to. Over the next three or four weeks sometimes the suspension worked as it should and other times i had to switch the compressor on manually.
I then noticed that the suspension was not level and had a lean to the right. I ran the RSW EAS software and went about adjusting the heights to level it up but whatever i did to the settings seemed to make no difference whatsoever. As i ran out of time i packed up and drove home and noticed that the beast now would intermittently jump to wade at any speed and i would have to play with the height switch to bring it down. The vehicle would also not lower to highway, the light kept flashing and eventually i got the dreaded slow, max speed 55kph. This happened couple of times and on scanning the EAS i found the exhaust valve sticking. I have a spare valve block with new seals that i have fitted and this has solved the wading and highway issue, but now when i hop out it self levels down to the bump stops every time. This creates another problem, as when it's on the bump stops it creates a hard fault and when scanned both right hand sensors give an out of range signal and i have to jack up the right hand side to get them to clear. I have tried again to reset the heights and i get some strange readings for the heights on the RSW EAS Suite and also on the Black box solutions fault mate. Not sure where to go from here, but i have a couple of questions.

1, If i get an out of range fault from a height sensor, is it definitely a faulty sensor or could there be another cause. The reason i ask is because i tried another sensor of unknown condition (used) at the right front and it still came up with the same fault.

2, Checked for continuity at the orange and black wires on the compressor plug and i am sure it was open circuit. I plugged it back in and started peeling some of the orange insulation back to earth it out and as i was doing so the compressor started up. If the thermal switch fails is it final or does it sometimes have an intermittent fail?

3. Self levelling, i have found a couple of ways on the internet to bypass it, but i'm not sure if that is a wise thing to do. Why does it self level to the bump stops? I left a door open for a couple of hours to stall the self level and the suspension held, no obvious leaks.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

Wow, ...start with cleaning all the connections on every plug you find. Under the bonnet and car!
Also, behind the kick panel in the passenger footwell. Any water dripping from the pollen filter above it will play havoc with the plastic plugs. You can cut the plugs out and solder the wires back together. Investigation time my mate.

Sounds like a plan. I will have a look tomorrow. It hasn't stopped raining here for about 3 months so i wouldn't be surprised if there is a bit of moisture somewhere.

Thanks

Yes, I once had a thermal switch that was fried but appeared OK. If thermal switch fried it was probably feeding a leak. Sticky exhaust valve might do it, I guess.

First things first, get the compressor working properly. Then get her pumped up and pull the delay timer and see what happens.

Self levelling. If at an odd angle the early ones can self-level all the way. It could be the counts side to side are a long way apart to start with and a bit of lean takes them out of tolerance so it keeps trying to level. Or could be a dodgy sensor or connection. I'd go with the former first. Try calibrating using the dowel blocks in Wammers Technical Guide.

You can replace the delay relay with a standard relay to stop self levelling but diagnostics won't work and after removing a large load (like your mother-in-law) the springs will reach skywards and possibly go too high.

OK, So i will get a mate to make me up some calibration dowels this week and meanwhile i think i will just fit an ordinary relay in to stop the self levelling. I will give all the electrical connections a squirt with some contact cleaner and check them for corrosion. I am in touch with some chap on eBay (original landyair, is his stuff any good?) and will get a bunch of stuff from him as it's all expensive in NZ. When that arrives, i will give the compressor a new lease of life.
On another note, i can't understand why in the diagnostics when looking at live data at the left hand side it gives the target heights and the actual heights and the actual is higher than the target whereas on the right hand side, the actual height never meets the target height. I would've thought that on pumping up that it would lift till it meets the target heights all round and then cut off and then as the suspension drops it would cut in again and meet the targets heights. Is this not the case?

Thanks

Funny system, I had one sensor read miles off. I wrote into the system. It stayed ok for a while then started dancing again. I then put it on blocks again which made no difference. I then did it with the engine running. Some how it stayed at driving height while I added with the heights. It sorted it out??

So when it has a fault "right rear sensor out of range", am i able to go into an EAS programme (BBS or RSW) and rewrite the settings so that the sensor comes back into range, or do i need a new sensor?

Strangely this is a system I've had no problems with in 7 or so years of ownership. I changed all airbags for arnotts and changed the filter on the compressor early in my ownership. No issues........yet! Touch wood
Jb

spadgr said:

So when it has a fault "right rear sensor out of range", am i able to go into an EAS programme (BBS or RSW) and rewrite the settings so that the sensor comes back into range, or do i need a new sensor?

Click to expand...

It means the sensor is not showing a bit count within that which is normal for the height being sought. In other words below or above the minima or maxima for that height. New sensor needed. If you have not been playing with it and set it wrong.

If you put it on blocks back to where it should be, if then it continues to search, i.e dancing up and down then you (as said by wammers) you do indeed have a sensor with a worn or dirty spot on its track... I adjusted mine just above but within its range due to a worn sensor, it's reduced it massively but will occasionally search while driving. If they are the original sensor's then they've been using those areas on the sensors a long time so wear is inevitable. But a recalibration will help to reveal any issues in that area! The story' software is tricky and sometimes sketchy!! Hope that makes sense..

Parked it up yesterday on high setting and pulled the delay relay, went to pub for a couple of hours and when I came back it was sat on it's haunches. Whilst I was working on it yesterday afternoon, the compressor was not working when it should have been. I earthed out the orange wire and still not working. I carried on investigating and the compressor fired up for possibly a second and then cut out.
I will have a hunt around for the air leak this evening and suss that out first.
If it drops on all four corners, does that point in any particular direction with regards to the air leak?

Has the the air block ever been rebuilt or worked on recently?
It could be a dead diaphragm to start with or a leaking nrv ( there are three).
I would unscrew the exhaust filter off the block. Charge and raise the car to any height.then, with the engine off, use a wet finger, (no, stop thinking like that)! cover the hole and see if there are any bubbles pushing past. If so it's normally the diaphragm leaking. But investigation into block may also reveal buggered nrv's.

Kurtjohnson10, the nrv man could help.
My three were all worn on the cones.
Kurt supplied me with three new nrv's and it cured a lot of leaks through the system internally.

I fitted new seals to the valve block a couple of years ago and it has been in a drawer in the garage since. It was a bit dusty when i pulled it out, but i fitted it anyway.
I soaped up the valve block this evening and it is leaking around the base of 2 of the solenoids, so i will recon the old valve block that i took off and fit it tomorrow and hopefully that will make it airtight. The airbags on the rear are new, so they should be airtight, but when i soaped around the base of the front airbags there is evidence of very slight leakage, so i might just throw couple of new airbags at the front. I will also lift the fusebox and have a look underneath to see if there is any burnt or damaged wiring as i have seen posts on here in the past about fusebox issues.
The calibration blocks are in the pipeline. Looking forward to getting it fixed, i have been using a hilux ute to get to work and it's much faster than my green slug.

I will double check the NRV's when i have them out and maybe give the cones a polish with some brasso.

The nrv nose cones wear down unevenly and can get jammed in the holes causing air to pass, if there is any wear it would be wise to replace them. Mine were original to the block and I've no reason to believe or any mention in it's history that it is a recon block fitted.so... they've possibly done at least 16 years bobbing about in and out of their respective holes!! Ooer missus!!

Have a word with Kurt and see if he has a valve block going and a compressor. Then refurb the old compressor as a spare. The bags all tend to fail at once so once one goes the others won't be far behind.

@stustrong is selling a pile of eas stuff

Mark Piercy said:

The nrv nose cones wear down unevenly and can get jammed in the holes causing air to pass, if there is any wear it would be wise to replace them. Mine were original to the block and I've no reason to believe or any mention in it's history that it is a recon block fitted.so... they've possibly done at least 16 years bobbing about in and out of their respective holes!! Ooer missus!!

Click to expand...

No NRV will cause the car to drop though.

So, I reconditioned the old valve block last night and found that the middle solenoid was seized to the shaft of the valve so I swapped with another one and refitted to vehicle. It now pumps up, but I can still see a few small air bubbles at one of the solenoids, leaking through where the wires pop through. I have raised the bus and pulled the relay to see how long it stays up.
Am keen to get a spare compressor so I will look into that when all is up and running.
As a matter of interest, can anybody tell me why the centre solenoid has a little rubber cap on it.