L322 Rattling from hood on uneven roads and intermittent 'Air Susp. Inactive'

Several days ago noticed that there was some rattling sound coming under the hood, felt like a small stone was rolling back and forth. Opened, the hood also looked under - could not find anything.

Then, a day later message 'Air susp. inactive' came and stayed. When I switched to off road screen, then could see that one small red square next to right front wheel is dropped to ground, while other three are staying where they are. I could not switch to offroad or low mode.

Then today, the message is gone, I can switch to offroad mode, but rattling continues...

What I am looking at? And how much $$$ will to cost to fix it? I don't have garage, tools or knowledge...

A good question, have you yet seen how much stuff is under that bonnet

invisible999 said:

Several days ago noticed that there was some rattling sound coming under the hood, felt like a small stone was rolling back and forth. Opened, the hood also looked under - could not find anything.

Then, a day later message 'Air susp. inactive' came and stayed. When I switched to off road screen, then could see that one small red square next to right front wheel is dropped to ground, while other three are staying where they are. I could not switch to offroad or low mode.

Then today, the message is gone, I can switch to offroad mode, but rattling continues...

What I am looking at? And how much $$$ will to cost to fix it? I don't have garage, tools or knowledge...

Click to expand...

The red square dropped suggests a faulty height sensor. The rattling could be anything.

^^^^ what he said.

The rattling could be your wallet emptying

invisible999 said:

Several days ago noticed that there was some rattling sound coming under the hood, felt like a small stone was rolling back and forth. Opened, the hood also looked under - could not find anything.

Then, a day later message 'Air susp. inactive' came and stayed. When I switched to off road screen, then could see that one small red square next to right front wheel is dropped to ground, while other three are staying where they are. I could not switch to offroad or low mode.

Then today, the message is gone, I can switch to offroad mode, but rattling continues...

What I am looking at? And how much $$$ will to cost to fix it? I don't have garage, tools or knowledge...

Click to expand...

Rattling or buzzing?? If you've lost a ride height sensor then it's not impossible it's sending the headlight leveller loopy.

invisible999 said:

What I am looking at? And how much $$$ will to cost to fix it? I don't have garage, tools or knowledge...

Click to expand...

Knowledge you can gain knowledge from here (like I'm doing!) but without a garage or tools it's pretty useless, sorry to say. It's easy and cheap enough to swap out a sensor - that's just take the wheel off to get to it and a couple of small nuts and a clip later, voila! - but you then need the diagnostics tools to recalibrate the new one.

Or, if it died and came back, it could be a wiring loom issue that just needs a repair.

I took it to a mechanic, he just sent the following:

Front left suspension air bag is bad. We need to start with replacing the front bags - $2814 for this job

Or for $4015 - That bottom quote is for...we can do a conversion kit to regular struts and coils and totally eliminate the air suspension.
Sometimes makes it better because you eliminate these kinds of of problems.
Only thing with that, it gets rid of all your switching on the dash so you be able to switch from street to off road and so on

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One more update - I went to island 4x4 and checked what is available.

I see

Air Spring Strut Front LH L322 02-06 (Dunlop) RNB000750
Air Spring Strut Front RH L322 02-06 (Dunlop) RNB000740

Except 2 of them, what else do I need to get?

Dup

Rockingit said:

Rattling or buzzing?? If you've lost a ride height sensor then it's not impossible it's sending the headlight leveller loopy.

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Rattling. Only noticable on uneven surfaces. Well, on next day the it was fine - I mean height sensor... do you think it worth to change all of them?

Not a good idea to fit coils plus it may affect your insurance.

A garage telling you to fit coils usually means they dont understand how the system works so dont know how to fix it, so fit coils as an easy get out, the system is so integrated on an l322 you will lose the flexibility of the car.

Deleted

invisible999 said:

Then, a day later message 'Air susp. inactive' came and stayed. When I switched to off road screen, then could see that one small red square next to right front wheel is dropped to ground, while other three are staying where they are. I could not switch to offroad or low mod

Click to expand...

If the car has any issues with the suspension it will let you get home in a "limp mode " type thing so you cant waste any air that maybe left.

invisible999 said:

Then today, the message is gone, I can switch to offroad mode,

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Suggests a dodgey Ht sensor or bad connector as said already. Or possibly leaky bag, were you driving when this happened?

invisible999 said:

I took it to a mechanic, he just sent the following:

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"Front left suspension air bag is bad. We need to start with replacing the front bags - $2814 for this job"


So is your "front right" the same as his "front left"?

How did they come to the conclusion? Could they identify said leaky bag?

invisible999 said:

I mean height sensor... do you think it worth to change all of them?

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Not without testing NO. Then you need to recalibrate the whole lot. Who you gonna trust to do that? this Garage?

Has it been fine since?
Next time it does it park on level ground and measure/look to see if any difference between wheel and arch. Is it low on 1 corner when you come out in the morning?

The garage sounds to me like they don't know enough but have a fix to make money. Coils takes away the whole experience.


As for the rattle, well look in the door pockets or glove box, thats the least of your worries. But you don't actually say what engine you have and what year?

Oh and as a final note that looks like a very professional garage estimate.

J

NEVER go back to that garage, not even for a tyre!

I've had my fair share of air suspension experience of late and I can say with some confidence now that it's not that complex but you have to understand that a lot of conditions need to be met for it to work and it interfaces with many different things on these cars, for example, you may get a faults with your ABS system if you have an air suspension fault as once that has disabled itself, it won't talk to the transfer case module (to use low range in extended height mode) which needs to have a chat with the ABS when you're in HDC or rock crawl/mud rut mode etc. If it can't decide on one thing, it won't attempt to use any of it.

You've chosen a great car in an area where its rarity causes concern. (I feel you as I have a US import 2013 Boss 302 but that's a story for another time).

A Jon suggests, leave the car at normal height, park it level and look at it in the morning, if it's still level, that's a free test to check for a leak. Also, spray some soapy water all around them and check for bubbles as a good free test you can do yourself.

Next up is to find out what code was generated, hopefully there is a historic code logged for the Air Suspension fault. Once you have that you can start to see what the car is upset about. You'll need a decent code scanner for that, they aren't cheap BUT you can sell them on later for pretty much what you paid for it (not that you ever will once you've owned one).

As others have suggested, look at the height sensor on that corner and pay attention to the state of the wiring, the outer insulation cracks and the copper wire corrodes creating high resistance and causing lots of trouble, repair kits are pretty cheap and easy to solder in if needed plus the front ones are nicely accessible and you may not even have to take the wheel off.

My latest and most frustrating fault was a clogged compressor silencer, caused me weeks of misery and cost less than £10 to replace, car is working like a charm again now.

Let's get it diagnosed and it can be fixed, fitting coils is an absolute no no as far as I am concerned and I imagine the car will forever tell you it has a suspension fault if you swap it, no idea if you can code it out but I simply can't see a reason why you would.

Blob said:

NEVER go back to that garage, not even for a tyre!

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I did not. I ordered front struts and height sensors from Islad 4x4 and replaced at another shop - both labor and parts (with shipping from UK) were $1500. No more problem with suspension.

Rockingit said:

Knowledge you can gain knowledge from here (like I'm doing!) but without a garage or tools it's pretty useless, sorry to say. It's easy and cheap enough to swap out a sensor - that's just take the wheel off to get to it and a couple of small nuts and a clip later, voila! - but you then need the diagnostics tools to recalibrate the new one.

Or, if it died and came back, it could be a wiring loom issue that just needs a repair.

Click to expand...

you dont have to recalibrate if you only change the hight sensor
ive done mine , i just lowere it to the stops fitted the new one and then lifted the car up and down a couple of times
then messured the distance from wheel center to bottom of wheel arch and every thing was ok
Mike

MikeGreg said:

you dont have to recalibrate if you only change the hight sensor
ive done mine , i just lowere it to the stops fitted the new one and then lifted the car up and down a couple of times
then messured the distance from wheel center to bottom of wheel arch and every thing was ok
Mike

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You were lucky then, normally calibration is needed after a height sensor is changed as they are not precision devices.

MikeGreg said:

you dont have to recalibrate if you only change the hight sensor
ive done mine , i just lowere it to the stops fitted the new one and then lifted the car up and down a couple of times
then messured the distance from wheel center to bottom of wheel arch and every thing was ok
Mike

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Your wrong.

J