Hello! I am new here but excited to hopefully get the knowledge I need to fix up my Jag. I have a 2005 Vanden plas 114,000 miles on her. When I bought it, it had the coil conversion kit already (not a huge fan of coil conversion) so I got some used oem shocks and put them in. Everything seemed to work fine until 20 minutes later I get air suspension fault and the ride became very very stiff. When I got home I noticed the front and back suspension looked to be at the max height. Next morning I noticed the car was still at max height but no warning when I started the car and drives fine and smooth for the first 5-10 minutes after restarting in but then get very stiff. I got the codes pulled and it was 2302. So I got on the forums and got some possibilities of what it could be, so I have tried switching out the ASM, valve body in the trunk, front hight level sensor 2 times once with new aftermarket and now used oem. Any ideas would be really really appreciated! 🙏🏻

 

It will probably need recalibrated via SDD.

 

I will guarantee you that the coilovers were on there for a very good reason. Also... "used OEM shocks." Gee, I wonder why they were removed from the car they were on? Maybe someone gave up on a failed air system?

Sarcasm done, now, on to your question...

These systems do not do a very good job at all of preventing water intrusion, and water is the enemy of everything in there. Valves corrode and air doesn't move where it's supposed to.

With the struts stuck at full height, it is apparent that the system is not venting. The only vent in the entire system is a valve in the compressor, which is highly susceptible to rust from water intrusion. The compressor and its dryer are not listed as maintenance items, but the desiccant in the dryer simply has to be refreshed regularly. When I opened mine while working on the system after I bought the car, the dryer chamber was actually a water tank! With the vent solenoid open, air is allowed to escape from the pressure reservoir back through the compressor outlet and is shuttled over to the compressor inlet, between the dryer and the inlet, where it can escape through the dryer back out to the atmosphere. If that solenoid is frozen by corrosion or rust, or simply electrically inoperable, there is no way to release air out of the system.

Keep in mind that your 2005 is 17 years old. The air system probably worked correctly for the first 5, maybe 8 years of that, then started to deteriorate.

If you actually get the air suspension functional again, it will probably cost more than you paid for the car, and you'll have to do it again in a few years. I know you said you're not a fan of coilover conversions, but steel springs don't have active systems that require periodic maintenance, said maintenance not even listed in any maintenance schedule that came with the car.

 

Thank you so much! I have a good friend who had the same car with 78k miles but unfortunately the engine was blown after some questionable work was done, so I have been getting my parts from his car. I am going to switch the compressor out today with his which was replaced 2 years ago from Jaguar. Will keep you updated, hopefully it fixes my issue.. I miss driving my cat!

 

Don't forget you'll need to calibrate the ride height as already suggested !! Why ? Because by refitting the air suspension, your car reverts to as it would have been as Jaguar made it, and part of their process was calibrating the suspension heights.

 

How would I go about recalibrating the system? I don’t have a special scanner I had to take it to my friends shop.