I am a good researcher, but I just changed the oil in my 2004 xj8 and need to go to work, but the jack will not come out. The front suspension is all the way down. Is there a way to reset the system?

Please help.

 

Ok, well. I guess everyone is at work. In addition to any advice anyone can offer, please recommend a conversion kit as well. I was planning to undertake that project this Winter, but it seems my plans may have been bumped up. I was leaning towards the American Air Suspension kit (Jaguar XJ8 Air Suspension Conversion Kit).

By the way, I am getting no error codes and I do not hear the air compressor.

 

Have you tried starting her up and seeing if she lifts?


With some extra weight in my car and having done some work recently on the brakes, I too had the same issue, after starting she slowly raised herself back up on the compressor.


Hope to hear....

 

I tried starting the engine, shifting through the gears, letting it idle for 10 minutes, disconnecting and reconnecting the battery....

Then it was time for work, so I pulled the 91 BMW out of the garage to save the day and went to work.

 

Could the air suspension be disabled due to the jacking mode? If so, how can I get the car back out of jacking mode?

 

Jack it back up and put something under the wheel to make it a little higher then remove the jack then start the car and drive off slowly it should reset itself

 

After I swap my winter wheels to summer and vice versa, the car sits low and I also cannot get the jack out, however it normally raises up by itself when I start the engine.
But, about 7 years ago , a couple of years before I started to use winter tyres, I slid partially into a ditch, just the rear offside wheel, it was on a road after a heavy snowfall, the first that winter.
I got towed out by a 4WD and started to drive home, the car showed a warning that it was riding too low, I had to stop at a friends house and leave the car there as it was struggling. I called the AA rescue services and they were very very busy, I said there was no hurry that day, a Sunday, but could they meet me the next morning to recover it to my dealer. ( I had another car I could use ), I also said they would need a low recovery wagon as the car was very close to the ground.
The next morning I went to meet the recovery and found that the car had raised itself back to normal overnight. I still had them take it to the dealer to check it out. They told me the car had gone into " shock mode" and then recovered, they told me no damage had been done.

 

1. If you jack the car up and the wheel is therefore extended down it seems logical that the height sensor will think that the car is already too high. It might be trying to exhaust air from the shocks to lower the height. When you let the jack down the shock is deflated. As it sits deflated and too ow to get the jack out, if you start the car or open the door it shoudl pump the shock back up. I never had this happen, although my air shock ride height was much too low in the front, when I lowered the car the height always recovered enough to get the jack out.
2. I'm not familiar with the American conversion kit. I installed an Arnott conversion kit as I found they had two part numbers; one for regular 'comfort' and a 'sport' kit. I had to go directly to the factory to get the sport kit but I figured the higher rate springs might off set for the extra weight in the L. After I did the conversion I measured the hub to wheel well heights; they were spot on specs. I have absolutely no regrets getting rid of the air suspension. There might be a very slight increase in road noise but I'm not sure; I put new tires on at the same time.

 

So, I came home from work and read the comments, shared experiences and recommendations carefully. I really appreciate the posts.

I jacked up the front of the car, but boards underneath the front wheels and lowered the car onto the boards. The fender gap seemed larger than earlier today, but still a bit low. I started the car and backed out of the garage for a short drive. During that drive I could hear the compressor and the car leveled out to normal again.

Maybe the "shock mode" ended AND the ability to use boards so that I could drive the car a little solved the rest of the problem? Either way, thanks again.

I still want to pick a conversion kit though. Despite the fact that this seems to have been a false alarm....that day IS coming.

 

Hi harvest14,

Sorry for the late reply. I'm glad you solved the problem!

Your car had almost certainly entered "Jacking Mode" in which the air suspension is disabled to avoid unnecessary and potentially counterproductive adjustments while the car is on jacks or a lift. When the system senses one corner rising (on the jack), it first responds by lowering the suspension, but when it does not sense a corresponding reduction in height, it goes into Jacking Mode.

The document at the link below is the best explanation of the suspension behavior I have found, and it explains that to get the car out of Jacking Mode and restore air suspension operation you may need to drive the car above 2 mph:

http://www.mediafire.com/view/7rdkgg...on_Section.pdf

It may be possible to spin a wheel that fast while the car is still on the jack, but the manual doesn't make it clear whether the Air Suspension Control Module (ASM) sees the signals of all the wheel speed sensors or relies on only one sensor for road speed signals.

I don't know what jacking point you used, but the Workshop Manual and Dealer Training New Model Introduction manual specify the jacking points to be used and insist that two jacks must be used on an X350 to raise two wheels at a time so the aluminum monocoque is not harmed by being twisted too much. When I have to use one jack, I am careful to not raise the car any higher than necessary to reduce the amount of twist on the monocoque.

You can download the Workshop Manual in six sections from the 'HOW TO' quick links thread near the top of the home page of this X350 forum.

Cheers,

Don

 

In the future, if you pull fuse F52 (20A) from the rear fuse box the suspension module is disabled and the car will not lower at all when you're lifting it. No more issue with one corner lowering and the jack getting stuck. I find this much more convenient than disconnecting the battery.

 

I recently jacked the front right without any concerns, to inspect my brakes. However, I was able to download a factory brake service bulletin that instructs the technician to disconnect the battery to avoid air suspension problems. I haven't attempted pulling fuses to achieve the same result. I also wasn't aware of the monocoque chassis concerns.

 

Someone on the UK forum tried that and said it worked just fine.

 

Hi Don,

Thanks for the info on lifting points.
POs or service stations were not that careful for lifting my car, from what can be seen of the deformations of the rails underneath.
I hope that the car's chassis has not suffered too much and was not twisted by lifts using a single jack.

From the service handbook, I note that the car has to be lifted either from the front or from the back (avoiding from the sides).
The two lifting points to be used with floor jacks (either on the front or the rear) are more inboard than those to be used with jack stands.

Does anybody know whether a unique centered lifting point can be used for the front and for the rear?
On the front may be difficult (don't see a solid bar there, maybe under the gearbox), for the rear could be under the diff.
That would avoid having to use two jack floors

 

I'm sure I've seen a warning NOT to use the diff. [Edit: yes, in the workshop manual].

And I'd bet money you shouldn't use the transmission casing either (especially as it has a plastic sump).

 

Last night I scanned the Jacking & Lifting instructions from the 2004 Model Year New XJ Technical Introduction Dealer Service Training Manual. The illustrations are not as clear as I wish they were, but it's as good an explanation as I've been able to find. I'm attaching the pdf - it's just two pages.

And as Partick the Cat has noted, the diff case (and transmission case) are off limits as jack points.

Cheers,

Don

 

Don and Partick,

Thanx for the infos.

I thought that maybe the diff would have been acceptable, but OK, it's no.
So, there is no possibility to safely lift the car with only one floor jack
Then how to proceed in practice?

And looking again at the jacking points and axle stand points, it's strange to see that their relative inboard/outboard positions are inverted for front and rear.
Any explanation?

 

Bump? Anyone?

I'd like to know how to safely lift the car with only one floor jack (also possibly using axle stands or the Jaguar jack).
Lift it sligthly under one lifting point, put an axle stand nearby, move the floor jack on the other lifting point, put a second axle stand, move back the floor jack under the first lifting point to increase heigth, etc.
Not very straigthforward IMO...

 

Well I'm not sure how others do it Paydase as lifting my Super V8 is nothing like my 86 VDP. I don't know why it makes me nervous when lifting it but I guess it makes me more cautious which in this case is a good thing. I bought this cross beam. I have a 2 1/2 ton low profile floor Jack. I added this to my set up and it allows me to jack the front up then add stands, lower the jack and then do the same in the rear. Then I tend to leave the Jack under the vehicle with the added cross beam (just in case). The unit swivels on the base of the Jack. It also extends and reaches the lifting points on our vehicles. I don't know where you can get these in Brussels. This particular one is from Harbor Freight.

 

As I believe the curb weight of my 05 is about 300 lbs lighter than my 86 was. I'm no physicist but speculating that the speed at which my life would end under the weight of one vs the other is statistically insignificant