Turned her off & heard a loud hissing sound & at first, I thought it was from the ABS. However, it is really in the starboard Shock area; it hisses for under 5 minutes. As you know, the shock is covered by the body; so, I can't see the shock.

All but one of the shocks are original, & I replaced it years ago & I rebuilt the compressor at the same time. I will have to check to see which one it was,

QUESTION: While I plan to review my & others posts on this subject, does anyone know if this might be reparable? Or, even without inspection, are you reasonably sure that the shock needs to be replaced? The temps are in the mid-teens Fahrenheit & , at least, there is no question about which is the affected shock. Using a level, it appears that the car is an inch lower on the affected side after the hissing stops.

Thanks & best,

Steve S.

 

Just Checked & It was the other front shock that I replaced 11 years ago.

 

Have decided to replace existing system with Arnott's C-2745; I found several excellent tutorials on this site by searching the parts number and Arnott furnishes them as well.

Reasons:
1. Since I have replaced the Left front over 10 years ago, the part number has changed &, I suspect, the part has too. They did not offer a "comfort" vs. "sport" version in my earlier purchase as best I can recall & the invoice indicates the same.
2. They recommend replacing in pairs.
3. What was 300 bucks is now 500.
4. With the number of our cats dwindling, I question how long the air springs, etc. will continue to be made. As you know, the compressor is no longer made.
5. Most importantly, if the next one goes in 10 years and the 4th one in another 10 & then the compressor needs a rebuild in 10, I'll be 106 & will be rebuilding the compressor. At that age, I'd much rather be learning new things by rebuilding the engine, etc.

Once I've finished with this project, if you live in the Seattle area and would like to have the good air springs & the copmpressor (1 front & 2 rear), PM me and I will save them for you. Otherwise, I will toss them. My wife will not allow me any more garage space; she had to move her skiing equipment into our closet because I bought a new & very large air compressor. She refused to allow me to use the outdoor pantry.

Best, SS

 

Found that it was leaking around the sensor plugging into the top of the shock. Disconnected it & plugged back in & everything works great!

Found several excellent threads on maintenanace (e.g. replacing o rings on air supply lines), many by Jon B. Will review them & assuming nothing goes awry in the interim, will implement the maintenance tips when the weather is warmer.

 

By "sensor" I assume you mean the air hose fitting? There are no sensors on the top of the strut, and the electrical connector for CATS carries no air and would not hiss. But yeah, if that hose was leaking, you'll get a hiss, and that corner (or both fronts) will drop after a while.

 

You are right about the symptoms: Side with leak went down more quickly; both sides eventually deflated.

I wish that I had done a smoke or flame test to determine more accurately the location of the leak, but I was sure that I would be replacing the whole kit & kaboodle.

In addition to liftiing the electrical connection, I also tightened the air hose fitting ever so slightly. Based on your analysis, it must have been the tightening that did the trick.

The system seems to be working perfectly.

 

The system is also programmed to blow air back out of the compressor to blow out collected water. At least it did with my two X350s ! This happens shortly after one stops the engine and, (As I recall) after you've locked the car. This is quite a noticeable HISS but lasts only a few seconds. The suspension height remains unchanged.

 

Yes, Fraser, that sound startled me when I heard it 20 years ago. It is hard to describe, but is definetly in the area of the compressor. I had no idea of why it did that, thanks for letting me know. Jon B has a thread where he actually replaces the pellets used to extract water. Assuming I don't have to scrap the system for more traditional coil/shocks, I will revisit doing that if I'm ever under there again.

Best,

Steve

 

Those desiccant beads should be reconditioned every year or so, especially if you live in a high-humidity area like I do. It doesn't say so in the owner's manual, but that blowing out when the car shuts off to expel water is not even close to enough to actually expel the water. Sometimes the beads can be dried with a short time in an oven that's really barely warm, sometimes they just need to be replaced; it just depends on the type.

I gave up trying to fix my air suspension when I disassembled the compressor and found the dryer chamber had become a water tank. Water throughout the system means rusted valves, and the vent valve on my compressor was rusted solid. Who knows what the valves in the trunk looked like,

I can't believe the dryer is not actually a separately serviceable module, like the dryer in an air conditioning system. None of the cars with air suspension have that, though, and it's the death of all those systems.