I rotated the tires on my 2005 XJ8L today using my car lift. I have done this many times with no ride height issues. Today, after lowering the car, the front end would not rise. It is so low that it is sitting on the front arms of the lift. I have searched through our forum and can't find an answer on how to reset the height for this type of scenario.


There are no fault codes, everything appears normal.


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi NDW,

It is likely that your air suspension has entered Jacking Mode and you probably just need to drive the car in excess of 2 mph. The specifics can be found in the Air Suspension section of the Dealer Training Manual, which you can download in the 'HOW TO' quick links thread on the home page of this X350 forum here:

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

Here are the details from the manual:

Jacking Mode
The system recognizes customer vehicle jacking and vehicle ramp operation. The result of detecting either condition is to inhibit any corrective action from height changes where no response is detected. System inhibit is to prevent problems occurring with the vehicle lowering and a possibility of the jack or vehicle becoming stuck. The system monitors height changes at the corner being jacked up. If the system lowers the air suspension but no reduction in height is achieved, the system will time out at approximate 10 seconds. If all four height sensors change by preset values, the system will recognize the vehicle is being lifted on a hoist and initializes the inhibit function. Inhibit mode will continue to exist unless the vehicle height returns to normal or a wheel speed signal 2 m.p.h. (3 km/h) is detected. The above events are triggered by either the height sensor arm change in position or a wheel speed message on the CAN bus.


If you've tried driving the car but the suspension would not raise, it would be worth checking the front ride height sensor to ensure that its electrical connector is firmly connected and that the sensor itself was not disturbed or hyperextended during the tire rotation.

Cheers,

Don

 

Don,


Thank you very much for a quick reply. I will figure out a way to get the car off of the lift and try the forward speed above 2 mph. I will report back if this works.


(edit) That solved the problem, thank you very much for responding quickly and correctly.

 

A method I have found that works is to grab the front fender wheel arch and just pull up, has never failed me.

 

I would have been afraid to try that on an aluminum-bodied car for fear of distorting the sheet metal. Glad to know it's possible to do it without damage.

 

Richard: I had my car on the lift today, and when I lowered it back to the ground the front end was extremely low again. I started the car, gave it a minute or so, then gently pulled upward in the front fender wheel well and the car raised up instantly. It was just a gentle tug and the car responded. Thanks for the short cut of getting the floor jack to get the lift arm out from under the car.

 

Glad to hear it worked for you, have had to use this method several times.