1995 Country LWB, EAS ECU Faults are nonsense

My neighbors Rover had a hard fault on the air suspension that put it on the bump stops. Looking at the 1 1/2 pages of faults on the ECU I found the faults to conflict from line to line. Example: FL Valve stuck open then a few lines down, FL valve stuck open. In all, all valves stuck open and all valves stuck closed. I reset the ECU and after about 10 minutes it jumped up to where I set her about 1 1/2 years ago. That lasted about 2 weeks then it faulted again. I reset it and am now praying.

Rave says the Valve Block should get a PMI about every 30k miles. Owner says this has never happened. Rave says let all the water out of the compressor tank, replace the air dryer and inlet air filter.

Does the erratic faults indicated on the ECU mean it is on its last leg or just the nature of the beast? If it were spring or summer I would do the PMI. No place to work inside and I am to old to roll in the snow and ice.

The only dealer in the state is 250 miles away and my neighbor can't afford the the $2k cover charge!

Conflicting faults can be a result of poor communication between the fault reader and the car. You would do well to check the socket for corrosion.

You say that it went into fault mode a second time but you don't say what fault(s) was recorded that time. That would be the only one that I would be worried about. You could be looking at any of the 'standard' faults; a leaky bag, weak compressor etc.

dogsbody said:

Conflicting faults can be a result of poor communication between the fault reader and the car. You would do well to check the socket for corrosion.

You say that it went into fault mode a second time but you don't say what fault(s) was recorded that time. That would be the only one that I would be worried about. You could be looking at any of the 'standard' faults; a leaky bag, weak compressor etc.

Click to expand...

+1 to poor comms with the car....what system are you using for fault reading?

I am using the RSW Solutions software, the cable I built with the transistor buffer, and a 15 year old Toshiba laptop. I don't think it is a com problem. Once reset I can move the vehicle to all the positions. I don't think it is a leaky bag because about 1 1/2 years ago there was an unlevel problem I corrected. Since, it sets for several days at a time and does not sag at any corner.

Note: I bought a new laptop for better speed. The new laptop no longer has the D9 serial data connector, everything is USB. Found an adapter on Amazon which allegedly
will adapt the D9 connector to USB port. I will test that out when the Rover comes limping back. The Classic Country LWB has 220k miles on her any chance she might die someday?

lrheaume said:

I am using the RSW Solutions software, the cable I built with the transistor buffer, and a 15 year old Toshiba laptop. I don't think it is a com problem. Once reset I can move the vehicle to all the positions. I don't think it is a leaky bag because about 1 1/2 years ago there was an unlevel problem I corrected. Since, it sets for several days at a time and does not sag at any corner.

Note: I bought a new laptop for better speed. The new laptop no longer has the D9 serial data connector, everything is USB. Found an adapter on Amazon which allegedly
will adapt the D9 connector to USB port. I will test that out when the Rover comes limping back. The Classic Country LWB has 220k miles on her any chance she might die someday?

Click to expand...

I take it this is a Classic and not a P38? When you say" once reset I can move the vehicle to all positions" is that with the software or the vehicle control?
USB to serial adaptors are notorious for giving comms problems especially with Vista

Forgot to address the possibility of corrosion in the diagnostic connector. A couple of summers back when I replaced the heater core and cleaned up the cockpit and floormats to get rid of the coolant, I cleaned the diagnostic connectors under both front seats, put them in small plastic bags and used string tie to close them up. They seem to stay clean and dry.

I can move the vehicle up and down with the software and with the buttons on the dash. The vehicle also changes height with speed variations and when exiting the vehicle (after the ECU is reset). The first time it most recently came back the fuse in dash was blown. The two under the RH seat were ok. The temp had been 0 degrees F the night before. The second time back all fuses tested good.

lrheaume said:

I can move the vehicle up and down with the software and with the buttons on the dash. The vehicle also changes height with speed variations and when exiting the vehicle (after the ECU is reset). The first time it most recently came back the fuse in dash was blown. The two under the RH seat were ok. The temp had been 0 degrees F the night before. The second time back all fuses tested good.

Click to expand...

If you can move the vehicle up and down with the software, that kinda rules out a comms problem. I'm not familiar with the EAS on the Classic although it's pretty much the same as the P38, but I do not know the component locations.
If a garbage fault list is reported and it's not a comms problem, then I'd be looking for corroded connectors to the ECU, bad earth connections etc.

Fault recorded (in order):
RR Valve stuck open
EX Valve stuck open
FL Valve stuck closed
FR Valve stuck closed
RR Valve stuck closed
3 Pressure signal constantly low
4 Air supply fault
RL Valve stuck closed
EX valve stuck closed
FL Valve stuck open
The rest are repeats of all the above.

Thank you for your responses. When it comes limping up my driveway I will check the ECU connector (both sides) for corrosion. When I cleaned out the coolant I did have the ECU out and found it did not get wet. Cleaned the connector, seals and installed. Taking a second look cant hurt.

Still inclined to think some form of comms error...just purely because of the conflicting faults...a valve can't be stuck Open and Closed at the same time!!

Clear the Fault Buffer, Clear the Faults on the ECU, run the system then re-read the fresh codes...

Saint.V8 said:

Still inclined to think some form of comms error...just purely because of the conflicting faults...a valve can't be stuck Open and Closed at the same time!!

Clear the Fault Buffer, Clear the Faults on the ECU, run the system then re-read the fresh codes...

Click to expand...

I would agree, except that he say's he can manipulate the suspension heights from the software