P38A Air Bags

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cornishboater

cornishboater

Well-Known Member
Posts
645
Location
Poole, Dorset
Right, I have finally replaced all 4 airbags I also replaced all the shocks and fixed a lot of bits underside too. The ride is dramatically better and the annoying knocking noise that 5 garages have failed to find has finally gone. The rubber shock bushings were the culprit. However, for some reason when I start the car each time the dash lights are calling for wading height, when you select standard height it immediately goes to it and all is good with the world. I always select access mode when parking cuz I am an old fart, the car drops to access but the standard height and access lamps are still flashing as if it is waiting to drop. One other bonus is that the 2.5 inch lean has disappeared so another plus. Any ideas regarding the dash lights?
 
cornishboater said:
Right, I have finally replaced all 4 airbags I also replaced all the shocks and fixed a lot of bits underside too. The ride is dramatically better and the annoying knocking noise that 5 garages have failed to find has finally gone. The rubber shock bushings were the culprit. However, for some reason when I start the car each time the dash lights are calling for wading height, when you select standard height it immediately goes to it and all is good with the world. I always select access mode when parking cuz I am an old fart, the car drops to access but the standard height and access lamps are still flashing as if it is waiting to drop. One other bonus is that the 2.5 inch lean has disappeared so another plus. Any ideas regarding the dash lights?
Click to expand...
White connectors behind the kick panels in the passenger foot well and the drivers side.
The passenger side has all the feeds to and from the suspension components and corrosion caused by the dreaded pollen filter leaks causes havoc with the signals. Cut them out and solder them up:cool:
 
Tenebreaux said:
Have you calibrated it?
Click to expand...
Hi there, I had read on a post somewhere that calibration although recommended wasn't needed for just an airbag change, is this not correct? I was intending on doing the calibration at some point and have bought some dowel to make up some setting blocks.
 
I have seen similar behaviour when ECU has got confused. The "go to wade" & "go to access" strangeness happened to me when I was sorting my "disable self-levelling" mod. The "go to wade" thing can also happen if the ECU thinks the chassis is grounded.

Here's the steps I followed to fix it.
  • Start the car and select standard height, and wait for it to settle.
  • Switch off ignition, remove key & get out of the car.
  • Close all doors and wait for self-levelling to complete its first cycle.
  • Now unplug the delay relay under left seat. Wait for 5mins.
  • Now replug the delay relay, and wait 5 mins again.
  • Finally close doors, then get in & start car to see if it works properly.
 
pwood999 said:
I have seen similar behaviour when ECU has got confused. The "go to wade" & "go to access" strangeness happened to me when I was sorting my "disable self-levelling" mod. The "go to wade" thing can also happen if the ECU thinks the chassis is grounded.

Here's the steps I followed to fix it.
  • Start the car and select standard height, and wait for it to settle.
  • Switch off ignition, remove key & get out of the car.
  • Close all doors and wait for self-levelling to complete its first cycle.
  • Now unplug the delay relay under left seat. Wait for 5mins.
  • Now replug the delay relay, and wait 5 mins again.
  • Finally close doors, then get in & start car to see if it works properly.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for that, I will give it a go, a bit like a hard reboot I guess, ctrl/alt/del ;)
 
I suspect it also depends on the ECU software version. We should assume there were SW bugs that LR had to sort over the years !!
 
cornishboater said:
Hi there, I had read on a post somewhere that calibration although recommended wasn't needed for just an airbag change, is this not correct? I was intending on doing the calibration at some point and have bought some dowel to make up some setting blocks.
Click to expand...

I have changed all 4 bags on a 98 without calibrating and had no problems. If you want to pretend you are an LR mechanic and go by the book (so you can charge for the service) then it is probably worthwhile.
 
+1 on the above. Calibration should not be necessary when changing air-bags. It's only required if changing height sensors, or the original calibration was wrong.

There is a remote possibility of moving, damaging height sensors while the axles are dropped enough to get new bags in, but as long as the shocks limit the travel this should not happen.
 
oakey said:
If randomly selecting wade height, it could be caused by the driver pack. That what was wrong with mine
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply, the suspension doesn't randomly select wading height it only selects it on initial start-up, as soon as I select standard it works fine and stays there. Everything seems to be functioning ok and the car is now riding level whereas before I fitted the new bags it had a 2.5" lean to the offside. As mentioned when I select access the lights seem to sit in limbo between standard and access although the car seems to be fully lowered.
 
cornishboater said:
Thanks for the reply, the suspension doesn't randomly select wading height it only selects it on initial start-up, as soon as I select standard it works fine and stays there. Everything seems to be functioning ok and the car is now riding level whereas before I fitted the new bags it had a 2.5" lean to the offside. As mentioned when I select access the lights seem to sit in limbo between standard and access although the car seems to be fully lowered.
Click to expand...

Sounds like diag is required. Might be a corner has a dodgy sensor reading in certain positions.
 
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