P38A Eas symptoms..

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Mark Piercy

Mark Piercy

Well fumbled member....
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Ok, i have the odd behaviour returned...

In off road height.
The compressor constantly runs and rarely blows off.

In normal road height the compressor runs and slowly lifts the front of the bus a tiny bit, it then blows off and lowers back to the set height.

In motorway height the compressor constantly runs and rarely blows off.

At the lowest setting the compressor runs constantly and rarely blows off.

I have checked the resistance outputs on the front height sensors and got twitching readings around the 960-980 ohms. Around the normal height level.
So, replaced them with the two front units off my donor bus and checked the readings. No twitching or uneven readings.
Ive fitted the sensors and the behaviour continues!!!:mad:

The rws suite gives no codes and unfortunately i cant do a reading with a dedicated reader.
So, the question is does anybody recognise these symptoms please!!!!!
Please.....:(
 
There is no such thing as off road height Mark. Only wade, standard, motorway and short arses getting in heights. You have a leak somewhere. ;):D
 
wammers said:
There is no such thing as off road height Mark. Only wade, standard, motorway and short arses getting in heights. You have a leak somewhere. ;):D
Click to expand...
Mines off roading height:p she never wades!!:D
As for a leak, i thought maybe the nrv's, they were new last year i think and ive since swapped their positions in the block to rule out any sticking to no avail....
I thought maybe a faulty pressure switch, but then why the different behaviour in different positions?
Ive had the block out and checked all of the rings and the big seal (name escapes me?).
All is dust free, condensation free and in good tat???
Would it not leak in all positions Tony:confused:?
 
Mark Piercy said:
Mines off roading height:p she never wades!!:D
As for a leak, i thought maybe the nrv's, they were new last year i think and ive since swapped their positions in the block to rule out any sticking to no avail....
I thought maybe a faulty pressure switch, but then why the different behaviour in different positions?
Ive had the block out and checked all of the rings and the big seal (name escapes me?).
All is dust free, condensation free and in good tat???
Would it not leak in all positions Tony:confused:?
Click to expand...

Nope bags are covered by the fold at various heights. My bet is a leaking bag. Or bags. Only NRV 2 can cause car to drop. If corner valves are opened to raise car and there is no pressure in tank. Air from bags will flow into empty tank if NRV 2 is duff.

Note: It is inadvisable to drive at any more than crawl speed over rough ground in wade height. :D:D
 
Last edited:
Mark Piercy said:
This is what i dont understand, all the physical stuff seems to check out??? I was kind of hoping that the symptoms would have been familiar to another.. have you had this before Tony?:(
Click to expand...

As i have said many times the fill function and the height control function are totally different things. Controlled in separate ways. When the compressor is running the valve block can open valves to raise the car but it cannot drop it. Only with the compressor off can the valve block lower the car. NRV 1 holds pressure in the tank. NRV 2 prevents air from the bags flowing into an empty tank. NRV 3 prevents high pressure air from flowing from the pressurised fill/exhaust gallery whilst the compressor is running into the corner valve gallery. To prevent high pressure air from being forced into the corner valve gallery and past the solenoid valves into the bags. That may help your understanding i don't know. But if the car is sat at access and the compressor will not stop that would indicate a leak in the fill circuit. Unless there is a big bag leak at that height and the compressor is feeding the leak to maintain that height.
 
Mark Piercy said:
Im going to try the other driver pack i have...
F**king sick of this p***ing about...:mad:
Click to expand...

Driver pack has nothing at all to do with compressor circuit. Nothing in the compressor circuit runs through the driver pack. However faulty driver packs have been know to feed back to the ECU giving it a fit.
 
This why its confusing,
Only at normal height does the front suspension lift when the compressor begins to run and as soon as the compressor cuts out it settles back down!
I was looking through the eas guide in the tech' section. A leaking inlet valve? Would this allow a feed to the front bags only and why arent the rear bags effected?
Thank you for your help Tony;)
 
Last edited:
Mark Piercy said:
This why its confusing,
Only at normal height does the front suspension lift when the compressor begins to run and as soon as the compressor cuts out it settles back down!
I was looking through the eas guide in the tech' section. A leaking inlet valve? Would this allow a feed to the front bags only and why arent the rear bags effected?
Thank you for your help Tony;)
Click to expand...

The corner gallery inlet valve is designed to cope with full tank pressure the corner gallery exhaust valve isn't. I would suspect a leaking NRV 3 if they only rise when compressor is on. You can check the seats on all solenoid valves to be on safe side i suppose and NRVs. Don't have red O'rings on NRVs they are to soft fit black nitrile ones.
 
They were all replaced with black o'rings in 2016.
Guess I'll be pulling the block again... Or its springs.... Did you hear me you green fecker...did you???:mad:
Thanks buddy.;)​
 
Mark Piercy said:
They were all replaced with black o'rings in 2016.
Guess I'll be pulling the block again... Or its springs.... Did you hear me you green fecker...did you???:mad:
Thanks buddy.;)​
Click to expand...
How old are the airbags? The driver pack can cause all sorts of weird things, if one component in particular fails, electrical interference feeds back to the ECU, giving the ECu a fit as Wammers put it.
The RSW sofware does give the faults.
 
. Or its springs.... Did you hear me you green fecker...did you???:mad:
Thanks buddy.;)​
[/QUOTE

That`s the answer, just keep walking up to it and whisper springs it should behave its self then:D:D:D:D
 
Datatek said:
How old are the airbags? The driver pack can cause all sorts of weird things, if one component in particular fails, electrical interference feeds back to the ECU, giving the ECu a fit as Wammers put it.
The RSW sofware does give the faults.
Click to expand...
Thanks Keith, the bags are two years old, all four of them.
I cant even remember where i bought them... Ive checked all my factures/bills and cant find where...
The only fault if any, is "car moved"... And thats rare.
The driver pack is my next call of port..o_O
 
Mark,

if all the other checks show as good, then check that your terminals are tight on your battery and that the earth's are good. I've had random EAS faults and the odd gearbox fault beep beep beep and I had checked everything. Oh and then I'd driven around one morning then parked up at home.

Back out 5 mins later and it wouldn't start - click. That was it. I had checked all connections the night before. So I put jump leads on it and still click. F*&k!!! I jumped into the drivers seat and tried it again and below the edge of the open bonnet I saw a spark flash when I turned the ignition key.
So I check my terminals and the positive battery post connector (not sure if it's after market or OEM) has a screw terminal on it and it had come loose but only to the point of the cable being able to pivot. But it was enough. I tightened it up and the car fired up no problem.

Until 2 days ago no more problems. I was on a round trip to Exeter and I turned my main beam on at night and beep beep beep gearbox fault. Anyway I got home and that bloody terminal had come loose again. I have now removed it from my car and the gearbox fault has gone (solenoid power fault in Nanocom) means I have my gearbox working again. Try 3,500 rpm before your car with a loaded trailer attached starts moving forwards hahahahaha :p:p:p

Moral of my story? P38 electrics throw random faults on these cars so I always check that first :D

If you want me to bring any EAS stuff out let me know we're traveling out on 15th
 
Thank you @Mukiwa for your offer, does pound land do refurbed pumps, blocks and ecu's?:p.
The connector blocks to both the block and compressor are both spotlessly clean, ive already done the white connector block behind the kick panel but im going to revisit that also.
I'll be checking the suspension ecu for corrosion and such, looking back at wammers and datatek's post both the compressor and driver pack talk to the ecu.... So...o_O;)
But i will check the battery terminals as well:D
 
Mark Piercy said:
Thanks Keith, the bags are two years old, all four of them.
I cant even remember where i bought them... Ive checked all my factures/bills and cant find where...
The only fault if any, is "car moved"... And thats rare.
The driver pack is my next call of port..o_O
Click to expand...
The "vehicle has moved" fault simply means that the suspension has adjusted itself after the ignition was turned off.
I'm still inclined to think there is a leak in the system somewhere, you go off road with it so an airbag may have been damaged or one of the airlines..
The EAS is, in my 9 years experience, pretty reliable once sorted.
Also check the EAS earth points on the inner wing by the EAS box and the white connector behind the trim in the footwell on the passenger side.
 
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