Emergency!! Air suspension inactive - essex/London mechanics?

I had both my front bags replaced earlier in the year, they last around 10 years / 100k miles. They're not cheap but they don't tend to break / wear out quickly.

They're a 'cheap' car to buy but not to keep on the road as most things cost quite a bit more than for a focus. Then again just look at her and ask yourself would you rather be in a focus? lol

Sounds like you've found a good garage. I asked on here and was advised to try LRR in Greenwich. Been great for me. I'm in East London with an allcomms if you ever need a code looking at.

Craig.

Oh and don't worry about making her go up and down. If you need to treat her like she's covered in cotton wool why would you get one? It's there for using!! Mine goes up and down every time I get in her to get in and out of her.

Anyone that tells you to treat them with kid gloves probably shouldn't have one, my old girls been green laned and thrown around with never a problem that's not age related but has been easy to fix. You can't drive a seventy grand when new car and balk at a 500 pound part.

spud101 said:

Oh and don't worry about making her go up and down. If you need to treat her like she's covered in cotton wool why would you get one? It's there for using!! Mine goes up and down every time I get in her to get in and out of her.

Anyone that tells you to treat them with kid gloves probably shouldn't have one, my old girls been green laned and thrown around with never a problem that's not age related but has been easy to fix. You can't drive a seventy grand when new car and balk at a 500 pound part.

Click to expand...

Then you're one of the lucky ones. One of the biggest things on forums like this is ' help my veh has thrown a hissy fit and no-one can work out why'. A quick look around will show that the L322 IS a tempermental, sensitive,sod. She might go green-laning happily and get all muddy (and EAS will happily go up and down for shortasses to get in and out or lift the dog in , etc but playing "quite a bit" with it is slightly different ) however,a little bit of water ingress can make her stop and refuse to play on, or screw up the complete ICE system, etc, etc, etc. Whilst general old age repairs are inevitable, and mainly can be easy fixed,silly, little , quirky, things , which you would never dream of usually, are quite frequent on the l322. Many of us have bumped into 'not easy to fix' things.
It's better to pre-warn a new owner of common pitfalls to watch for , than to let them think they're getting a good old workhorse akin to a Defender or a Series, which would lull them into a false sense of security.
Your point about parts though is correct,many of us have said it many times before. If you buy a car like the l322 make sure you know beforehand that you can afford to keep it on the road, or you are able to do the work yourself.

My air suspension is only there in case somebody asks if i have air suspension and then i can say yes, I wouldn't show them though..
My sunroof is merely an escape hatch to be used only to avoid fire or flood
Sport mode is just a myth
I have never touched my HDC button in the 3 years i have had it although i know it has it as quite often it reminds me it is inactive and i just reply, I know
i do use my low ratio though as it is very effective at getting the thing up on my railway sleeper ramps to fix the bastard
somebody asked me once about the FBH, and i told them i don't feckin care if it has one, it tries to ignite itself enough on it's own, i am certainly not going to deliberately start a fire
i also say **** the heated seats, the heated steering wheel and anything else heated and i haven't moved the drivers seat since i bought it
That said if you get chance to use it to it's full potential then i say good on you, i just spend enough time and money on the git and most of the time it doesn't move off my drive apart from a shooting trip once every two weeks as my son no longer uses his motocross bike.

holidaychicken said:

My air suspension is only there in case somebody asks if i have air suspension and then i can say yes, I wouldn't show them though..
My sunroof is merely an escape hatch to be used only to avoid fire or flood
Sport mode is just a myth
I have never touched my HDC button in the 3 years i have had it although i know it has it as quite often it reminds me it is inactive and i just reply, I know
i do use my low ratio though as it is very effective at getting the thing up on my railway sleeper ramps to fix the bastard
somebody asked me once about the FBH, and i told them i don't feckin care if it has one, it tries to ignite itself enough on it's own, i am certainly not going to deliberately start a fire
i also say **** the heated seats, the heated steering wheel and anything else heated and i haven't moved the drivers seat since i bought it
That said if you get chance to use it to it's full potential then i say good on you, i just spend enough time and money on the git and most of the time it doesn't move off my drive apart from a shooting trip once every two weeks as my son no longer uses his motocross bike.

Click to expand...

Thanks Andy , I really needed that laugh.

holidaychicken said:

My air suspension is only there in case somebody asks if i have air suspension and then i can say yes, I wouldn't show them though..
My sunroof is merely an escape hatch to be used only to avoid fire or flood
Sport mode is just a myth
I have never touched my HDC button in the 3 years i have had it although i know it has it as quite often it reminds me it is inactive and i just reply, I know
i do use my low ratio though as it is very effective at getting the thing up on my railway sleeper ramps to fix the bastard
somebody asked me once about the FBH, and i told them i don't feckin care if it has one, it tries to ignite itself enough on it's own, i am certainly not going to deliberately start a fire
i also say **** the heated seats, the heated steering wheel and anything else heated and i haven't moved the drivers seat since i bought it
That said if you get chance to use it to it's full potential then i say good on you, i just spend enough time and money on the git and most of the time it doesn't move off my drive apart from a shooting trip once every two weeks as my son no longer uses his motocross bike.

Click to expand...

Now I've stopped laughing I'll give my version
I just laid out £1600 to a stealer for new compressor, so my EAS will pay for itsbloodyself so is used freely for my short assed friends , when I deign to let them ride in my beautiful beast. As well to save my poor back when lifting the dog in.
My sunroof is a daylight roof and opened as often as possible to stop me getting forgetting what a cloudless sky looks like , as we see so little sun from July to June. It has however had the press and hold for 20 seconds treatment more than once!
Sport mode is supplied so that when the gearbox starts to go(or even an injector plays up) we lucky, lucky folks have an option to stop the vibration. That IS it's real function, no matter what the book says.
Now , HDC that is a real thing. I knows cos it means I can get back from the farm , to the road, without her doing a bambi/dumbo on ice impression, in the snow.
FBH is for dress wearers like @tomcat59alan , so I know nothing of it.
I had the poor judgement to have moved my seat several times, over 6yrs, to find a good position and was repaid for my efforts by the ECU going on strike.
I also had the poor judgement to think yesterday "she's been well behaved since getting the new battery". Cue the tape deck quite literally spitting the dummy and now spits out any tape offered up to it.
But I still love her and she is the go to vehicle when trailers and other 4x4s are stuck in fields or other owners can't get up the hill to the farm. However, since retiring, she also doesn't get to do long drives to work, midnight emergency runs to a job, etc and sits on the drive looking at me with contempt.

Pleasure, i now have a flickering oil light and i haven't even touched it apart from doing the 80 degree mod, it's like friggin chinese water torture, why couldn't everything have gone wrong with it the day i bought it, ok in fairness some things did, and got it over with in a ball of flames, insurance pays out, i had the pleasure of driving a range rover, everyone's happy

holidaychicken said:

Pleasure, i now have a flickering oil light and i haven't even touched it apart from doing the 80 degree mod, it's like friggin chinese water torture, why couldn't everything have gone wrong with it the day i bought it, ok in fairness some things did, and got it over with in a ball of flames, insurance pays out, i had the pleasure of driving a range rover, everyone's happy

Click to expand...

That would have been too easy. Remember, once you buy one, they own you.

gold rover said:

Remember, once you buy one, they own you.

Click to expand...

What as well as Alan? that sucks, but then so does Alan, we'll call that quits

gold rover said:

I just laid out £1600 to a stealer for new compressor.

Click to expand...

What the holy **** a doodle do ??
You could have just bought one and plugged it in yourself, ok may have needed to plug it into diagnostics to clear it but i could have posted you my allcomms for no more than £1000

holidaychicken said:

What the holy **** a doodle do ??
You could have just bought one and plugged it in yourself, ok may have needed to plug it into diagnostics to clear it but i could have posted you my allcomms for no more than £1000

Click to expand...

Yep I know but it was when the garage that was supposed to fix the air strut put it into stealer without telling me , so deed was done and I didn't find out until it was too late. Oh and the £1600 included my 20% discount!

Bargain !

I hear your comments gold rover and I'm sorry to read of all your ills on your old girls both holidaychicken and gold rover. The only thing that doesn't work on my old girl are the parking sensors but she's got a reversing camera and I know how wide & long she is! I use the heated seats and steering wheel all the time in winter, I've used hdc down the exit spiral ramps in car parks (lol), I put her in low gear once a fortnight to make sure she's getting used. I had the front air springs replaced this year and last year got a reconditioned compressor but I expect to pay a grand or so in 'additional' none wear and tear items (pads, discs, tyres, bushes, etc.)

And sport mode is heaven on earth when the v8 starts growling. Why wouldn't you?

My compressor cost me £500 though not £1600!! I would have insisted they took it back out!

spud101 said:

My compressor cost me £500 though not £1600!! I would have insisted they took it back out!

Click to expand...

That was just the culmination of a long, hard, story , in which a garage had, had my girl for over 3months, making every excuse in the book to not give her back but not doing any work on her either. So paying the stealer was the least of the issues. At least it got her out of the clutches of HK Autotek, of which I was mightily pleased, especially when they had a murder on the premises a few weeks later.

300 for the part, 80 to fit. It was just leaking from one strut. I didn't bother doing them both. Think i should have to be sure?

my two went within days of each other but were original and 10 years old, in an ideal world you should change both but just stay below 150 mph and you should be ok

eek, all the way to France with one good bag....
If you have a problem over there just use this phrase> Excuzes-mon grand homme, pouvez-vous souffler mon sac souple?

Now I'm regretting only getting one bag done. After 2 days the car when down on the front left.!!!
It go's back up when i start it but that would suggest the Left bag is gone too.

I have to drive it to France on Saturday. I have a new Left front leg which I will take with me and maybe try and get some to fit it, worst case.

IS there a chance the Air Suspension Inactive will come back to haunt me?

Im such a plum not doing them both...

It is highly likely the EAS inactive will come back if you have another bag gone, as i said mine went within days of each other, maybe the extra pressure from not having a leaking bag but quality parts are made to exacting standards so should be identical in their manufacture so it would make sense for them to go at the same time.
If your compressor is running constantly to try and fill a leaking bag it will trip out to prevent it overheating.
It is not a bad job to change it.