Laughed my EAS off

M6... just north of Birmingham, 126 miles from home.

Rangie thought she was in access mode, light flashed for about 10 minutes trying to get into motorway mode, then christmas tree, beep and "EAS FAULT".

Suspension had a bit of air left, so ignored the "35MPH MAX" light and shot into a service station at about 80mph. She was sitting low, but not too low. Opened bonnet, mucked about. When I pushed the connection block the compressor jumped into life and after about 5 minutes she was up to full height. Result, thinks me. Back onto motorway, got about 2 miles, and she was on the bump stops, undrivable. When I checked the compressor again, I could feel it running in fits and starts, and running slowly.

AA low-loader all the way home with wife + 2 kids. Loads of fun.

I almost feel more of a man for now having had a full blown EAS fault.

Now down to fixing the b**tard.....

Could be the bearing on the Compressor "Con-rod" or the seal is shot causing the piston to sieze in the cylinder. The compressor is easy to strip and work on. Worst case scenario is the motor has gone, but check the compressor end first as the motors are pretty reliable. Con rod complete with bearing, cylinder sleeve & seal is available from either Egay for about £69 or from rover-renovations in the states. I have seen rebuilt complete compressors for around £165 on Egay. Another thought is-a dodgy relay, try substituting it with another in the main fusebox first.

Thanks - I think a compressor strip is coming up. Will get busy on it this week and report back.

Thing is, from reading the workshop book, there are a huge number of obvious things to check first: door switches not closing, bad sensor, and one guy has told me that his exhaust was blowing and melted through the rubber air line, this made the compressor run trying to keep up pressure until it was worn out!

Will do the easy things first: check all door switches, check all sensor wiring, check all air lines, then out with the compressor and bench test.

Will report back.

Jock

On a recent camping trip my lights blinked and 35 mph flashed up in front of my eyes, main dealer wanted a arm and leg to fix it , new pump and new sensors. I checked the internet and fitted a new seal to the pump for £24 off ebay refitted the pump job done.While i was waiting for it to come i got 4 tyre valves for twin wheels on a lorry cut off the ends and pushed them on the air bag pipes blew them up ,lovely soft ride and time to fix the pump .

Beechy said:

On a recent camping trip my lights blinked and 35 mph flashed up in front of my eyes, main dealer wanted a arm and leg to fix it , new pump and new sensors. I checked the internet and fitted a new seal to the pump for £24 off ebay refitted the pump job done.While i was waiting for it to come i got 4 tyre valves for twin wheels on a lorry cut off the ends and pushed them on the air bag pipes blew them up ,lovely soft ride and time to fix the pump .

Click to expand...

nice one mate its easy when you sit down and think about it necessity's the mother of invention , and the best of it is you didnt allow yourself to be ripped off by the main agents

If you rip out all the EAS stuff, and just pump up the air springs, how long does it last? Does it deflate slowly over months, or just a couple of days? Is it a visit to the gas station every week to check ride height?

BTW - why lorry valves?

BigJock2007 said:

If you rip out all the EAS stuff, and just pump up the air springs, how long does it last? Does it deflate slowly over months, or just a couple of days? Is it a visit to the gas station every week to check ride height?

BTW - why lorry valves?

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hiya jock the length of time the air bags will stay inflated all depends on the integrity of that particular circuit the more leaks the less time it will last .
the reason that he used lorry valve is because he used valve extensions , these are a tyre valve on the end of about 6" of rubber tubing and on the other end is an adaptor which screws onto the tyre valve , this then enables the driver or whoever to inflate the inside tyre of a truck that runs on twin tyres .
the method he used is a very simple and cheap way to inflate the suspension in an emergency until a proper repair can be carried out .
the procedure is release each 4 plastic air pipes from the rear of the valve block , then get your lorry tyre valve extensions and cut off the end which screws onto the tyre valve, you are then left with a length of rubber hose with a tyre valve on the end , you the push the rubber hose over the pipe to the individual air bags and secure with a small jubilee clip or a gas clip ( but dont over tighten it ) it is then possible to inflate each corner to the desired height using either a forecourt air line or one of those plug in emergency compressors which are readily available, i hope this helps .
rick

p.s i would only recommend using this method as a temporary repair , it should not be considered a permanent solution .

Great idea and beats paying nearly £100 for the "Emergency inflation kits" I was wondering where the valves could be got-you have answered the question, so obvious!!!!

I will post some pictures soon of how i did the cheap air suspension job so you can see just what i used ,just got to learn how to do it?.

I refer the honourable gentleman to the reply to his previous thread

<<<Tyre valves on air bag pipes

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd196/disco67/bikeride037.jpg

Thanks Beechy for sharing the pics on the forum. At least it's something to get guys mobile again if the EAS goes belly up.