Air Suspension - Possible low cost fix.

[brucemillar]

Friends

I have to give give a big shout out to Andy Fulton. Andy owns and runs www.bagpiningandy.com who make refurbishment kits for Wabco (and other) air suspension compressors. These kits are fraction of the cost a replacement compressor and can save you a world of pain and cash should you run into issues with your air compressor/suspension.

These units are used in many makes and models including BMW, Landrover, Audi, VW, Mercedes.

They get tired with usage and age and lose performance, eventually giving all together. Most of them use an ECU to detect running time and temperature (among other things). As the compressor gets old, it takes longer to pump air so gets hotter eventually triggering errors that will result in the ECU shutting he compressor down. This is usually the result of the piston ring wearing or the seals giving out, bur can also be caused by dirt & moisture ingress that leads to rust & blocked filters etc.

Why do I write this. Well I have benefited buy using Andy's kits on Range Rovers and most recently my Wife's BMW X5. In both instances I was quoted in excess of £1000 for repair/replacement. Andy's kit costs from £25 > £70. It comes with clear colour photographic instructions and there is also a video on-line.

But the greatest thing is Andy. He responds to emails for help giving help and expertise. On my WIfe's BMW he has been superb. The eventual fix for this was to rebuild the entire pump. After I found that moisture had rusted up the drier and restricted air flow as well as damaging the piston and bore. Compressor rebuilt in less than hour, the car works brilliantly (as in new).

This is a guy who is an enthusiast who refused to accept that he should shell out £1000 on a new pump when it just needed a refurb. He has gone off and manufactured his own kits, created the video and the instructions. His kits are now selling world wide and his name is appearing on many forums. I first found Andy on one of the Range Rover forums.

I am not related or affiliated in any way. I think great service and innovation deserves recognition. If you have a an air suspension issue then you can do no better than to give Andy a shout.

www.bagpipingandy.com

 

[Abb]

I too bought a kit form Andy for my CLS airmatic. Although I didn't use it, as I could not open the compressor and eventually ended up buying a new unit. I sent my kit to a forum member on here with the agreement he was to refurb a compressor and send me it back, but then seems he fell off the face of the earth once he had my kit.
So I never found out if it was any good or not, so thank you Bruce for sharing, and it certainly is worth considering if you have air suspension.
Alt get someone else to buy the kit and sell your soul for £25 plus p&p!

 

[brucemillar]

I too bought a kit form Andy for my CLS airmatic. Although I didn't use it, as I could not open the compressor and eventually ended up buying a new unit. I sent my kit to a forum member on here with the agreement he was to refurb a compressor and send me it back, but then seems he fell off the face of the earth once he had my kit.
So I never found out if it was any good or not, so thank you Bruce for sharing, and it certainly is worth considering if you have air suspension.
Alt get someone else to buy the kit and sell your soul for £25 plus p&p! [emoji57]

Abb

Sorry to hear about your issues with another member. That is just not good sport at all. Was your compressor riveted? Andy now supplies (with his kit) a set of rivets and instructions on removing the old ones etc. On mine you could remove the long bolts or the rivets. Bolts are also supplied.

I was able to get a new:

Cylinder Bore
Piston Ring
Drier Spring(s)
O-Rings
Seals

The difference is immediate.

Other things worth considering: If your air suspension starts to play up and give errors. Some errors will kill all power to the actual compressor. I have seen people who have tested all the fuses and relays, then bought a new compressor or ECU, only to still have no power. The ECU is designed to kill power in certain error conditions as a safety feature. On my wife's X5, clearing the error, icarsoft (other tools will work) restored power for a couple of minutes until the error came back again. But it proved that the power side was okay, and that the compressor was working, albeit faulty. It just could not get enough air in and out quickly enough for the ECU.

I have to say it is one of these satisfying jobs to do:

a) You save a fortune (in my case over £900)
b) Despite initial thoughts, it is not difficult to do. A 1/4 socket set and a 10mm spanner were the only tools I required.
c) It transforms the cars handling and the suspensions operation. I could not believe how quickly the suspension now reacts. The X5 has a 'Access Mode' where it drops the car about 8" for loading and unloading. This was taking a around a minute to complete. It now takes around ten seconds!!!

I had a similar experience with a Range Rover and that also saved me around £700.

If you have a leak in the system? It will attempt to compensate by running the compressor continuously in a vain attempt to keep up with the leak. This continuous running will burn out the piston ring as it is designed for short runs topping up the system and not for continuous pumping. So if you can hear it running more than you used too? Expect it to fail. Washing up liquid in a water spray is still the best method to detect leaks, which normally happen when the air bags puncture. The leveling sensors can also cause the ECU to throw errors. If the car has recently been jacked up and is now throwing errors? Check the sensors are not damaged or broken.

What really got me with this whole thing was Andy's response to my questions. I expected a cursory, if any, reply. But no. He took time to understand what was happening, suggested next steps and asked me to report back. This over several emails. He could simply have said you need to buy the biggest and most expensive kit I sell and replace everything!! He didn't. He took time to get the bits that actually needed replacing and sold me a kit that gave me the very best chance of a fix - and it was.

We need more people who operate like this and understand that we are all enthusiasts and not experts with huge tool laden workshops and vast supplies of cash. I have a paint guy (who I met through this forum) who operates in the same manner and he gets every single it of paint I require and most of my friends now use him. Contact - Vehicle Solutions VSSE Hastings LTD

Samir, painted my 124 Wagon, which went on to win shows and feature in Mercedes Enthusiast Magazine. All through recommendation on here and Samir's attitude to me and painting cars.

 

[Abb]

That's very informative Bruce thank you, am sure it will help many a member out on here. Where are you based Bruce as I am looking at finding somebody to take on the body spray/resto on my project.

 

[brucemillar]

Abb

I am in North Kent but travel to Sussex (Hastings) to get my paintwork done. It is a bit of a trek but worth it every time. There is no substitute for good paint/bodywork. If it's wrong you notice and once you notice you cannot un-notice.

Let me know if I can help at all and I will gladly try and do so. Feel free to pm me if you prefer. I can share my mobile etc.

 

[Abb]

Thank you very much Bruce, however I think it's a little too far even for me, I am up in the North East, so I will continue to look a little closer to home.
Thanks all the same.

 

[pmcgsmurf]

Recently fitted one of these piston ring kits to the compressor on the E55.

Not fitted the pump back in yet though.....

 

[GordonTarling]

Bruce - you have the incorrect URL in your first post - should be http://www.bagpipingandy.com/

 

[sosen13]

Very interesting. Need to investigate further if this might help with my air suspension issue

 

[zipdip]

Very interesting. Need to investigate further if this might help with my air suspension issue

Bruce has laid out what you can do with a pump that is knackered,if you have a occasional fault coming up,the best bet is to get it on a Star at a local indy,they can run tests on the pump and suspension system,as Bruce has stated when a pump starts to fail you get faults the Star drains the air and then fills the tank,the system has a certain amount of time to do this,if the pump is on the way out,it will take too long to fill I had this done on my S320 I decided to have a new pump fitted,the indy also found a small air leak on some pipe work and repaired that as I remember the pump came to around £160 the repair was a compression fitting plus labour.

 

[brucemillar]

Thank you very much Bruce, however I think it's a little too far even for me, I am up in the North East, so I will continue to look a little closer to home.
Thanks all the same.

Abb

On the subject of paint. When looking for examples of good workmanship, it is worth asking they have any aged examples. Paint can sink into badly prepped bodywork either through; poor prep, poor materials, including the paint, or poor environmental care.

Cars that are freshly painted, should look top notch at that point in time. A few weeks down the line they can look a mess. Just saying.