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Buying a P38a

Needing a little more risk in my life, so thinking of buying a P38a

4.6.

Can someone tell me what to expect from the air suspension.

I have only looked at one so far. When asking the suspension to rise from normal to high (engine had been running for about 5 minutes), the upper of the 4 lights on the switch blinked for a long time. Whilst it was blinking, further prods at the switch seemed to have no effect.

After taking the car for a spin, suspension behaved more as I expected, raising and lowering the car more or less instantly the switch was pressed. However, after a couple of cycles, it seemed to run out of puff and went back to its blinking stage.

To me, this sounds like the compressor isn't delivering enough air quickly enough, but never having seen a good one in operation, can someone tell me what to expect? Is there a maximum number of times which the system can go from low to high before the reciever is depleted, and when running off the compressor, how long should it take to go from low to high?

TIA

David

Reply to
rads
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Ah, a man who likes large main dealer repair bills :) Been there...

A lighter wallet?

That's about right, depending on how long it took to rise. It should take something like 10 seconds.

The compressor charges a reservoir (under the RHS sill), so normally you're raising the vehicle on the reservoir, and lowering it by venting. Once you've done this a couple of times, there will be no more air in the reservoir, so you'll be running directly off the pump, which will take a lot longer to raise the vehicle - I wouldn't be surprised if it took a minute or more.

What you describe sounds perfectly normal to me. What I'd watch out for is:

- noisy compressor - sometimes it's just the mounts, sometimes it's a new compressor, and they're not cheap. You should be able to just about hear it when it's running

- compressor running noticeably frequently when driving - if it's running every few minutes, you probably have a leak somewhere. Remember though that when you go >50mph for a short while, the EAS will lower itself to motorway ride height, and lift up again as you drop below 50, so once you've done this a couple of times, you can expect the compressor to kick in

- also, when left overnight the vehicle shouldn't settle noticeably on any corner - this would also indicate a leak. However, in reality, the EAS self-levels, so this can be tricky to spot, unless you can leave it overnight with the tailgate open, which will inhibit the EAS

- you can also raise the car to extended ride height, and eyeball the tops of the airsprings for damage / cracking etc. Be careful not to let the body crush you though if it self-levels

Andy Cunningham's website used to have lots of useful info on the P38a air suspension.

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David

Reply to
David French

David> That's about right, depending on how long it took to rise. David> It should take something like 10 seconds.

If the vehicle hasn't been used for some time and has a slow air leak (or work done on the Air Suspension) it may have to recharge the reservoir

David> What you describe sounds perfectly normal to me. What I'd David> watch out for is:

Agreed. If it does it EVERY time then it's a problem.

David> Andy Cunningham's website used to have lots of useful info David> on the P38a air suspension.

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It still does!

Andy

Reply to
AndyC the WB

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