'05 Air Suspension INOP during freezing temps

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TXWarthog

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I also posted this in the suspension section, but being a 2nd gen, I thought I'd see if I can get some assistance over here.


My '05 Expedition Limited has factory air suspension. I'm the second owner with 186K miles. Usually it rides awesome. This is the first winter I've owned it and living in Houston, it doesn't always get below freezing temperatures.

However, when it does, the suspension doesn't want to inflate. I can hear the compressor kicking on. It all sounds normal, but it doesn't inflate and rides as if it has worn out shocks. I will also get a "check suspension" warning after about 15 minutes.

Once again, this only occurs when it's at or below freezing temps. I've tried letting the truck sit for ten minutes to see if radiant heat from the engine bay would heat up the compressor area - nothing.

My first thought is the possibility of condensation building up and freezing in either a supply line or ice causing a purge/drain valve to stick open.

Has anyone had a similar issue? If so, what was the fix? I did not see any posts with similar problems when I searched...but I'm going to try a few other keywords and look more.

Thanks in advance!
 

1955moose

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First off, if your air springs and lines going to them are sound, you should not be deflating. Air springs only last about 10 years on average. If your supply lines are icing up, the water that's in your compressor will freeze. All compressors build up moisture, that's inevitable. On home compressors there's a water drain, I believe on our suvs its built in, maybe one of the other members can elaborate on that. You'll need to pull a line from one of the bags, and feel if air is coming out. I believe you stated your suv is a 2005. That's 13 years, your going to have to make a decision whether you want to go through the expense of changing the bags, or converting to coil springs.

Sent from my N9131 using Tapatalk
 
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TXWarthog

TXWarthog

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Thanks for your reply.

After further review, I found a helpful link to a series of videos specific to the Expy air suspension. In one of the videos, they mention the air dryer. and that they do need changing on occasion. First thing I'll do is replace the air dryer.

Also noticed last night that it compressor was completely INOP (first time this has happened). After turning vehicle off and back on, it came back to life. Also from the videos (link listed on the suspension forum), I saw that this was one of the classic symptoms for a compressor solenoid failure. So I'll be replacing the solenoid (and the associated connector/pigtail) as well.

For those watching, here's the link: http://www.expeditionforum.com/thre...avigator-air-ride-suspension-down-tips.24771/
 

deweysmith

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The compressor doesn't always kick on immediately. Mine almost always does in winter, but not every time. In summer it's rare that it will kick on at all because the temps don't change as much.

The vent solenoid is on the compressor but each spring also has a solenoid on it, but those only control if that spring is connected or isolated from the rest of the system. This way, it can inflate/deflate individual springs by opening their individual solenoids and either opening the vent solenoid or running the compressor.

It's entirely possible that the cold made your vent solenoid stick open and it was running the compressor and building little/no pressure. I have had a random "CHECK AIR SUSPENSION" exactly once this winter, and it went away with no action from me, and everything works fine now.

You could get a good scan tool or FORSCAN and read all the codes to confirm this but my theory is the vent solenoid gets stuck open in the cold, the compressor runs until the computer decides it's going to overheat, clicks it off for its duty cycle (probably more than a few minutes) and sets a code. It might do this more than once before it shows the message in the display. It also might explain why sometimes it does nothing when you first turn it on, since the computer knows it hasn't been long enough for the compressor to cool off.
 

lincoln

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I feel your pain. I just resolved my '05 Navigator suspension rear end drop last Friday. Front suspension was fine. I live in Houston as well. It started when I parked on a very uneven driveway with the driver side rear wheel sitting high up to fender and the rear passenger wheel at fully extended height (imagine 4WD Jeep rock crawling big rocks one wheel at a time) and heard the air being released for a longer than usual time when parked and engine off. Got on level ground and restarted car many times and it would not lift from fully down position. Drove home on one bumpy slow ride. I am pretty familiar with repairing the 4WAS as I have had issues before.

Typically, I would jack up the rear to about normal squat level. Turn on the car and compressor will kick on (will not kick on if suspension all the way down) and lift the rear suspension. It would hold for a couple of days (tells me rear air bags and air solenoids are ok and not leaking and the air compressor is working) but then over the next few freezing days last week it would drop overnight. Jacking up and letting raise worked for about a day then it would just drop even in the warmer temps in the 50s. I would drive with a jack around when the total air release would happen when I was driving. Park somewhere flat, go thru the same steps to get it to inflate. But about the third time it would not raise anymore (compressor shuts down, need to reset by turn off the suspension and turning it back on) and I was tired of stopping to jack it up and wait for it to raise only to drop 1/2 mile down the street. I think once the suspension height hits that dead spot on the sensor the system deflates the rear air bags. Drove it slammed to ground all the way home. Another bumpy and long ride.

I believe this happened because the rear suspension height sensor (even 13 months old) had bad spots on the lever measurement area that it could not read correctly and the system would by default release all the air from the rear bags. Hard for me to accept at first because I just replaced that very sensor 13 months ago. I quickly decided to replace it again and all is normal for past 3 days. No issues anymore. Maybe parking and extending the height sensor arm beyond its limit and the really cold temps caused the sensor to fail.

Pop passenger rear wheel off and sensor can be replaced in 15 minutes easily. Two 10 MM bracket bolts to frame and wiring connector. Pop sensor arm on lower control arm, install tire, turn on suspension and good to go.

Sterling McCall Ford has one in stock if you need quick. Get the FordParts price for $116 plus tax. Otherwise it is I think $193 (phone quote). Go to FordParts.com and order to pickup at the dealer.

Hope that helps.
 
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