Liberty 91 GX - air struts won't inflate

[chezzam]

Hi

Hope I'm posting this in the right spot!

I bought this Liberty GX wagon with 'pneumatic height adjustment' 2 months ago. The only problems I've had so far have been flat batteries (a few times) from the kids not shutting the door properly. Each time I've had a flat battery the car has been less than a handspan off the ground and the air struts totally deflated. Once battery has been recharged I've set the height level button on the dash to 'raise' the car and run it for a while and the struts normally reinflate themselves within 10 minutes or so and the car is back to normal height.

This morning I came out and saw it was sitting extremely low again. My assumption was a flat battery, but this time the battery was fine. I've run the car for over 10kms now - very cautiously and slowly as it was a VERY bumpy ride! - and it's still sitting very low to the ground. The light on the height control panel on the dash shows it at the high position. If I try to increase the height manually it flashes the up arrows for a while but eventually it flashes both up and down arrows at the same time! A visit to 2 mechanics was terribly unhelpful - neither knew much about the air struts at all. Both also wanted an unspecified amount of $ just to diagnose the problem further and neither could tel me how much that would be let alone quote a cost to repair the problem! A friend checked it out and found that the fuses were all fine and there were no obvious electrical connection problems. He noticed though that you can still hear the air pump kick in when the ignition is on. You can also hear it click in in both rear struts and in the left front strut but can hear nothing from the right strut.

I still owe $ for the car after my last dinosaur died and am on a disability pension so can't afford to spend too much on repairs. My friend is mechanically minded and happy to do any work but not sure how to go about testing it further without having to rip of front side panels. If I know what parts I need or if someone can point me in the right direction for a faster diagnosis I'd really appreciate it!


cheers
Chez

[shoulders65]

Hi Chez;
What location you at Mate?
The most common is usually a leak in one of the air bags.. So have you heard the compressor (Air Pump) going.. Usually LH Inner Guard..
If that's not going try and check power (Fuse).. The other alternative is the Air Suspension is stuffed you can fit up other Liberty Forester parts..
hope all goes well, ask if you need more advise

[zch91]

If all else fails.. you could always just replace the suspension with second hand normal struts/springs, which could potentially be the cheapest option..

[RX25SE]

If all else fails.. you could always just replace the suspension with second hand normal struts/springs, which could potentially be the cheapest option..

Long term this would be your best option as the system is an abomination.



I have this happen before and no matter what I tried the damn thing would not inflate. I ended up disconnecting the air line to at the top of the front strut and inflating it using a blowgun and compressor. The trick is to reconnect the air line without losing too much air or over-inflating the suspension.
I noticed that once the car was off the bump stops, the system would take over and sort itself out.

[chezzam]

Hi Chez;
What location you at Mate?
The most common is usually a leak in one of the air bags.. So have you heard the compressor (Air Pump) going.. Usually LH Inner Guard..
If that's not going try and check power (Fuse).. The other alternative is the Air Suspension is stuffed you can fit up other Liberty Forester parts..
hope all goes well, ask if you need more advise

Tnx for getting back to me shoulders65. I'm at Wingham

Yes you can hear the compressor going when I turn on ignition. Also, my friend said he had to listen carefully at each strut but he could hear something 'click in' at rear on both sides and also on left front near strut. However he could hear nothing near the right strut. He said when he had his hand on top of the left strut he could actually feel it when it clicked but could feel nothing on the right strut. We were thinking maybe a solenoid has died or something?

Fuses are all good. I even pulled the fuses and left em out for a few hours before putting iback in (a hint I read by a UK mechanic) but that didn't help either.

If an airbag had a leak wouldn't you expect to see only one side deflate? The car body is now less than 20cm off the ground evenly all around. Thinking back over the past week or so, I remember one day when I went to get in thinking the car wasn't sitting as high as normal. Now I suspect whatever has blown happened a while ago and it's probably been deflating slowly over a period of time.

If all else fails.. you could always just replace the suspension with second hand normal struts/springs, which could potentially be the cheapest option..

Long term this would be your best option as the system is an abomination.

lol! The mechanic who serviced the car for 11 yrs before I bought it said if I ever got a chance I should do that very thing! He told me if anything was gonna go wrong with this car it would be the air suspension. Just didn't figure it was gonna happen so soon!

I have this happen before and no matter what I tried the damn thing would not inflate. I ended up disconnecting the air line to at the top of the front strut and inflating it using a blowgun and compressor. The trick is to reconnect the air line without losing too much air or over-inflating the suspension.

Thanks for the hint on reinflating manually. That was my next question! lol I'll have to give it a go.

I noticed that once the car was off the bump stops, the system would take over and sort itself out.

What do you mean by 'once the car was off the bump stops'? I'm familiar with the car sorting itself out regards the air suspension - it's happened every time I've had a flat battery. I was hoping it would sort itself out but it doesn't seem to be doing that. Just not sure where bumps come into it!

I also had a flat battery about a week ago and I can't help thinking maybe I knocked something or blew something when I took the battery out to charge it. We've been over all battery wiring and can't find anything that looks sus but I read in another post somewhere that you can get glitches with the computer with flat batteries. I know new model Subarus have a testing unit located near fuses and when you insert a given wire into the holes in the test unit it flashes a code you can decipher to work out what's wrong with the air suspension. Does anyone know if the Liberty GX has the same test unit?

After 3 mechanics now I've finally been referred to a guy about 30kns away who apparently knows all thing Subaru. I am worried whether it's gonna be ok to drive it that distance on country roads if I can't manually inflate the struts? Can 't get up more speed than about 20km/hr before I'm bouncing off my seat so it will be a slow trip - just don't want to damage anything else in the process!