Air runner suspension problems

Heres a quick rundown of what happend:

 I had blown out my tire on the freeway and got my car towed on a flat bed. Put the spare on days later and drove it back to my house. Ever since then, the side where i blew out my tire gradually drops lower and lower each day to the point where it actually dumps itself. I took it to a shop to check it out and they didnt see any leaks, their assumption was that there must be a leak in the gauges. So they swapped it out and put a new one in thinking that was going to fix the problem because they have seen this happen before with other cars. I was like ok. Took the car home raised it all the way up to see if what they did fixed the problem. Days later same thing happends, the car just keeps getting lower and lower. 

Anyone have this problem or have any solutions? I was thinking maybe the strut might have gone bad....Well anyway all help is greatly appreciated.

Get a spray bottle and some dish soap. You need to shoot that on anything connected to that strut in the system. Any place there is a fitting as well as pulling the strut and submerging it in a tub. is it manual switches or are you running valves. Dosent matter but a valve could have something blocking it.
 
But just to blow a tire and then have the problem I would say pull the strut and do a proper check the other components should not start leaking from a blown tire.

Also, I would check the bag where the tire blew out. Maybe theres a small puncture somewhere. Like Lorin (DXJP) said, spray bottle & soap+water. Where are you located anyways?

im located in san diego. thanks for the help guys.

[QUOTE=pinoy_islander;38613]im located in san diego. thanks for the help guys.[/QUOTE]

what car do you have??? didnt know anyone else with airrunner in SD, except the autofashion cars.

go down to autofashion in san diego if u still cant find the problem.

I'm guessing you have a small hole in either the bag or line. Spray both with soapy water and you'll find out exactly where it's leaking from.

Big ups to the peeps at autofashion. The problem turned out to be a blown compressor, along with a rusted a$! tank, and burnt relay wires. Damn! Well at least they showed me the ropes on how to maintain it thanks again autofashion...

I empty my tank out once a week. How long did you have the setup? Parts are covered by warranty if installed by an authorized dealer.

Did anybody think to put a check valve in between the comp and the tank.  That litle flaper valve in the comp wont hold forever.  And depending on where your at at least every three or four months drain the tank or instal a airdryer.

what would be nice is if you guys that are really knowledgeable about air setups would post up all the maintance proceedures for AIR and also the extras we should install to make sure our systems last.  As so many people are like me, who are newbies when it comes to air. 

D.

What do you want maintenance or a complete bible on it.
 
I have to say your maintenance revolves around the install. If it was installed like shit, expect shit in return.
 
My self as well as Airbomber/air runner have put alot into our kits to make them reliable but reliability is as good as the install. There is also more to a install than just bolting things on. As I see in the above posts he had burnt relay wires that meens too many compressorse on one wire or it was too small for the load. As well if it is running that headlight relay, they supply here then expect it to get hot. I alway use a solenoid like on fords. It will handle multiple compressors and the amperage needed. For one compressor you should run no less than 10gauge wire up to 6 meters from the Batt.
 
Never run battery current threw the presure switch. Make sure all the fittings are installed with Loctite 572 or at least a decent teflon tape/ there is crap tape for cheap be leary. Make sure the tape is would on in the right direction.
 
Before you plug your lines into the struts run the compressor and fill the tank then blow air threw the system with the valves. This is yo blow out all the crap that the static electricity pulled in and the shop dust from routing the lines.
 
Like I posted above PUT A CHECK VALVE ON THE COMP if you ever looking inside of one, you would wonder how it held 100psi let alone the 200 most people try to run on them.
 
I thought air runner was using 5 port tanks with a drain hole if so add a drain valve and a fitting and run some hose to drain out side. A cheep air dryer would be helpfull to.
 
Ill post more if you need it.

Yup. Air Runner does have a drain.

[QUOTE=antbo;38615]what car do you have??? didnt know anyone else with airrunner in SD, except the autofashion cars.[/QUOTE]

if im not mistaken, I believe he has the JP LS400 that was featured in HCI last year.

when you say "air dryer" do you mean a water trap?

[QUOTE=suspended;38793]when you say "air dryer" do you mean a water trap?[/QUOTE]

Those will work and they are cheep but they make inline decasent dryers as well as inline fiber dryers.  Either is a few hundi but well worth it.

[QUOTE=DXJP;38758]What do you want maintenance or a complete bible on it.
 
[/QUOTE]

Thanks that was helpful, yeah a complete bible would be nice on a new thread and we could sticky it.  I plan to spend the money needed to have a good install done.  But I dont know where I should start my quailty demands, like I do for other types of installs and paint/ body work etc. 

D.

inline check valve is a must!! viair's inline check valve craps out asap so get a good one and make sure you put it in the right direction!...also a water trap is good but make sure you buy a good one, i tried the cheaper kind before and 2 of them leaked around the brass inlet..as for water in the tanks, i'd drain them maybe 2x's a month or more but in hawaii it doesnt really get that cold so my tank doesnt swamp.  if you are running SMC valves, those handle because they push  air or water.    as for using teflon, make sure you dont put too much because more the merrier doesnt apply to this.  couple tight laps in the direction of tightening (right) is the correct way, easy to remember is when you try to tighten whatever fitting, the teflon's tail will go with the flow if you know what i mean, the wrong way then the teflon is simply gonna bunch up and not go in the threads 

-i've been in the truck scene the past few years and bagged my current driver - the xb.   whenever people ask me about bags n stuff I tell them theres a lot of info because not only you deal with pneumatic (air), but also electrical (solenoids, relay etc) and mechanical (suspension).  I'd say for basic insight check out [url]www.bagginit.com[/url]   its a pretty good website for starters.   a lot of things to know about bags but i feel that you need to do it first hand to understand what's going on.  that way when something breaks you know how to fix it asap!  bags are cool :)

crap, I never considered a check valve! And I have been using air for a couple years. What's a good check valve and approximate price?

i've been running smc, they're about 25 dollars from suicide doors

gravity werx sells the parker ones...rated at 1000 psi i believe....nothing pretty at all, but with them being parker, i'm sure they get the job done ;-)

honestly, i never thought of running check valves out of the compressor though, but better safe then sorry, unfortunatly, the way my set up is, i don't have enough room to fit one in there, mine is all moutned under the car, and the way my ports are (9 port tank), if i ran one, my compressor leader hose would be practically kissing my exhaust...but i'm running check valves up to my fronts (when i get them all hooked up), but don't have enough room in my rears, but hopefully i'll never have to find out about that, one trick i've found that i've been using is on my air hoses running wireloom over them to help protect them from scrapes and for early prevention (i'd rather eat up wire loom then hose, and find the problem before it gets bad)  also protects it against surrounding metal, but any bare metal edges in the back of my car have door edge molding on them to prevent cuts/scrapes on the air hoses ;-) 

and i don't have teflon on any of my fittings or connectors, i'm running all parker compression fittings that are pre sealed with loctite vibra seal 516, and all my connects have locktite (don't remember the number, but its sold on suicide doors) and i've been working on this system for about 2 months now (money, and laziness) and so far i have my rear running all good, no leaks...and i have to agree with the water trap, i have some buddies that didn't have one and when we emptied their tank, black and brown thick water started spewing out...ontop has a tank that didn't have a water trap for a year or more, and one of these days, we're cutting it open....expect pics to see the damage of no water trap on your setup...deff. worth the ~20 dollars

so far, i've left my tank full for 3 days before with no leaks, and my car at full lift for 14 hours with no leaking down, so i'm pretty pleased with my choices in parts and my anal-ness in hooking it all up...keys are research, pateince, and take your time, deff. not something you wanna try to do a rush job on! ;-)

Well I have bad news.... Looks like the problem that i was having before where my car was gradually dropping on the side where i blew a tire is ACTING UP AGAIN! After swapping out the relay switch, air tank, and air compressor it still didnt fix the problem. Does anybody have any clue on what it might be?

IS IT ONE CORNER
 
Pleass be specific nobody can help with out information. If it is one corner you need to pull that strut and do a leak test in a tub. From what you posted before if the comp was toast that still shouldnt drop the car as your valves are between the tank and the bag.
 
Give me the specifics. 
 
IS IT ONE STRUT or the whole car
 
HOW LONG does it take to drop
 
I need these answers before I can help

how long have you had your air suspension to get rust!?

[quote=DXJP;39305]IS IT ONE CORNER
 
Please be specific nobody can help with out information. If it is one corner you need to pull that strut and do a leak test in a tub. From what you posted before if the comp was toast that still shouldnt drop the car as your valves are between the tank and the bag.
 
Give me the specifics 
 
IS IT ONE STRUT or the whole car
 
HOW LONG does it take to drop
 
I need these answers before I can help[/quote]
 
one thing about your comment about the valves, i'm not sure what kinda valves air runner uses, but some valves (i believe smc and i know mine to as well) will allow air to go back through it b/c in theory the tank should always have more pressure then the bags....but that is on some valves, not all, once again, not sure what valve air runner uses, i know its mainly firestone components, just don't know the valves

IST IT ONE CORNER

Pleas be specific nobody can help with out information. IF it is one corner you need to pull that strut and do a leak test in a tub. From what you posted before if the comp was toast that still shouldnt drop the car as your valves are between the tank and the bag.

Give me the specifics

IS IT ONE STRUT or the whole car

HOW LONG does it take to drop

I need these answers befor I can help



Yes it is one corner, one strut, and it takes about 4-5 days before that side drops itself

so pull that strut and put some air in it and throw it in a tub of water if it leaks you will see bubbles pouring up.  Check your fittings for that strut and any connection to it from the switch on