Need serious help!! Airrunner malfunction!!

Hey guys I'm in need of serious help. My bags won't go higher than 80psi on the front and my car is stuck at a  park next to my work place. I have about 100 psi in my 5gallon tank and I just can't put anymore air into the bags for some reason it just stops at 80psi. So my car is too low to drive and too low to even get on a tow truck. What should I do?? I tried jacking the back of the car to try to raise the front to see if I can get any air in the front bags but had no luck. I'm also limited to one jack in my car So I cant put a jack in the front while I have the rear lifted. I honestly don't want to leave my car at the park for 8hrs while I'm working but I have no choice. But what do I do after work??

Any pics?

if there's air in the tank but it won't go to the bag then the problem is in the valve. are you running electric or manual?

Manual

well that doesn't make any sense. have you repeatedly aired it out and lifted back up to only 80 psi?

Yes

did your compressors cut on and refill the tank?

I had a similar issue way back when. I went air born while "autoleveling' on the famous cross bronx expressway and when I landed one strut was in a fill position or something and blew a seal in the air runner strut. 
 
I drove the car home with 0 psi... I parked and let it sit over night ... next morning while there was light out I air up and everything seemed ok... So I continued to use the car, however, when I hit pot holes the air would automatically be released out that bag/strut. But since I had an autoleveling system it will be refilled. It was a rear bag and my drive height pressure was like 70 psi... After about a week, the seal completely went (not even 1 psi would hold) and I had to send the air strut to Air Runner in California to get fixed.
 
The way the air strut was acting reminded me of a pressure release valve. After a certain psi it would automatically release the excess pressure. In my case it was being released from the top of the strut. I tested it by over filling it and it would release it to about 75 psi. 
 
Air Runner took about 5 days to fix and ship back... all covered under good faith warranty, since it was after the 1 year limited warranty. it cost me shipping to their facility. They replaced the seals. 
 
Hope this information helps.

OG yes it did. I'm thinking I must have the same problem as Rodney. I wonder how much the seals would cost to replace. I'm also wondering how I'm gonna get my car hone cause I'm at least 15miles away from home with very very little clearance in the front. It would be bad if I hit the bottom of my car pretty hard. Plus I would probably eat the wires underneath the fenders driving that far.

Sounds like that has to be the issue. Hope you're in warranty.

If the warranty is only one year then I've past it. I called Airrunner and they said 695 per side to fix. :pat: Seriously. I told him it's the seal but he is saying "bags" to me for some reason. It shouldn't cost about 700 each to just replace the seal. Can anyone confirm this?? One other thing that's weird is that I know I had more air in the bags before I tried to put more air in it. But since I didn't have enough air in the tank, the bags lost air and went down. Then that was when I couldnt go pass 80psi when my tank filled up. So if the seal was bad, wouldn't that mean that I couldn't have more than 80psi to begin with??

best bet would probably jack up the front and take the bumper off and try to get it on a flatbed.

yup changing to coils now.

from what i understand airrunner has a flat rate rebuild. honestly, for your application where clearance isn't really an issue, i would start thinking about other options. ar was once considered bulletproof which kind of justified the price, but i've been noticing more and more failures. if the seals/bags are failing just outside of the warranty you're looking at potentially spending $2K+ every couple years on maintenance.

Maybe you need a new tank pressure switch? 100psi don't air up my car. Try bypassing that sensor

[QUOTE=GEE702;442003]Maybe you need a new tank pressure switch? 100psi don't air up my car. Try bypassing that sensor[/QUOTE]
 
^^^This.
 
Unfortunately thats the cost for Airrunner rebuilds AFAIK as well.
I know I wouldn''t fork that kind of cash out again after the price they charge. Warranty should be better than that for the price you pay.

check the compressor...weakest link in the system.

Buy a new pressure switch and it should solve your problem.

Okay you guys I just got off a work and I've been working on my car for 30 minutes and I found a solution or you can say the problem. I jacked up my car again from the rear to see if I could get my front up higher. No that didn't work. I checked the bags to see if there was a good amount of air in there and there was. Dropped the car back down and I knew it had to be the struts. Therefore I turn the knob on the settings and then proceeded to jack up the car again from the rear. Now this time I could put about 120 psi in the bags. Drop the car and BAMM it worked. Sure saved myself a lot of headache and money today!! Drove home and everything is still as it was when I fixed it!!

[QUOTE=AutofashionFred;442044]Buy a new pressure switch and it should solve your problem.[/QUOTE]

^This. If it doesn't help seek other option then.

No good ACC, another brother here with air runner PM'ed me that his bag slipped off from the strut :sad: and acc told him to buy a new one for 700. 


Them dudes are falling off!!!!!!!:saiyancrunks:

so what was the problem?  What knob did you turn?   to me 100psi tank pressure is just too low...  Usually the pressure switch are max set to turn off either 150psi or 200psi or they also sell the adjustable switches.     Also if your bag pressure is getting close to the tank pressure then the flow of air will greatly decrease as pressure stablizes between each other.

I think AirRunner's customer service was top notch. In my personal opinion.

wow...

Blitz - I adjusted the knob that sets the stiffness. Somehow that worked.

[QUOTE=Blitz;442131]so what was the problem?  What knob did you turn?   to me 100psi tank pressure is just too low...  Usually the pressure switch are max set to turn off either 150psi or 200psi or they also sell the adjustable switches.     Also if your bag pressure is getting close to the tank pressure then the flow of air will greatly decrease as pressure stablizes between each other.[/QUOTE]
wrd, if your tank is only reading 100 psi, there's no way you could have aired up your bags to 120.

glad to see you made it home !!! but man those prices are high , thats why i never bagged my ride anymore , im glad that my 2 previous cars never had a major problem where i got stuck somewhere ! i hear too many stories now !!

Glad u got home safe, we all know how frustrating that is when mods go wrong but st the end of the day no matter how much u pay whenever u mod a car these things can happen. u gotta pay to play...

Why does it have such a low pressure pressure switch? normal is usally a 150 to 200 psi switch. did you just buy used air runner struts and put together a management system. 

If it is the strut and it is out of warranty.. I would never pay that much to have it fixed..just take it apart yourself and change the o ring its not that hard to rebuild. 

AirREX if the seal ever fails we just sell you the o ring. 

But from the sounds of it .. seems like there isnt enough pressure in the tank. If it was that seal it would leak all the way down to zero and wouldnt hold pressure for long.. seems like you drove it home and it didint leak down.. so how can it be the seal or the bags.. 

Put a jumper wire on the pressure switch and let the tank fill to 200 psi and see what happends

Sounds like a typical problem with any air ride system.. no need to call out air runner when problems like this can occur to any air managment system being used.. its funny how one stupid problem can give a good company a bad rep from unexperienced users..
And for the guy supporting the air rex, dont get ur hopes up to high, im pretty sure after years of abuse, people will be calling out air rex for stupid problems like this also..

Chill Be...I'm sure he wasnt intentionally trying to give Airrunner a bad rep :dance:
 
Did my little brother get with you to fix his car?

Yo thomas, i havent heard from him yet. Tell him just hit me up and ill take care of it

I can't speak for others but I want to know what people are going through so I can prepare myself if things like this happen to me in the future. Szin at AR is a good dude, He has recently did some work for me. I order a complete new AR strut from japan and he reinstall the bag. I know they have moved on to the OTG kit but many have the decade series in the street which is starting to age. Things will fail, hell stock arms fail. I just think the rebuild should be a bit cheaper.....
 
 
A few issues out thousands of kits world wide is not bad, lets just hope for the best LOL. Bringing issues out in the open is no giving a company a bad rep. Charging your pre existing customers top dollar will.......
 
Work with your loyal customers who bought the kit originally. CHURCH

by the sound of it the problem is in the tank area.  could be a number of things (bad ground, power, fuse, compressor, pressure switch, etc).  but like what the other guys said there's no way to put more air in the struts if the tank is only at 100.

[QUOTE=nar8ta;442464]
Work with your loyal customers who bought the kit originally. CHURCH[/QUOTE]

If talking about your friend w/ the bag issue, didn't he buy it used? Jus saying

[QUOTE=PANCAKES!;442495]If talking about your friend w/ the bag issue, didn't he buy it used? Jus saying[/QUOTE]


Good point, he did, I did also, but should we be raped when something eventually does go wrong...Jus saying LOL

You don't buy a lambo and expect the repairs to be cheap. :shrug:

you can still get more than 80 psi in the bag with 100 psi pressure switch. also, turning the damping adjuster wouldn't have fixed a pressure switch. something else going on here.

[QUOTE=PANCAKES!;442570]You don't buy a lambo and expect the repairs to be cheap. :shrug:[/QUOTE]
 
 
Lambo :smiley-rofl:The're bridgestone (firestone) bags and kyb struts, lets stop drinking the koolaid.  I drank the koolaid for a while, its just wearing off. :biggthumpup:

I was talkin about price but still when it all comes down to it, AR is one of the most reliable out the box kits for it's price :shrug:
 
The problems cats have w/ them I can not speak for........especially on a used setup 
 
but whatever. I has mine and I'm happy w/ it. 
done.

[QUOTE=PANCAKES!;442623]I was talkin about price but still when it all comes down to it, AR is one of the most reliable out the box kits for it's price :shrug:
 
The problems cats have w/ them I can not speak for........especially on a used setup 
 
but whatever. I has mine and I'm happy w/ it. 
done.[/QUOTE]
 
 
I feel ya man .... Sorry, back to the thread

If its not the pressure switch it could be that the air is going in the shock and there is a internal leak. If you good with a meter check if the pressure switch is working correct.

There is no need to bash on companies or who sells what... its about the issue at hand and that things happen and not everything is perfect but it can be fixed.

Changing the dampening shouldnt cause it to make the psi go back up so by hearing that and not actually seeing what the problem is...it seems like it can be internal and where a seal is broken and air is going into the shock and not in the bag due to seal issue.

Thanks,
Fred

[QUOTE=PANCAKES!;442623]... AR is one of the most reliable out the box kits for it's price :shrug:[/QUOTE]
 
that's a blanket statement. it's not like cats are having issues on every platform with other setups. ar really only shines as the premium option when clearance is an issue.

[QUOTE=OG;442646]that's a blanket statement.[/QUOTE]
 
True

[QUOTE=PANCAKES!;442656]True[/QUOTE]

"Ditto"

everything needs maintenance. my AR is 6 years old now. im dreading the day i have to purchase a new kit. honestly im surprised its lasted this long. car parts dont last forever

[QUOTE=vip tint+glass;442756]everything needs maintenance. my AR is 6 years old now. im dreading the day i have to purchase a new kit. honestly im surprised its lasted this long. car parts dont last forever[/QUOTE]

I think my AR is older than Norman's =) I've never had a problem with mine either, i've only had to replace two of the manual switches that got worn out.  Is there any kind of maintenance that needs to be done at certain intervals. Non of the struts are leaking or nothing like that just wondering.:shrug:

draining the tank is important. the moisture can get into the fittings if left in there

[QUOTE=vip tint+glass;442792]draining the tank is important. the moisture can get into the fittings if left in there[/QUOTE]

I drain it like once a month. Thats all ?

How do you drain it?

[QUOTE=Dranom;443015]How do you drain it?[/QUOTE]

there should be a drain valve on your tank. if not, you should look into having one installed, or buy a new tank with a drain valve. condensation and moisture can ruin the seals on your valves and cause problems with your fittings. a water trap between the compressor and tank is also recommended.