Air struts acting funny

[subyboy]

Hi all!

Had a funny thing happen with my air struts this morning ('91 Legacy). The front of the car seemed lower than usual and I thought "Oh well, it'll come up when I start the engine."

So I revved it up a bit and started driving but the front of the car would keep bouncing up and down after hitting tiny bumps. I got out and the suspension was still all the way down at the front. So I pressed the button to raise the ground clearance. Nothing happened for a while but then I started driving and it finally came up.

Now, I jacked up the left front of the car yesterday to have a look under the car. Also started/stopped the engine while jacked up. Could this lead to my suspension acting up the next day? Has anyone had any similar issues and is it something to be worried about? Or is there just a sequence of jacking up the car/starting the engine that will lead to this?

Any idea welcome!

Jean

[heartless]

jacking up the car and running it has NOTHING to do with your airstruts not working correctly - the system is 16 yrs old and starting to fail. Most folks that had the factory air suspension have converted to standard coilover struts, a fairly easy job if you are mechanically inclined and have the space and tools available.

 

to do the conversion you would need to get complete strut assemblies from a donor car - including the springs, tophats, rubber spring seats (the rubber bits that go between the springs and other metal parts) and struts (or purchase new struts if you prefer)

[idosubaru]

jacking it up has nothing to do with it. occassionally jacking it up will help them air up if they're all the way down. but that won't cause it to deflate.

 

unless you really want the air suspension i'd suggest swapping to coil overs. the air suspension can get really crazy. don't get me wrong, i like it and i maintain it on my car, but it is not for the faint of heart. it is likely that you have a leak somewhere, eventually that will overwork your compressor and it will die...basically, it will only get worse from here on out.

 

if you want to overhaul you air suspension there's good info on that. replace all of your o-rings, there are many of them and recondition your airbags (i have a thread in the USRM about how to do that). do that and your system will be much more reliable.

[Crawlerdan]

Hi all!

Had a funny thing happen with my air struts this morning ('91 Legacy). The front of the car seemed lower than usual and I thought "Oh well, it'll come up when I start the engine."

So I revved it up a bit and started driving but the front of the car would keep bouncing up and down after hitting tiny bumps. I got out and the suspension was still all the way down at the front. So I pressed the button to raise the ground clearance. Nothing happened for a while but then I started driving and it finally came up.

Now, I jacked up the left front of the car yesterday to have a look under the car. Also started/stopped the engine while jacked up. Could this lead to my suspension acting up the next day? Has anyone had any similar issues and is it something to be worried about? Or is there just a sequence of jacking up the car/starting the engine that will lead to this?

Any idea welcome!

Jean

if it helps and, we have 2 good front struts, and a great compressor/ecu

[WoodsWagon]

I know that other air-ride systems (like ford's) will get screwed up if you jack them up without turning the air ride off. Not sure about subaru's though.

 

Do you hear air leaking out after the car has pumped it's self up and you shut the car off? How fast does it sink back down in the front?

[subyboy]

Thanks everyone for all the info.

I know air struts can be a bit of a pain and I'll probably (have to) change to conventional struts someday.

But the strange thing is, except for that weird thing yesterday, they're working just fine! Like this morning the car is still all the way up and I can't hear any air coming out, which means there's no major leak. Am I right?

About to go on a big trip to the Austrlian outback (am based in Melbourne). Hope they don't choose this trip to fail on me. :-\

Jean

PS: Thanks Crawlerdan but as you can see I'm based in Australia, so can't really take you up on the offer, I'm afraid.