Friday, September 02, 2005 - 11:38 am, by: Nathan Grech(Aerthorn)
I posted this in the ALSC about 6 months ago, a few people said that this could be normal but i'm still concerned. The left side of my car sits lower than the right by about 1"-2", it varies, sometime really noticeable sometimes not. It is more noticeable when on the low setting (i have a height controller, the one Neil Griffiths sells on his website). When i go over a speed bump, it feels like one side of the car drops lower/quicker (hard to tell) than the other, i've only had the Soarer for about 6 months and i think i've dealt with most of the common issues, now i'm hoping that my struts don't go. What is the best way to fix this? (i know of the tutorial on www.reepa.com, is this still relevant to me considering i have a controller?). thanks in advance.
Friday, September 02, 2005 - 01:12 pm, by: Benny Gammelmark(Oldfield)
Nathan, mine does the same. And only on low settings. On hight it's level. I've had it adjusted but you have to be careful with those rods. If you get it wrong you can be at it all day.
Friday, September 02, 2005 - 02:50 pm, by: Nathan Grech(Aerthorn)
Damien, as i mentioned, i wasn't sure if the adjustments still applied to me as i have the controller? If I do raise the left side a little will this then affect my high setting? (ie left will now be higher). Also, the car feels like one side drops quicker/first over speed bumps (coming out of my driveway on low the rear end drops really hard as well???), will this change if i raise the left a little? (same principle, will it fix it for low, but then mess up the high setting?) Thanks.
Friday, September 02, 2005 - 03:59 pm, by: Benny Gammelmark(Oldfield)
Nathan, you should set the height controller to neutral and adjust the rods as well as you can. It shouldn't affect your high/normal. It didn't on mine.
Don't know about the speed hump thingie but don't set the height controller lower than neutral when going over humps.
It's best for the airbags if you don't use the controller at all but that's not the reason any of us bought it.
Friday, September 02, 2005 - 04:16 pm, by: Nathan Grech(Aerthorn)
i operate the height by the factory cabin switches, the controller sits under the seat, it just lets me set the level for each switch position. By neutral , do you mean normal + normal on the switches? There are too many ways to raise/lower the car, im getting confused!!.
So... if it set the switches to normal (height switch and TEMS switch) then get the approximate overall height i want by adjusting the height controller, then making slight adjustments on the left side to get them level i should be right yeah? This is not taking into account that i weigh close to 100kg's, should i be doing this with a weight in the drivers seat, or will the suspension computer figure this out? I want to try and get it so that i have the same amount or air in each strut (i'd imagine this would be causing one side to drop quicker of a speed bump???)
Friday, September 02, 2005 - 04:50 pm, by: Mike Bradberry(Halflife)
Hope I'm not off topic but I would love to know the consequences of not turning the switch off in the boot and jacking the car. I ask because in ignorance I have done it but no apparent problems so far.
Friday, September 02, 2005 - 08:44 pm, by: Avin Luther(Lex_luther)
some alarms have sensors that tell if the car is being lifted, eg put on a truck to be stolen, the car should have asensor that turns of teh tems if it feels it is being jacked up! or am i just asking too much!
Saturday, September 03, 2005 - 02:05 am, by: Benny Gammelmark(Oldfield)
Yes you are, Avin.
Nathan, yes I mean normal + normal on the switches. I would adjust it to be level when not in the car. I think the car is supposed to adjust itself to level again no matter the weight distribution in the car.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005 - 01:48 pm, by: Duy Le(Sor44h)
Try this. Turn the car on, leave it for a few minutes, Measure it, jump in drivers side and you should hear the psshhhh. Sit there for a minute and then quickly jump back out and measure the height on the drivers side. Update us on this
Thursday, September 08, 2005 - 07:43 am, by: Blaine Hanson(Blaine)
I agree about the uneven ride at low settings. I followed the instructions at Planetsoarer. Pete said try 3 turns so I said - I want more and did 4 turns on the adjusting rods..... What I discovered was the left side dropped nicely to about 20mm above the wheel - looked good, but the right side sat another 20mm higher again with the same setting?? I ended up adjusting the right side rod until it bottomed out to get maximum drop and the right side of the car still sits higher than the left. So I can only assume that the car's airbag suspension is as low as it can go ..... that however still does not explain why it is often uneven.
Thursday, September 08, 2005 - 08:19 pm, by: Jason Kingsmill(Jason_k)
Mines perfect.
I'd say adjust the rods till it's even. Adjusting the rods changes the relative position of the height sensors. So when you lower the car by adjusting the rods, what you're effectively doing is fooling the suspension computer into thinking it's higher than it actually is.
If on one side/corner the sensor is a higher/lower resistance, that will change the height. So adjusting the rod so that the resistances are the same should work. (That is, assuming that the height sensors are a standard potentiometer)
Thursday, September 08, 2005 - 10:13 pm, by: Mark Paddick(Sparks)
It is possible that the rods are slightly uneven and this is magnafied when on low setting. Do the suspension computer reset (disconnect battery for at least 15 minutes) and adjust on level ground. Make sure it has plenty of time to get to new settings, a 5 or 10 minute drive and then park back level. This can be a very tedious and time consuming exercise. Very small adjustments can make a big difference as can the weight of the driver in the car and it can take a while for things to level up.
Thursday, September 08, 2005 - 10:16 pm, by: Mark Paddick(Sparks)
The sensors are Hall Effect devices (zero friction design) with at least four amplifier IC's and temperature and voltage compensation, I have a reverse engineered circuit somewhere. Typical Soarer over-engineering They are far from a potentiometer, but they do have a DC voltage output so adjusting for the same voltage on the output wire should work. The three wires are +5v, 0v(ground) and variable output.