Ride height with AlfaOBD (air suspension)

[MrDazana]

I was told its part of their procedure after they finish writing the values to make sure the sensors take the new values right away and finalize the procedure. If the test fails, you either set the values to high or you have a faulty sensor and you can go back to write values and adjust accordingly. Cycling the ignition will only make the ASCM read the values you put and will work with it but you won't see the outcome until a few minutes later when the system stabilizes with he new settings.

 

[Gixxer750]

jeez, im sorry you guys, i just had 2 rounds of lymphatic cancer treatments and it kick the crap out of me having them 2 weeks apart. You do have to do all the ride height sensor checks and calibrations as stated above. It isnt a bad idea to run threw all of them before either. Im going to try and post some screen shots of the process i went through recently which has my truck operating as if its a rebel. Only one off road setting then normal and entry exit, will still go into aero mode on the free way. To be honest im not sure what that looks like lol. been meening to look into it. Let me see what i can drum up. If your still need help, i can call progressive and tell them im taking out there drive monitor thats plugged into my obd port and go through my process again so i can explain it accurately.

 

[bubbasneed]

jeez, im sorry you guys, i just had 2 rounds of lymphatic cancer treatments and it kick the crap out of me having them 2 weeks apart. You do have to do all the ride height sensor checks and calibrations as stated above. It isnt a bad idea to run threw all of them before either. Im going to try and post some screen shots of the process i went through recently which has my truck operating as if its a rebel. Only one off road setting then normal and entry exit, will still go into aero mode on the free way. To be honest im not sure what that looks like lol. been meening to look into it. Let me see what i can drum up. If your still need help, i can call progressive and tell them im taking out there drive monitor thats plugged into my obd port and go through my process again so i can explain it accurately.

I hope you are doing okay Gixxer750.

I no longer have my 2016 Ram with AS, So I can’t help much since I dont really remember what I did to get it out of plant mode.


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[Gixxer750]

I'm doing OK. If I could sleep less I'd be a little happier, but can't complain. Could be worse, could be this tired and have to stay awake lol.

 

[David Gosnell]

I’ve been wanting to use Alfa to lift my trucks “normal” ride height to be the same that OR1 is but don’t want to lose the 2 raise options, if there any way to do that?

 

[Bandit517]

Going to bump this thread up but I seem to have gotten ahead of myself with alfa and changed to much at once. I was trying to set ride height values, but once I set them I forgot the step to check height sensors to get it out of plant mode. left if sit overnight to come back in the morning with a clear head and now it says procedure failed when trying to write the height values again. (I found that my numbers are not correct anyways so I'm trying to fix them) I've got plant mode code and low air mass code. I'm going to try this all over again from scratch but might end up with a dealer trip for a reflash then start over. not quite sure yet.

 

[62Willy]

New to the forum, mostly for this thread. First time RAM owner (2013 Laramie quad cab 4x4 with RAMBOX's). 1 week after purchase (less than a month ago, haven't made first payment) the air suspension kept going down. Took it to the dealers mechanic who said the left rear air spring was bad and replaced it and suggested I replace the other as soon as possible. I ordered one from NAPA and picked it up this afternoon. But all day, the suspension has been sitting on the ground again so I cut out of work early and replaced the right read air spring. Forgot to mention that I ordered the odb MX+ yesterday and it arrived today so I downloaded AlfaODB and went out to do the air spring. I replaced the spring easy enough, but A.) the AlfaODB readings are all in mm and bar's and things like that. I see some of them here in inch's and possibly even PSI. I can't find the setting for that. 2.) My air suspension is still sittin on the ground and when I try to use the alphOBD to raise a spring it says procedure failed. The compressor only runs if I do the compressor test, and then only for a few second. It then bleeds off from the sounds of it. Now, both up and both down lights on the dash for the air suspension setting are flashing. Any ideas? Love this truck but...

 

[Dodge 1500 4X4]

How's your Nitrogen level after replacing the air spring, and there was a recall on the compressor, something to check.

Read this:

https://www.ramforum.com/posts/2418529/

 

[62Willy]

Thanks for the reply. I assume the nitrogen is/was about out. I happen to have a nitrogen tank and built an assembly to put air into the reservoir. As soon as I did, I could hear air escaping through the compressor bleed line up behind the tail light. Not sure if that is normal or not but I also noticed that the right rear air spring that was still shrunk up extended all the way down to the bottom mount. For those interested, the shrader valve on the reservoir is the same as the low side A/C shrader valve on a R134 system. I then ran the A/C hose from that to my nitrogen tank (which I had to modify to fit the A/C hose by taking one of the hose connectors out of my A/C recharge kit manifold and putting it into the regulator on the nitrogen tank. Then set the regulator to 150 PSI and opened the valve. Then opened the A/C valve I had connected to the reservoir and it filled right up in about 20 seconds. I'm still working on an adapter to disconnect a line from the control valve and put nitrogen into each air spring directly and check for leaks that way.

 

[62Willy]

My truck is still sitting on the bump stops and I've gone back to driving my F150 with 343k miles on it until I can get it back in the air. I have an appointment on the 19th at the local dealership to do a diagnostic on the air suspension but hoping I can figure it out before then. It's $140 for the diagnostic and I'm sure they can't do anything I can do with AlfaOBD if I just new what to do. I'm in Plant Mode, but when I try to run the ride height sensor check, it fails. I've read several times about running Air Mass Calculations but nowhere does it say how to do that. Any ideas on how to get this out of Plant Mode if it's failing the Height Sensor check?

 

[62Willy]

I just realized all the nitrogen I've been pumping into the reservoirs is leaking out the compressor intake line, the larger soft rubber line coming from the compressor to behind the tail light. Is this the sign of a bad compressor? I have an appointment on Monday with the dealer, but would rather not spend the $140 for them to tell me it's the compressor if I can find out that myself here.

 

[bubbasneed]

I just realized all the nitrogen I've been pumping into the reservoirs is leaking out the compressor intake line, the larger soft rubber line coming from the compressor to behind the tail light. Is this the sign of a bad compressor? I have an appointment on Monday with the dealer, but would rather not spend the $140 for them to tell me it's the compressor if I can find out that myself here.

Hey,

I had accidentally put my 2016 into plant mode but I don’t remember what I did to get it out. That was over two years ago. I wish I could be of help with that.

My truck would sag on the front left if I let it sit for 8 hours or more. I took mine to the dealer and they found the front left strut was leaking. It was going to cost $2,200 for them to fix it. I said no thanks, and paid them for their diagnosis. I bought an air strut from Rock Auto and did the repair myself for $700. I thought it was crazy that it was $2,200 to fix one strut when the option to add air suspension from the factory is only $1800. Maybe it will be worth the $140 to find out exactly what is wrong and they should be able to get it out of plant mode for you and you can do the repair cheaper yourself.

As for your compressor, are you able to repair the line to stop the leak? If not my guess is you would need a new one. Good luck


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[crash68]

I just realized all the nitrogen I've been pumping into the reservoirs is leaking out the compressor intake line, the larger soft rubber line coming from the compressor to behind the tail light. Is this the sign of a bad compressor?

Probably not a bad compressor but the valve that's in that line. It's most likely not an individually available part. You might have luck buying a salvage yard compressor assembly and swapping parts. I think the compressor and the entire valving assembly is available separately but the cost for one if the other takes a crap sorta makes it a no brained to buy the entire assembly.

 

[62Willy]

I called the dealer to ask if the $140 diagnosis included filling the reservoirs with nitrogen or if that would be extra. He said they had no way to fill the system with nitrogen. I cancelled the appointment. I've got a new compressor arriving tomorrow and if that fails, I'll hit some salvage yards to see about getting a valve assembly. Thanks guys.

 

[62Willy]

Latest update. Installed new compressor last night and tonight. Recharged nitrogen to about 175 PSI into reservoir. No leaking. Fired up AlfaOBD and ran through putting air into each spring. All seemed to work well, but still couldn't get the ride height sensor check to pass. I went back and put air into each spring again while watching. Rears seemed to work as advertised and ride height is probably at normal. Front springs would go up about 2 inches, then I could hear venting at the back and they would drop a little. Then the compressor would run again and they would go up a little more, then the compressor would shut off and I could hear venting again and the front would drop back all the way down. This happens at both front springs independently. I did finally get the ride height sensor check to pass but then failed again after I tried to put it in "normal ride height". I now have a C156E Ride Height System Calibration Performance Last test failed error. Any ideas?

 

[bubbasneed]

Latest update. Installed new compressor last night and tonight. Recharged nitrogen to about 175 PSI into reservoir. No leaking. Fired up AlfaOBD and ran through putting air into each spring. All seemed to work well, but still couldn't get the ride height sensor check to pass. I went back and put air into each spring again while watching. Rears seemed to work as advertised and ride height is probably at normal. Front springs would go up about 2 inches, then I could hear venting at the back and they would drop a little. Then the compressor would run again and they would go up a little more, then the compressor would shut off and I could hear venting again and the front would drop back all the way down. This happens at both front springs independently. I did finally get the ride height sensor check to pass but then failed again after I tried to put it in "normal ride height". I now have a C156E Ride Height System Calibration Performance Last test failed error. Any ideas?

Hey 62Willy,

I am going to send you a PM I have a document that may help you.


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[Isaa]

Soo. Back to how I f'd up my truck. Ended up making the decision to limp the truck on it's bump stops to the dealership to help me fix what ever i did to enter a zero in my setting and because it failed it's calibration it would not allow me to input any other values (Plant Mode?).

So the night before going to the dealership I take a ride around the block to estimate how long it would take riding the bump stops to the dealership. I made it about 40ft and the system started to cycle and lift the truck to normal ride height. Go figure (Dumb look of surprise on my face)

 

[Tim Goodwin]

Mopar Tech Authority says that the system will auto disable if jacked up at one corner or if put into manual disable by pressing the UP and DOWN switches for more than 5 seconds. The air suspension system will return to normal operation when the vehicle speed reaches 15 MPH.

 

[Polloibarra69]

I played with the suspension alot this week-end to fully understand and help others try to resolve their issue on their own. Every time i changed the settings, I turned the ignition to off and back to run, and then in the U-connect i set the suspension to transport mode. Then i removed it and set the ride high one step at a time until off-road and then used the uconnect to set the suspension to wheel alignment. Then i took my measurements. My point of reference i used was the bumper at each corner.

So to gets things rolling, I first used the diagram above and measured my ride height on each 4 corners. This gave me the following results: 156mm front and 125mm rear. I set those parameters in ALFAOBD and proceeded to set the suspension in transport mode... I was expecting for it to go down to entry, instead it was raising the truck all the while telling me in the dash in was lowering. I let it go for 30 secs and stopped the process by turning ignition to off and back on. Realizing the suspension didn't like that, I went back into ALFOBD and set the parameters i had before. So this method which i was hoping to fix the lean issue did not work. I'm adding this here as a lessened learned.

What worked for me:

My truck has 35x12.5x20 tires so my measurements might not be the same as yours. Before starting this , read your system info on the ASCM and take notes of the ride height measurements determined by the dealer. its about half way down. This will be your go to if this goes south. Find yourself a nice large parking lot thats leveled.

I reset my measurements to the factory specs that came from my buddys truck. Using 53/54/53/50 ( ALFOBD will not set anything bellow 50) I measured my 4 corners and had (in inches) 29.8 FL, 31.2 FR, 32.2 RL, 32.1 RR.

The current settings I put into the ASCM are the following:

85/70/68/55

This gave me a 2 inch lift in the front and 1 inch in the back. My measurements are now 32.2 FL, 32.5 FR, 33.2 RL, 33.1 RR. The truck still has a bit of rake, but not enough for my OCD to kick in. I no longer see a lean in the front left so i accomplished what my dealer couldn't fix.

The ride quality did not diminish but I did need a wheel alignment. From what I gathered on the net using leveling links, the front end can raise up to 2.5" from factory state, but the ride quality will be stiffer. I drove into work this morning and took my measurements again. About the same as above and no lean !

Hi i have being trying to do it on my 2019 ram limited but i dont see any changes dose it take a few startups to work or im a doing something wrong i put exactly your values and see no change

 

[62Willy]

Since April, I've been running around afraid to change the ride height because I was still getting an error even though it would say it was at normal ride height but the important thing is that the ride height was normal. Then, last week I needed to use 4x4 and later that day the truck was on the bump stops again. I tried recharging the Nitrogen, but I could hear it leaking out of the compressor just like before. I ordered the StrutMaster air suspension to coil spring kit and just got it put on today. I pulled the 40 amp compressor fuse, but there may be another one from what I'm hearing that I need to pull as well. I also have not tried removing the Air Suspension using AlfaOBD but that's in the works.