2014 1500 Limited Air Suspension acting weird...

[djhartm]

Air suspension has been working fine until a frigid spell (single digits), which caused all sorts of warnings to be displayed & various corners to 'deflate' and randomly inflate (or sometimes not). I read here that this is quite common in very cold climates for this gen.

Afterwards, in more temperate clime, the left rear suspension would randomly deflate if the truck were left sitting for a few days. Upon startup in inflates, and stays inflated until it decided to deflate.

Since I may turn this into my farm truck, I'm not overly concerned, but am curious as to why only the left rear seems to have this issue. I may have also run over something on the farm (stump/log/large rock), but I cannot seem to see any damage underneath. Again, the behavior started after the protracted cold snap.

It seems like if you have to search the system for leaks, you're basically screwed & either have to replace the system and/or lines.

Has anyone else experienced this?

TIA!

 

[Jeepwalker]

Read through THIS.

The system isn't difficult to de-bug, just a lot of part's pieces. Nobody's going to be able to shoot from the hip and give you the 'Magic keyboard fix'. It's going to take some 'looking'. Where to begin..? Read through. Start by ensuring all the level sensors at the wheels/axle are hooked up and the wiring is good. That's a visual inspection which takes 2 minutes. Follow some of the tips in the article. Could be cracked o-rings, flaky valve/s. Definitely get on it b/f the compressor wears out.

The service manual (avail free on this forum ...do a search) is kind of the gold-standard for everything you could possibly need to know how to fix. It's all in there. All you need to do is read it.

Everyone here is going to say "Convert it over to standard shocks!" But air ride is really the 'cadillac' of suspension systems. And converting it over takes time/money too. Air ride is super handy for towing, etc. It's great when it works properly. So is air conditioning! Just like other systems of a vehicle, there are wear items and things which can go wrong. Sometimes the smallest failed item can cause headaches. But you fix it, and you're smarter and have a great system. All you have to do is find them and fix it. I've worked on a handful of air suspension systems. They're for the most part fundamentally the same ..in concept and execution (for the most part). One thing I've learned is it's usually something small.. you just need to find it.

It's difficult for a dealer to service b/c they mostly want to just 'change a part' and get the next vehicle in the shop. Well, fixing air ride takes time to diagnose. A guy might not find the problem right away. ?? Or there could be 2 issues at the same time. And of course most want to sell you a new compressor even if that's not the problem ...bc there's money in that ...vs a single 39 cent hardware-store 0-ring.

Good luck!

 

[djhartm]

Thanks Jeepwalker!

I will do a search for the service manual & start looking for things to check. It's been a great truck - going on 12 year & 100k miles.