I am waiting for an accumulator and decided to pull the front wheels and pressure wash the area down. Just trying to keep things clean. The next morning I got a RED ABC light just after the front end raised up and lowered below the normal level. I didn't have any external leaks. I was a bit worried because I am going for a road trip approx.. 2500 miles. The ABC light stayed on / fluid level was good and no odd noises. I disconnected the battery hoping to get the system back up and maybe clear a valve or something. That didn't change much. I took the car out and drove it around my neighborhood. The car sat a bit lower under this condition and did have a lot of body roll. Took it out on the street and drove it around at 45 mph or so thinking maybe I got the level sensors wet enough to skew the readings.
After a while stopping a few times cycling the key off and on the issue
went away.



Has anyone ever had this happen, get the level sensors wet or as it could be just a coincidence . I did hit the area hard with the pressure washer.

 

I left for Washington state this morning and could feel the car lifting out of sync with the driving conditions.
It would lift and drop itself while at freeway speed, if you haven't had this happen, well its
a bit unnerving to say the least. The car moves quite a bit on the road when this happens. I pulled in to a gas station and checked things, got back in and put the car in drive. instantly the passenger side jumped up front and rear seemed like a foot and then dropped down. I decided to unplug one of the under hood accelerometers. That would surely put the system in limp or safe mode. Well it did ! I would much rather drive the car in this mode then have it bouncing from lane to lane at 80 mph.
I'm going to have the car scanned tomorrow to see what comes up. I suspect a accelerometer.
In this mode the car is lower and has loads of body roll bounces like it has week shocks but at least its predictable. Drove another 600 miles and called it a day.

 

You are in a league of your own, most wouldn't take the car to get milk if the suspension started hopping up and down let alone plan a 2,500 mile trip. Since you have Peterbuilt type miles on your CL, you know by now what to expect from the car. Good luck with the rest of your trip as well as getting your car back to normal functioning ABC.

 

Arrived in Everson WA. a 1250 mile trip, averaged 21.2 miles a gallon As talked about before the ABC red was on the last 1150 miles but i could see there were no pump or hose issues just a likely sensor input skewed. hope to get it scanned soon today or tomorrow.

 

We ended up unplugging the front level sensors and drying them out in my friends paint booth overnight. Plugged them back in this morning and drive the car around town keeping the speed under 55. Must have gone 40 miles or so. The car drove fine, no inappropriate suspension outputs at all. That's a good sigh the sensors got wet and being a sensitive low voltage / amperage circuit water can cause issues.
I will be returning to Southern Ca. in a few days 1200+ mile drive. That will be the type of drive which will tell me if the car's OK.

 

Glad you found where the water shorted the sensor.

 

How /where do you unplug the accelerometer ? Can you show a pic ?

 

There are three accelerometers, one in the rear package rack area and two under the hood one on each shock tower. Their small plastic rectangle shaped and have a connector at 12 o'clock.

 

Back to Southern CA. 1200+ miles and ran perfect. 20.5 MPH