Max Blast

Hi all

Thought I'd share something fun with the crowd - here's a second order effect of not fixing airmatic leaks.
This was on an '07 with 120k miles that came to me with sagging rear bags - rightabout when all Airmatic problems seem to culminate.
I replaced those bags, and tightened a leak at the connectors. Even after that, the compressor kept continually running, was very noisy and could not raise the car.

I checked all bags, lines and connections with leak spray. There were none.
I unplugged the relay and drove the car for a day without the compressor to see if it sagged and I had missed a leak. It did not.
I replaced the relay. No effect.
I tested the compressor. Tested within spec.

Well everything checks out, right?

Finally I took the front wheel liner off and looked at the compressor.


Yup, that'll do it. One of the pump housing retaining bolts has sheared off, allowing the back housing to separate.
This created a leak that still allowed the compressor to meet the minimum standards, but have to run all the time to do it.

Why has the bolt sheared? Probably from the vibration of the pump running all the time..this one had 86,000 seconds on it...that's 23 hours on the meter.
So I've been commenting a lot on Airmatic posts today, and should probably come to a point:

Don't blindly trust your diagnostic system, or a tech that says everything checks out. Go look at the components and find the leaks - if your airmatic system is acting up, you have a leak.

Cheers,
Max