Do you daily driving guys drive around with the ride height button on or off? I get on the highway and over 75mph? the car lowers it's self, I have 20" wheels and when I go to turn the fender is sitting ontop of the tire. I have adjustable links, should I adjust in the raised position or lowered?

 

I would set in the lowered position surely you are talking about the fronts rubbing. Make sure they clear on lowest setting then you can raise it for whatever reason. You may have the wrong offset on your wheels. Do they stick out past the fender when aimed straight ahead and you look straight down from fender standing over wheel opening in body? Or possibly tire profile is too wide. I have Hankook Ventus 20" and they are clearing fine. I have links too but lowest setting is not slammed. Still 1/2" or so clearance from top of tire to fender.

 

So with your ride height button off, you have about 1/2" clearence? Do you drive it daily with the car in the low setting?

 

in sport 2 mode(2 lights on) is where you should adjust your lowering links. "off" is comfort mode, Sport 2 is what your car lowers itself to at 72 mph on the highway whether the light is on or not.

I myself drive around in sport 2 unless I commute to work, in which case I am in comfort mode, and even raise it a bit

 

So 2 LIGHTS ON, What about the RIDE HEIGHT button? It should be OFF (low setting) right?

 

You're talking about RAISED MODE.

That's typically for driving in deep snow (or for use at the dragstrip for better rear weight transfer)..... Leave that off. It disables itself at highway speeds anyway.


-G

 

Or carrying a lot of groceries in your E55 Wagon!

 

 

Hey so if you adjust your links on sport 1 light and when you go into two lights it goes lower???

 

I always thought RAISED MODE was for driving over rough terrain or raising the vehicle in case the lip or bumper gets caught on a gutter. Or maybe it's just promoted accordingly for different regions where sold? At any rate the vehicle does drive MUCH better at the correct ride hight with superior handling and comfort.

In addition to the deteriorated ride, from what I can tell driving in raised mode puts extra strain on the shocks (probably the entire Airmatic system). I stayed in a chalet earlier this year and had to travel a rough dirt road to get there including a large mound where the car bottomed out - at least until I switched to raised mode. I didn't remember it was still on when driving away until after about 10 miles when I immediately lowered and felt the car siink into a balanced and more comfortable stance. A few days later one of the front shock's developed a high piercing leak and had to be replaced with the other front shock also leaking within 3 weeks.

It pays to maintain the Airmatic system and change fluid regularly - there are other threads here that stress the importance as repairs can become frequent and costly otherwise. The consensus is Airmatic will run without issues for over 300,000 miles if correctly maintained.

 

Aloha THETHERAPIST, do you know where can I find a maintenance schedule/program for the Airmatic system?

 

cars

 

I was wondering the same thing because I have never noticed any difference in height, only stiffness.

 

Sport 1 & Sport 2 are the exact same height.

-G

 

Greg - I don't believe that to be true....I believe the Sport II height is slightly lower (~10mm) - see HiessRod's post above....

 

You're right. My bad.... I was thinking about the lowering effect at ~70mph. Neither sport1 or sport2 get any lower than their normal ride heights. Only "comfort" changes at speed.

To improve tire wear, I am now running in Sport1 mode and have my alignment set up for that height. I used to run in Comfort Mode, but the alignment settings change enough with dynamic lowering (highway speeds) that you can't really trust that the alignment is still perfect.....especially toe.

-G

 

I always have my car on the Sport II setting and it wears out the inside of my tyres something terrible. Only realized I should have had it set to this when I had my last alignment done. I was also amazed at how much more traction I got with the car in comfort mode (sport I and II switched off).

 

I'm in Sport I almost all the time too, and have never noticed a height difference when I toggled between the different settings. I played with it before and it always appeared to be right at the same spot on my tire no matter which mode I was in. I guess I have to pay closer attention next time.

 

Just read the owners manual ....