High and Rough On One Side
 

The title may be a little misleading but.... I have a 2007 LS 460L with 85,000 miles on it. When I went out to the garage this morning to go to work, the front drivers side (the only side I can see while parked in my garage) was a little higher in the front than the back. I did a visual and it was easily an inch or so higher above the tire than the rear. I got in the car and pulled out of my (heated) garage and when I went don the curb it didn't feel right. As I drove to work it seemed like the car was really high on the drivers side and I could feel every little bump. When I got to work, a went to step out of the car to walk around it and take a look and the drivers side was so high that I felt the difference when I was getting out of the seat. When I looked at the drivers side it was way higher than the passenger side and probably 2" or so higher than when I looked at it before coming to work. When I went to push on the front drivers corner to check and see if it would bounce, it was as stiff as can be. The rear corner wasn't much better but seemed to give more than the front. I posted a couple of pictures of the height difference drivers side to passenger side.

When I get home I'm going to hook it up to techstream and see what I can find but I thought I would post this and see if anyone has experienced something like this and if you found the cause. I will post back when I discover what's going on. I love the air suspension. I know it is not cheap to fix but I knew this going in and planned that I'd be fixing things along the way. I don't mind replacing a strut here and there or a ride height sensor, etc. I know it can get expensive and that's fine, I just hope its a something as easy as that and not some sort of electrical bug I have to track down.

When I was messing with one of my height sensor it did the same thing. So I'm thinking height sensor. Maybe try adjusting it and see if it would go down.

I'm going to see what can be done using Techstream and go from there. I just got it a short time ago and have only been toying around with it to get familiar with it. I've read a few posts on adjusting the suspension, etc., so I'll see what happens. First I'll see if there are any faults and go from there. Then I'll save the info and put the car back to default and see what happens.

How much was the Techstream deal?

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldnt the compressor be constantly on raise all 4 corners?

I thought the same thing but then I thought that maybe the two corners on the drivers side where calling for air when the malfunction occurred so those where the only corners that raised? I haven’t started troubleshooting it yet. Im trying to look into if there’s a “reset” to get it to default settings and then see if it happens again. I’ll post what I find.

As always, if anyone has any information that may help me or point me in a certain direction, please feel free to post

IMO, the person on CL who would be most familiar with your issues would be mckellyb. He has several threads on the air suspension, and he has played around a lot with the suspension settings using Techstream. Here are some of the threads. Feel free to PM McKellyb. Good luck!

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...de-height.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...s-comfort.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...r-problem.html

Wow! Thanks for the credit, comotiger!

Yeah, it's not like I wanted to know as much as I do about it, but mine didn't work when I got it...at least the variable damping part didn't. And to fix that, I had to learn quite a bit about it just to know how it should behave.

Okay, Brewmyown, you can blow off the fact all the damping settings are maxed out at 17. That's normal when stopped, engine running or not, in gear or not. They'll change the second you start moving.

It sounds like something is tricking the compressor into staying on 100% of the time, and the LF corner, for whatever reason, isn't bleeding off the extra air pressure. ...yet all the other corners are....

Hmmm...

Let me think about this for a bit. In the meantime, get it back to 'normal', engine running, then press 'height high'. With the radio off, windows closed, HVAC off, you should be able to barely hear the compressor running.

If you can't tell, turn the 'height high' switch back 'off', and see if you hear a distant "brrrrrrrrr" sound stop. Press the button one more time, and it the noise should return.

FWIW, mine takes only about 30 seconds to go from normal to high. So at 20 seconds, kill it, because you don't want the compressor running more than it needs to.

Now, there is a definite chance, after you reset the codes... Hold on. Clear the codes, start it, let it run five seconds, shut it off. Fire it back up, and then see if you can hear the compressor.

Don't try to listen for it outside the cabin, you can't hear it. Well, you kinda can, but I can hear mine only when it cycles on or off.

The second time you start it, whether you hear the compressor or not, get out, close the door, and watch the LF corner to see if it's rising. If so...ummmm...let us know. Give it a minute of watching.

I was also going to suggest, if you don't hear the compressor on the second start, and it's not rising, while at idle, press the 'height high' button, then cycle it back 'off', get out, close the door, and watch the LF corner to see if it keeps going up.

If it does keep rising, turn the engine off, because that's a good way to burn up the compressor. You don't want to know what those cost.

I plan on, if I have to, having mine rebuilt by someone, locally. Or, barring that, I'll give it a shot.

Has the weather been any different the past couple of days?

I like the LF height sensor being broken, because that's what it sounds like...though, I figured not getting a signal from that sensor would throw it's own code. Regardless, you have a TS, we'll figure this out.

mckelly b, I cleared the code and started the car and it all leveled out to "normal". I drove into work this morning which is 40 miles and it was fine all the way in. I pulled into my parking spot and just sat there idling for a minute or so. I brought my laptop with me so I hooked it up to see what was going on. The levels looked fine and I hit the "High Height" button on and off a couple of times to make sure it was in fact turning the compressor on and off and I could hear it doing so. I sat there idling for a minute and all of the sudden, the FR Height Control Sensor started to change (going up)? At this point I tried hitting the Height button on and off to see if it was a possible issue with the button just to rule it out but the compressor wouldn't stop. It just kept going up so I stopped the car. I started it back up and the car leveled out again. I let it idle for a minute or so then the RL Height Control Sensor started rising and before I realized it was up over 2 inches! The C1761 "Continuous Current to Compressor Motor" error popped up (not exactly sure when this happened) so I cleared it, shut of and then restarted the car and it went back to "normal" height again. I am still waiting for my service manual to arrive to do some diagnostic pin testing on the air system ECU, height sensors, etc. If it was always the same sensor, I would be pointing to it as the culprit but now that its doing it with two different sensors, maybe its the ECU? I'm not excited about spending $900 on a new ECU but if it fixes the issue, I don't mind spending the money.

Does your car have the sport package on it? 19" wheels, different suspension calibration, and the like? I'm with you on it being more than a bit odd two different sensors are doing it, and they're doing so with no change in the height sensors' input.

These have a dedicated suspension computer, which isn't horrible to access (it's above the glovebox)...and I happen to have a spare.

I bought it in case, while I was trying to fix my own, the computer was the culprit. Wasn't, but I did swap it out in the garage to see if behavior was the same. It was, though I don't know how different the calibration is. I know it definitely works, though. Let me know if you're interested...it's just taking up garage space. $100, shipped.

BTW, outstanding job in troubleshooting! That's exactly they way I'd have done it, your reactions and everything.