120 Grande Airbags

[caleb2003 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close caleb2003]

We had a airbag failure during last 4wd escapade which seemed to be a leak in one of the bags (one side went slowly down when car was off), The biggest problem was that the compressor would not work and the high/low function was faulty. Luckily I found a 'hack' for this by jacking up one side then the other and turning the car on and off again and this seemed to reset possibly an angle sensor and also the cpu so also the compressor kicked in and h/l functions too.

I have been meaning to replace the bags with either replacements or normal springs (as Toyota recommend) but as I've not been off road, not got round to it, of course now its gone again and no 'hack' will work (unless someone can show me where this 'angle sensor' is and maybe I can give it a bang or something!

Been quoted around $700 to replace with standard springs/coils So I need to know if I am replacing for springs/coils, should I go for a lift kit or standard height and will standard height affect awkward beach 4wd driving in anyway?

Thanks

[Guest Close Guest]

The height control system can be finicky.
If it has an issue such as yours it will shut down for 10 minutes to avoid burning out the compressor.
If it resets properly then ( sounds like yours did with your hack) then it's all working again.
However if it doesn't it then shuts down for 70 minutes !!!

Mine recently did this. And no amount of hacking or fiddling would solve it.
Left it for a couple days as it annoyed me, my race mechanic had a play with it and inadvertently dislodged the bag from the diff, compressor then started working resulting in a huge explosion when the bag blew it's mount off the end. ( I found it pretty funny)... He didn't..

Replaced bag and checked for leaks ( easy with a hoist) and all has been good.

It's not so much about giving the height sensors a whack to fix them.
We simply let all the air out of both bags (a special tool is needed to release lines. Although some have done with small screwdrivers). Again AMTS can help here.

Once completely aired down, sitting on bump stops, it all started working happily in my case.

There was a number of fault codes we cleared whilst all this was originally happening too.

Before we plugged the code tool in we reset it once originally by removing the air sus fuse under bonnet, and also the tems fuse under dash ( console height switch is powered from this fuse).

If your going to go to springs I suggest you read the thread by AMTS about the ones he had made for the Grande.

[Guest Close Guest]

Yes, what Piggy said. There's some form of protection built in that stops the compressor working.

I now have Grande specific rear coils. See the link in my signature below. It will be way less than what you were quoted to convert.

[caleb2003 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close caleb2003]

Yeah I removed all fuses one by one, it was great fun! There may be something in your point about all air released as I noticed when it previously happened they were both completely flat but at the moment they are still retaining a little air and the jacking up hack doesn't work. I do feel theres a cpu problem in gen as also when I reset the battery my ability to control windows and doors from the main switch is gone until each individual switch is operated about 5 times.

Thanks

The height control system can be finicky.
If it has an issue such as yours it will shut down for 10 minutes to avoid burning out the compressor.
If it resets properly then ( sounds like yours did with your hack) then it's all working again.
However if it doesn't it then shuts down for 70 minutes !!!

Mine recently did this. And no amount of hacking or fiddling would solve it.
Left it for a couple days as it annoyed me, my race mechanic had a play with it and inadvertently dislodged the bag from the diff, compressor then started working resulting in a huge explosion when the bag blew it's mount off the end. ( I found it pretty funny)... He didn't..

Replaced bag and checked for leaks ( easy with a hoist) and all has been good.

It's not so much about giving the height sensors a whack to fix them.
We simply let all the air out of both bags (a special tool is needed to release lines. Although some have done with small screwdrivers). Again AMTS can help here.

Once completely aired down, sitting on bump stops, it all started working happily in my case.

There was a number of fault codes we cleared whilst all this was originally happening too.

Before we plugged the code tool in we reset it once originally by removing the air sus fuse under bonnet, and also the tems fuse under dash ( console height switch is powered from this fuse).

If your going to go to springs I suggest you read the thread by AMTS about the ones he had made for the Grande.

[Guest Close Guest]

Resetting the battery will need a power window reset.
Plenty of threads written about it on this forum.
Hold switches down from each door for a few seconds and it resets the limits.
Well known issue and not associated with suspension issues as you think.

[caleb2003 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close caleb2003]

Thanks, it's good to know it is not related, cheers.

[caleb2003 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close caleb2003]

Update: After going to some local garages for quotes, (one 4wd place wanted $2500 for installing rear shocks and Springs!), another one claimed he would have to take half the rear underside of the car off to get access to install springs.

I tried the same procedure of jacking up the car, resetting battery etc but this time tried the trick above of resetting the car door windows and wether it was a coincidence or not, the compressor kicked in again!

This has bought me some time so I have decided to give a new set of airbags a try before going with the springs option as I do think although flawed they are a useful feature.
Ordered the genuine airbags from amayama (as suggested on another post on here), I did see some on Ebay for about $120 each and found they are knocking these out wholesale for $20 on alibaba! So whilst incredibly tempting you have to wonder about the materials used for that price. It would be interesting to see if anyone has ever succesfully used the Chinese knock-offs though.