Writeup/Review: Universal Air Suspension

[Simans82]

Originally Posted by Blowndakrt

What kind of issues have you been having with it? Does it sound like it is rattling inside the hose? If you are hearing rattling, it could very well be the check valve going bad.

About how much longer is it taking to fill the tank? Are you sure both of them are running?

Shawn

There is a slight rattling sound, but it really doesn't appear to be coming from the hose.

In regards to how long its taking to fill the tank, it's SIGNIFICANTLY longer, like 15 minutes to fill from 130PSI to 200PSI. One pump is running much harder than the other. I have detached both pumps and let them run to see if one was pushing more air than the other, and they both seem to be about the same. I have no clue what's up with it. The tank is holding the 200PSI and there are no leaks that I can hear really... so I know that the slow buildup of pressure isn't due to the fact that I have some massive leak.

[Simans82]

I continued some troubleshooting tonight. I have the tank completely disconnected from the valves, and plugged the outlet where the exit hose to my valves once was. So as of right now, I have just the pumps hooked up to the tank with nothing else going out of or into the tank. It is still taking forever to fill up the tank, and it's still losing pressure over just a few hours. I went this route to make sure that it wasn't a lose fitting on my valves, and now I can definitely say it has something to do with the pumps. I took apart all of the fittings on the tank and put them back together again with new teflon just to make sure.

Although I've narrowed it down, I'm still a bit confused as to why the pumps are doing this. Any ideas?

[Blowndakrt]

Originally Posted by Simans82

I continued some troubleshooting tonight. I have the tank completely disconnected from the valves, and plugged the outlet where the exit hose to my valves once was. So as of right now, I have just the pumps hooked up to the tank with nothing else going out of or into the tank. It is still taking forever to fill up the tank, and it's still losing pressure over just a few hours. I went this route to make sure that it wasn't a lose fitting on my valves, and now I can definitely say it has something to do with the pumps. I took apart all of the fittings on the tank and put them back together again with new teflon just to make sure.

Although I've narrowed it down, I'm still a bit confused as to why the pumps are doing this. Any ideas?

It sounds like the inline check valves are bad. If the inline check valves are bad, it will allow air to leak back through the compressors. Try running one compressor to the tank and see if you can narrow down which one is problematic. The added fill time could also be caused by the check valve being bad as well. Bascially the pump has to work even harder to pump air since the check valve usually only lets air flow one way. Its constantly fighting the back pressure.

Shawn

[Simans82]

Originally Posted by Blowndakrt

It sounds like the inline check valves are bad. If the inline check valves are bad, it will allow air to leak back through the compressors. Try running one compressor to the tank and see if you can narrow down which one is problematic. The added fill time could also be caused by the check valve being bad as well. Bascially the pump has to work even harder to pump air since the check valve usually only lets air flow one way. Its constantly fighting the back pressure.

Shawn

Thanks Shawn. I hooked up just one compressor last night (the one that I thought was bad) and it still had the same effect. I'm going to try the other one tonight and see if it is indeed the check valve.

I'll post here in a little bit with what I find out.

[Blowndakrt]

Originally Posted by Simans82

Thanks Shawn. I hooked up just one compressor last night (the one that I thought was bad) and it still had the same effect. I'm going to try the other one tonight and see if it is indeed the check valve.

I'll post here in a little bit with what I find out.

If you find that the other one seems to be fine, try swapping the leader hose of the good one to the one you think is bad. See if that makes a difference. If it makes the difference, you just need to order a new leader hose.

Shawn

[Simans82]

Originally Posted by Blowndakrt

If you find that the other one seems to be fine, try swapping the leader hose of the good one to the one you think is bad. See if that makes a difference. If it makes the difference, you just need to order a new leader hose.

Shawn

I called Zack @ UAS to order some fittings for my nitrogen tank, and talked to him for a few minutes regarding my issues. He gave me a few great ways to check the compressors (for much the same symptoms as you have already mentioned).

I aired up my tank to about 100PSI and then shut the car off. I took the intakes off the compressors and plugged the inlet with my thumb... I took my thumb off one of my pumps and it made a loud WHOOSH. Air was coming back through the check valve. So there's the one problem.

Another suggestion he had was to see if my pumps were even creating pressure. I unhooked the lines from the tank and plugged the lines with my thumb to see if the compressor was doing its job. The compressor that was on the GOOD leader line isn't creating any pressure, and the one that was on the BAD leader line was building pressure just fine. I couldn't hold my thumb over the end of the line for more than a second before it blew my thumb off the hose.

So I had a bad check valve and one bad pump it sounds like. I was planning on just running one pump as a backup to my nitrogen tank, so I guess I'm not in too bad of a situation, but disappointed none the less that one of the pumps already seems to have given out on me.

Thanks again Shawn and Zack for helping me troubleshoot! Sounds like I've got it pinned down.

[Simans82]

Well... problem solved! Two hours at a consistent 200PSI with no leaks whatsoever. This is with the good pump and good leader line. I thought I was going to lose it. lol!

[Blowndakrt]

Originally Posted by Simans82

Well... problem solved! Two hours at a consistent 200PSI with no leaks whatsoever. This is with the good pump and good leader line. I thought I was going to lose it. lol!

Glad you found the issue. Sorry to hear a compressor was bad. I luckily haven't had any issues with mine. Of course narrowing down mine if one starts to wear out will not be fun. LOL.

Shawn

[Simans82]

Originally Posted by Blowndakrt

Glad you found the issue. Sorry to hear a compressor was bad. I luckily haven't had any issues with mine. Of course narrowing down mine if one starts to wear out will not be fun. LOL.

Shawn

Haha! That's for sure, with a trunk full of compressors I wouldn't even want to begin to imagine.

[GROUNDED]

Originally Posted by Blowndakrt

Lets say the shop accidentally kinked a hose when they were installing your system and didn't notice. This will weaken the hose in that spot and might some day rupture. Now for demonstration purpose, this is the hose that feeds your front driver's side bag. You are driving around one day and that weakened line ruptures right in the middle of the car.

If your valve is mounted close to the bag, the leak will be behind it so to speak. Your driver's side bag is not gonna drop down because it has air between the bag and the valve. So your car is not gonna drop. Actually it might still drop since the valves have a very slow backfeed to them, but it won't lose pressure anywhere near as fast. Now lets say your valve is mounted in the trunk, all the air pressure you have in the front driver's side bag will deflate very quickly, like you opened the dump valve.


Shawn

I know that in some cases valves require back pressure to stay closed. My SMC valves on my ram will not hold pressure in the bag unless they have a checkvalve attached to the intake side of the fill valve.