Possible air suspension height settings issue

[jerry33]

Slightly OT, and it might be covered elsewhere, but whats the delta between highest and lowest suspension settings?

• Normal height = 6”
• High Level 1 = 0.90” taller; When the vehicle accelerates above 19 mph, the clearance adjusts back to Normal height.
• High level 2 = 1.3” above Standard and can be used for ascending a steep driveway or fording deep snow. Clearance reverts to High Level 1 above 10 mph.
• Low Level = 0.79” under Standard; Active Air Suspension will automatically lower the vehicle for highway driving to improve aerodynamics. Low Level is also accessible from the touchscreen for loading/unloading of passengers. When the vehicle begins driving the clearance adjusts back to Normal height.

[cinergi]

Fascinating. The Model S *does* adjust its suspension for getting in and out (I've noticed it adjusting as I entered the car). Great tip! I'll keep an eye on it. In the meantime, make sure you let the ownership team know (feedback).

[Todd Burch]

And the stoplight issue wouldn't even be bad, depending on the speed it needs to achieve before lowering. I wonder if there is a power-consumption concern against this behavior?

Probably less of a power consumption issue and more of a mechanical cycling issue. You probably wouldn't want the air suspension cycling up and down every time you stop at a stoplight or slow down.

[ohh]

Thanks jerry33!
Back on topic; I have an A6 with air suspension, and it will keepbthe suspension hight while parked. I could not see any reason for the Model S to do the same. There is a reason for you to set it to high/very high, and I would think the same reason apply after you've been parked.
I also assume the suspensions are air-tight, hence do not need help in staying at whatever level that is chosen. Not an engineer, so I might be wrong, though..

[stevezzzz]

Fascinating. The Model S *does* adjust its suspension for getting in and out (I've noticed it adjusting as I entered the car). Great tip! I'll keep an eye on it. In the meantime, make sure you let the ownership team know (feedback).

Hmmm. Maybe I was just unlucky: if I missed scraping the nose the parking bumper by a skosh on the way in, any adjustment of the suspension when I got out of the car or back in could easily have lowered the nose relative to the tail fractionally and left the nose sitting on the parking bumper. I've watched in my garage as I played with the suspension height settings: the front and rear suspensions operate independently. Actually, I think I read that all four corners operate independently so that the car can be kept closer to level under different load conditions and also dynamically, as during cornering.

Makes me even more determined not to overrun those parking bumpers in the future.

[Thumper]

The best solution here is proximity sensors or better yet camera view for front bumper. Parking bumpers especially with diagonal parking are killers and very hard to judge.

[doug]

Any pics of the damage?

[stevezzzz]

Nah. It's not bad enough to be more than an annoyance...

[mknox]

Back on topic; I have an A6 with air suspension, and it will keepbthe suspension hight while parked.

Cars I've owned with air suspension always maintained height when parked *except* when there was something wrong, like a leak in the system. I had one car that developed a small leak in a line (would settle slowly and pump ran more frequently) and another time on the same car, a massive failure of one of the bellows causing the rear end to sink almost to the ground! I hope that's not the case with the OP's car!

[Jeeps17]

I just had my test drive last week while in florida, and was told by my co-pilot that the S automatically goes to LOW when set to park.

I saw this in real time by looking at the car's reflection in the store window whilst in the driver's seat.

This should be adjustable by software to prevent such curb rash.