Air suspension phenomena?!?

That settles it, no air suspension for me!
After my nightmare Lexus and hosts of others.

sitter_k said:

That settles it, no air suspension for me!

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Good one! (I missed "it" on the first read) :biggrin:

Overall I feel we're seeing an apparent increase in air suspension problems. Just goes to show that the Tesla implementation is no different from the industry. I opted for coils due to being 1,000 miles from a service center and I might keep my car for many years.

As an air suspension equipped owner, I'm not glad to see this, but am not surprised. This is one of the systems I'm going to be especially proactive about during our ownership, as we intend to keep the car for a long time.

This was the first thing I asked a tech on our "rear clunk confirmation test drive". I told him I was SUPER wary about buying my car with air suspension due to things like Land Rover. He said he's never seen a failure in the SC for as long as hes worked there, and that the mechanism is so simple he'd be surprised that it would fail. Basically told me "LR and Jag engineered theirs to fail".

So far no issues 62k miles in. Use it actively pulling into work and home.

And even though hundreds of thousands of cars, trucks, semi trailers, and buses have air suspension, some people will have problems.

Although I don't see how it hurts anything to let the car down to a relaxed suspension attitude. Mine has done that, and I didn't see any problem with it. You get in, and it raises. I have experienced this maybe twice in 82,000 miles.

I am getting air suspension on my second Tesla, same as the first. I don't expect to have any problems. I would not even know how to be proactive with air suspension.

And if I have a problem, my experience has been that Tesla fixes it no charge.

After going on a long vacation (about 2weeks) I've seen exactly the same issue with my vehicle.

The DS-21 did that on every shutdown of more than an hour. Admittedly it was an entirely different kind of air suspension. As long as it regains height when driving, it shouldn't be a problem.

Picking my 85D up day after tomorrow, and it has air suspension. This almost sounds like it could be working as intended?

Having been in the air suspension scene in the past, there is always a slow leak somewhere in these systems.

I had recently left mine on High - I have it auto-raising to High when getting into my garage after clearing my steep driveway - for about 16 days while abroad. No issues at all. It remained where I left it.

I won't get into all the gory details of my experience with Tesla and my air suspension. Briefly, I likened my Tesla to a dog scratching his ass. You know, when the ass is plopped on the ground and uses his front legs to drag himself along to scratch his ass. Well, that's how I felt about my Tesla. After MONTHS and MONTHS of being embarrassed with my car dragging its ass out of every single driveway and Tesla constantly telling me "it's within specs" and refusing to do anything about it. I finally got pissed off, went higher up the food chain. In matter of minutes, I received a call back that my car was fixed and ready to pick up. Took them all but a couple of minutes to "re-calibrate the suspension". Car now sits perfectly level. Pissed me off even more that they put me through hell for several months over a 2 blanking minute fix!!!

Anyway, just sharing for anyone that feels their Tesla sags in the back, you can ask for them to "re-calibrate the suspension"

That was quite the mental imagery you created, luvnMyTS. Good info along with the story.

So digitaltim, did it raise back up to normal when you turned the car on?

@digitaltim, @roblab - How are your Sigs holding up at 100,000 and 82,000, respectively? Any other noteworthy issues besides air suspension relaxing?

luvnMyTS said:

I won't get into all the gory details of my experience with Tesla and my air suspension. Briefly, I likened my Tesla to a dog scratching his ass. You know, when the ass is plopped on the ground and uses his front legs to drag himself along to scratch his ass. Well, that's how I felt about my Tesla. After MONTHS and MONTHS of being embarrassed with my car dragging its ass out of every single driveway and Tesla constantly telling me "it's within specs" and refusing to do anything about it. I finally got pissed off, went higher up the food chain. In matter of minutes, I received a call back that my car was fixed and ready to pick up. Took them all but a couple of minutes to "re-calibrate the suspension". Car now sits perfectly level. Pissed me off even more that they put me through hell for several months over a 2 blanking minute fix!!!

Anyway, just sharing for anyone that feels their Tesla sags in the back, you can ask for them to "re-calibrate the suspension"

Click to expand...

Mine is like this right now. Everything seems to operate properly, but it appears the rear is too low. The first time I asked about it and pointed out the alignment TSB, I asked them to calibrate it. Their response was that they would check the software to be sure it was calibrated and that they didn't need to measure it. I didn't push the issue at the time, but as an engineer I know enough to know that a simple check of the software is probably not enough to be sure all is well - a measurement must be taken. I asked them to measure it according to the TSB, and they said they did and found it to be OK. I figured I had been enough of a squeaky wheel so I left it alone. But when I measured it myself afterward at home, I found the front ride height to be within 2 mm of spec on the front, and about 25 mm too low in the rear.

I am going in this Friday for a second appointment to fix this. I really, really hope they don't fight me on this. There are few things more frustrating than arguing with a service guy about matters like this.

When I had mine in for its first servicing annual I mentioned that my car does not stay up after I park it and walk away. I asked if that was normal. Back then, no one seemed to know the answer. I did not push the issue, but recently my air suspension seems to be making a lot more noise than it did earlier. When I round a curve I can hear it whining. Then the other day I parked it over a curb after raising suspension. I was not paying close attention when I came out, hopped in the car, popped it in reverse (but I had not given it enough time to raise up) and SCCCRRRAAAPPPPE off the curb I went. This has now happened on the front and the rear of the car. I will be taking Ms. Blitz in as soon as I return home from this trip.