2016.5 air suspension severely unleveled after camber arm, toe arm, and lowering link install

[ZCaimbeul]

Alright so I installed N2itive camber arms, toe arms, and lowering links on my 2016.5 Model S P100D a few days ago. Let me start by saying N2itive parts are unbelievable impressive quality. The owner has been assisting me in my troubleshooting process and has been truly awesome through this despite us not coming to a solution yet.
This is clearly a rare issue...
I had the car in jack mode prior and throughout the install. The install went very smooth with everything installing without issue... the rear suspension was pre-loaded prior to torquing everything down to spec per the instructions.
Once completed and lowered back onto the wheels the rear of the car sat incredibly high and wouldn't cycle through the lowering or rising phases but the front would. After attempting multiple soft resets, hard resets, 12v disconnect/high v disconnect for cold reset, reinstall of resent update, double checking correct installation and positioning of the lowering links. After a day of attempting these resets my cluster now shows the red suspension error symbol and my suspension won't adjust anymore.
In service mode:
Height measurements= FL 6mm, FR 32mm, RR 24mm, RL 63mm
Measured_pressure_all= FL 8.4, FR 8.7, Reservoir 15.1mm, RL 5.5, RR 7.8, Result SUCCESS

I don't want to drive the car for risk of damaging anything. I may swap over all the OEM parts again to see if it fixes itself but I after that I'm out of ideas.
Possibly a ride height recalibration from Tesla but I'm assuming they'll have issue with the aftermarket parts. I was also considering doing a full drain of the suspension but then I'd need someone to refill for me as I'm not equipped to do it.

Any input is appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

 

[airborne spoon]

i didn't have any issues after installing mine although i had to adjust the front ones to a different length than the rears to make the car level but that's because i installed front adjustable UCA's.

I've had the car refuse to move up and down before after taking it off jack mode and i just backed it down the driveway and then pulled back into my garage and i could hear it adjusting and all was good. Also one time after taking it out of jack mode the front did a loud pop and pssssssss and dropped but again i pulled down and back in and the car was fine.

the only thing i can think of if its not working is you did something wrong in the install, if it worked before and now it doesn't he only thing that changed is you fiddled with it. Are you sure the air sensor arms are correct? maybe post a pic of each one be3cause that's all i can see as what the problem might be

 

[ZCaimbeul]

i didn't have any issues after installing mine although i had to adjust the front ones to a different length than the rears to make the car level but that's because i installed front adjustable UCA's.

I've had the car refuse to move up and down before after taking it off jack mode and i just backed it down the driveway and then pulled back into my garage and i could hear it adjusting and all was good. Also one time after taking it out of jack mode the front did a loud pop and pssssssss and dropped but again i pulled down and back in and the car was fine.

the only thing i can think of if its not working is you did something wrong in the install, if it worked before and now it doesn't he only thing that changed is you fiddled with it. Are you sure the air sensor arms are correct? maybe post a pic of each one be3cause that's all i can see as what the problem might be

 

[ZCaimbeul]

Yea I followed the install instructions perfectly. I sent the owner of N2itive the photos as well and he said the install looked spot on.
So tonight I put the oem lowering links back on to see if perhaps that would solve the issue. After swapping them back on I did a hard reset but still no change.

So here are the options I have left (as far as I can think of):
So now it's 3 options left...
1: purge the air ride system (I don't have any way to refill it though and don't know who locally could do it. Not sure if Tesla would do it as a service call)

2: swap everything back to oem and send it to Tesla for evaluation and repair

3: replace all 4 height sensors (I have no way of knowing which, if any, are bad. I also can't find a website to order new oem height sensors. Does anyone have a link?). I’m thinking that maybe one or more of the height sensors just so happened to go bad during my install. It was suggested to me that perhaps messing with them was just enough to push them overboard.

 

[airborne spoon]

Yeah it looks fine but you may have buggered it up when you took the old ones off. I remember mine were super tight when I took them off.

You can try and set a service appt and have them do an OTA diagnostic that should tell Tesla which of the 4 sensors is bad and you can then request parts for DIY repair.

Also just for a sanity check verify all the fuses are good. Not just the one for the suspension but all of them something unrelated could've popped and be causing the issue.

 

[ZCaimbeul]

Yeah it looks fine but you may have buggered it up when you took the old ones off. I remember mine were super tight when I took them off.

You can try and set a service appt and have them do an OTA diagnostic that should tell Tesla which of the 4 sensors is bad and you can then request parts for DIY repair.

Also just for a sanity check verify all the fuses are good. Not just the one for the suspension but all of them something unrelated could've popped and be causing the issue.

I didn’t think to check all of the fuses but that’s not a bad idea. The suspension fuse was good though.
I’m actually at Tesla currently figuring out pricing on parts and seeing what they can do mobile wise for diagnostics, etc…
Update soon.

 

[Doanster1]

Did you check the main 40A fuse for the compressor?

 

[patrick40363]

Check to see if one of the air bag sensor brackets got bent. One of mine had that happen from an alignment and it was riding 2 inches lower in the rear, Service bent it back and worked fine.

 

[ZCaimbeul]

Did you check the main 40A fuse for the compressor?

I did.. it was fine but I'm going to go back through and check all of the fuses again.

 

[ZCaimbeul]

Check to see if one of the air bag sensor brackets got bent. One of mine had that happen from an alignment and it was riding 2 inches lower in the rear, Service bent it back and worked fine.

Yea I've checked the sensor brackets multiple times. Everything seems fine with them.

 

[Aggmeister2010]

Just going back to basics a bit --

I sincerely doubt you've blown fuses or broken sensors from just swapping camber/toe arms and links.

When you installed the N2itive arms, you installed them with the adjustment side facing inward. I recommend installing them with the adjustment side facing OUT because the way you have them installed, the length between the inner mount point and the sensor arm attachment point changes when you adjust camber. 1mm of difference in arm position translates to 1/4" of suspension height. This is why I recommend folks install them with the adjustment side facing out. It makes alignments slightly more time consuming as the wheel must come off to adjust camber, but it means you don't have to adjust the ride height sensors any time you do an alignment.

So, based on a 30 second diagnosis, your control arms are longer than factory to adjust camber, and it's throwing off the readings. You need to adjust your rear n2itive lowering links to be LONGER by 1mm x 1/4 inch that you need it lowered.

Do this for both sides, then try to re-level. That might fix the problem.



With that said, at this point the system has hard-faulted (red light). It's telling you that there's a delta between the expected value from the sensor, and the actual value received....and it doesn't know how to resolve it. You *may* need a service center trip to fix this, and they won't re-level with lowering links on, so you'd have to put the OEM links back on and have them run a re-level. That'll clear the fault, and get you back to OEM height - and then you can restart your lowering journey.

 

[ZCaimbeul]

Just going back to basics a bit --

I sincerely doubt you've blown fuses or broken sensors from just swapping camber/toe arms and links.

When you installed the N2itive arms, you installed them with the adjustment side facing inward. I recommend installing them with the adjustment side facing OUT because the way you have them installed, the length between the inner mount point and the sensor arm attachment point changes when you adjust camber. 1mm of difference in arm position translates to 1/4" of suspension height. This is why I recommend folks install them with the adjustment side facing out. It makes alignments slightly more time consuming as the wheel must come off to adjust camber, but it means you don't have to adjust the ride height sensors any time you do an alignment.

So, based on a 30 second diagnosis, your control arms are longer than factory to adjust camber, and it's throwing off the readings. You need to adjust your rear n2itive lowering links to be LONGER by 1mm x 1/4 inch that you need it lowered.

Do this for both sides, then try to re-level. That might fix the problem.



With that said, at this point the system has hard-faulted (red light). It's telling you that there's a delta between the expected value from the sensor, and the actual value received....and it doesn't know how to resolve it. You *may* need a service center trip to fix this, and they won't re-level with lowering links on, so you'd have to put the OEM links back on and have them run a re-level. That'll clear the fault, and get you back to OEM height - and then you can restart your lowering journey.

I'm not sure I follow what you mean about the lowering links being an additional 1mm from what I want the lowered position to be.
I compared my camber arms to the oem units and they're essentially the same length but with the ability to adjust. The arms are installed according to N2itive's instructions and it seems like my car is the first to experience this issue (makes me think that it is something not associated with the installation of the parts but something I did in the process of the install). If I turned the arm around the mount point for the lowering links wouldn't be able to connect at all unless I'm misunderstanding you...

Update... the car has remained sidelined. I've swapped the OEM lowering links on and will be bringing it to a scheduled appointment with Tesla on Monday morning for a ride height leveling and testing of the ride height sensors. Hopefully they're able to diagnose the and fix the issue. Then when I get it back I'll reinstall the lowering links very carefully.

 

[Awiner]

My guess is your rear left sensor has gone bad. Easy part to replace and if that is the issue a a ride recalibration isn’t needed.

 

[ZCaimbeul]

My guess is your rear left sensor has gone bad. Easy part to replace and if that is the issue a a ride recalibration isn’t needed.

That’s my guess too.

 

[Highxtech]

This happened to me quite a bit during install (and adjustment)

Take the car for a "hard drive"(twisties, hard brake) and then let it sit in level ground. It'll work itself out.

Also will happen if the lowering links are too far in different lengths

 

[ZCaimbeul]

This happened to me quite a bit during install (and adjustment)

Take the car for a "hard drive"(twisties, hard brake) and then let it sit in level ground. It'll work itself out.

Also will happen if the lowering links are too far in different lengths

I read someone else with the same problem blew his shocks that way

 

[ZCaimbeul]

Update… it turns out that when installing the lowering links 3 of 4 ride height sensors went bad simultaneously. All 3 replaced finally…
You can order them direct from Tesla. $112 per and the install is incredibly easy.

Thanks everyone for their suggestions and help.

 

[Aggmeister2010]

wow, that is truly bizarre. I have never heard of that happening. glad it's fixed!

 

[Doanster1]

Wow indeed. Powerball ticket time!!!

 

[richrootes]

I’d say that wasn’t a coincidence - perhaps they have maximum travel limits that were exceeded? I’ll remember to lock mine in place somehow if I ever remove any suspension parts