Pneumatic Suspension

[grog]

I have a 92 AWD wagon and am currently having troubble with the pneumatic suspension.

I have tinkered a little and found the compressor is pumping fine and the solinoid is operating correctly.

As i see no electronics in the strut propper other then the height sensor switches, i'm assuming the problem is the bag it's self is leaking.

So, two questions?

Would others concure with my finding?

and

What would you recomend as a replacement for the strut? 2nd hand? New OEM? or New Aftermarket?

Hopefully some here have gone though the same thing.

[entirelyturbo]

It's likely. The bags wear out from use (and from disuse too), and once they fail, they're done. You can't repair or rebuild the air struts.

They're available from the dealer, and that's it. No one made any aftermarket ones.

Aaand, I show them listing $380.87 USD for each front, and $415.94 USD each for the rear.

You might get lucky and find some good second-hand used ones, but not very many Legacies came with air ride, so it will be especially difficult.

In other words, it's a very expensive, non-serviceable, problematic system.

If you want, you can convert to conventional suspension and rip out all the air suspension stuff.

[grog]

Well, i'm almost sure it's the strut.

Did some pricing, and best price i could get was $AUD595 each.

Either that or $1300 - $1500 to convert to standard springs.

Looks like i gotta dip into the pocket for this one either way..

[drftsub]

Maybe go to a recycling yard ( subaru spares maybe? ) and see what you can get a set for there. Dont forget that after you do this one, the others will eventually go as well, they always do.

[jp233]

I just got a 94 Legacy LS wagon, that had the pneumatic suspension.

The air bags wore out, so the dealer selling the car got the kit from Strutmasters that replaces all the air crap with conventional struts.

http://www.strutmasters.com

The kit is 645 US$ ...

The kit makes the car ride fine, but it does make a lot of hard noises on slow speed bumps in the front. BUT, the kit was installed by some shop that I dont know anything about so I dont know if they did the job right. The dealer called and asked Strutmasters, and they said it is normal, just annoying. I personally don't understand this, so I'm going to delve into it myself but the car drives and rides fine.

[DLC]

The replaced suspension could be revealing some other problems or worn parts in the suspension, like the front endlinks or worn ball joints.

[realfinn]

I just so happen to have a set of air struts sitting in my garage, bags are great looking. They were off of a 20k mile roll over, so thery're still babies. If I get the part numbers off the side you can look around and see if they will fit. I would get rid of them cheap! I have absolutley no use for them, just taking up space under neath one of my engine stands.

[jp233]

yeah I figured it might be the balljoints or something else worn out... when I get in and replace the front brake lines this weekend I can inspect everything better than just looking at it on the ground like i did this morning. i hate changing balljoints, but its gotta be easier than when i did them on my truck --- ouch those hurt!