Thanks for infornation.We will try and l let you know.

 

I have a 2004 XJ8 4.2S (X350) which has developed a suspension fault suddenly over the Christmas holidays.The front of the cars is much higher than it should be, whilst the rear appears more or less normal. Both sides of the car are at equal height. When driving, it 'thumps' now on uneven road surfaces. The area is notorious for speed bumps and pot holes. There is no change in stability/no heeling over from side to side when cornering, although undulating road surfaces create a front/rear rolling motion (like a ship heading directly into rollers) which is very uncomfortable. There is no fault message coming up on the dashboard.
Thinking it may be a shock absorber problem, I tried pushing down on the rear wings of the car, and got the usual 'spring back' movement. However trying the same thing on the front wings, the car was completely rigid and I couldn't get any movement at all. On the off chance I also tried a hard (battery) reset, but no change.
Any ideas please, before I go to the dealers as the default option.
I don't know if it's relevent, but the cars was parked for about 36 hours with a load in the boot, when the problem arose

 

I've got a similar problem, 2004 XJ8, only it's my front end that is up in the air, the rear working as usual. I don't know if it's relevent, but the car was standing for 2 days with a load in the boot before the problem arose. Does the earlier reply apply to me as well, only substituting front for rear?

 

Hi Ianbat1507,

I moved your post from the other thread to this one. Please do not post the same question in multiple threads - it creates confusion and potential duplicate effort on the part of those who would like to help.

One possible cause of your high front end is that something has gone wrong with the ride height sensor, which is mounted on the front left suspension (assuming your car has only one - if it has two, they're mounted at both sides, but it is less likely that both would go wrong or be damaged). You can inspect the sensor to confirm that it is still attached to the suspension and its "poke yoke" arm is not binding or disconnected, and that the electrical connector to the sensor is clean and fully seated.

If you don't see anything wrong with the sensor, you could try letting the air out of the front suspension by carefully loosening the air hose fitting at the top of one of your front air spring/damper units with the engine off. Once the air has leaked out, carefully retighten the air hose fitting. Start the engine and leave the transmission in Park. Allow the air compressor to run its full cycle (typically 120 seconds). If the front end has not achieved its full ride height, shut off the engine for at least 45 seconds to allow the compressor to cool. Start the engine again and leave the transmission in Park and wait for the compressor to run another cycle. Repeat a third time if necessary. See if the ride height has been corrected and let us know.

Cheers,

Don

 

A mechanic friend checked appearance/connections etc of front height sensor, let air out of system which appeared to solve the problem. Unfortunately after about25 miles, the front end lifted again, then the front left shocker exploded and collapsed. I had the shocker replaced and a new front ride height sensor fitted. Appears to have solved the problem.

 

Hope that has fixed it. Just FYI - I think this problem can be caused for reasons other than a faulty ride height sensor. When I faced this issue, I bought a scan tool which could read chassis codes in order to read the data from the air suspension module. When the rear of my car raised up (as it would after releasing air and lowering it) the rear ride height sensors correctly indicated that the height was above normal. So my guess is that the system was able to pressurize the shock but could not depressurize it. This could be due to some blockage in the air lines or even something restricting backward airflow within the shock. If it is the latter, you might have solved your problem by replacing the shock. However if the problem returns, you should probably check the air lines.