Dealer says air shock bad - (Update) airline tool & ECU reset

[Infinity00]

i just bought 2004 GX470, and had it thoroughly checked before purchase just so I would know what needed fixing. Rear Airbags wasn’t one of them. Took it to the dealer to get recall done, and have them do their full maintenance inspection while it was there. He doesn’t find anything wrong except one of the rear bags is collapsed, I think he said. I remarked that when I was at stop lights I could hear the compressor going and adjusting the bags and I was wondering if that was normal. He said that wasn’t it, but that the issue with it would make the car drive more “bumpy” and might not be safe at times. I was kinda confused, so I asked him about it again, he said that it doesn’t drive like a gx470 suspension normally drives.

So my question is how do I tell if the bags are bad or not. They definitely deflate when I turn it off and Re-inflate when I start it back up and if someone gets in he car, it will kick back on to adjust. Then every once in a while I’ll hear it kick on at a stop light. When the car is running it sits level and normally, there’s no lean and for me it drives smooth and will change stiffness when I change the comfort level settings. Not that I mind if I have to replace, I was planning on it at some point with springs, but this is a little sooner than I had expected or am ready for (but hey, that’s what usually happens, right?).

Also, an oddity but not unexpected, they didn’t find the $4000 worth of issues my prepurchase inspection guy found! I even had to tell them about a leaky rubber hose at the lower drivers side under the radiator and they still haven’t found that. Is that the transmission cooler hose? Just about 6” long and 1/4” diameter that attaches between two hard lines. Looks easy to fix, just cracked and leaking...and they missed the obviously leaking drivers side axle seal. No biggie to me but I found it interesting

 

[GXMac]

The bags are not supposed to deflate when you turn the car off- they should hold the air in. You have at least one leaking bag.

The comfort/sport settings adjust the shock and have nothing to do with the air bags so all that means is that your shocks can still be adjusted. If you are not ready for a lift, you can swap the air bags for stock FJ Cruiser or 4Runner springs for the meantime. You could find these at a junkyard or craigslist fairly easily.

If they missed leaky items they probably weren't inspecting the vehicle closely enough.

 

[Infinity00]

Thanks for the info. That might be a good easy way to go for now. So do the airbag delete and put in the coils, or can I leave the airbags in and add coils for now?

 

[HomersCanyonero]

New firestone airbags are $95/pair on amazon, plus installation. There's YouTube videos on how to do this yourself. This is in case you are an airbag aficionado like me and want to keep them.

If you are ready to ditch the airbags, then you need to do research on which shocks and springs you want.

This is what you need:
1. Spring conversion kit with spring isolators ~$230
2. Rear springs, anywhere from $168/pair up to maybe $300/pair (not sure)
3. Rear shocks, ranging from $200/pair for basic up to $600/pair for premium

 

[Infinity00]

Yeah, I was just thinking about replacing just the bags for now but wasn’t sure if I could do that - I saw a complete used setup on craigslist so that made me think I might’ve had to replace entire setup with compressor and valves and what not. Def didn’t want to do all that so I’m glad to know I can just get the bags new off amazon. $95 seems super cheap. I’ll go check

 

[HomersCanyonero]

@Bluetribal posted a link to the firestone air bags he bought

Bluetribal's Baja Build

 

[inovashn]

give me 2 weeks and i'll sell you mine...

 

[GXMac]

New firestone airbags are $95/pair on amazon, plus installation. There's YouTube videos on how to do this yourself. This is in case you are an airbag aficionado like me and want to keep them.

Yea forgot to mention you can just replace the bags... BUT- those Firestone bags that Bluetribal used are helper bags to be used in conjunction with springs- not replacements for the OEM bags. You will need air springs like these if you want to just swap bags.

 

[Infinity00]

Yea forgot to mention you can just replace the bags... BUT- those Firestone bags that Bluetribal used are helper bags to be used in conjunction with springs- not replacements for the OEM bags. You will need air springs like these if you want to just swap bags.

I was wondering! Good info here. More to think about. Will review more tonight and figure out what I want to do. Also, I have a local place here that I’m going to check to see if they have rebuilt ones.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

@GXMac Good clarification. The firestone helper bags are used to inflate/deflate with the stock oem air pump, but are meant to sit inside springs. Not to be used by themselves.

If you only want airbags without springs, then you need the ones with the covers like the ones you posted.

 

[Infinity00]

give me 2 weeks and i'll sell you mine...

I can wait! Are yours still good?!? How much would you want for them.

Thing is, with any of these options I don’t want to spend a lot and then have my compressor or some other integral component go bad...

 

[Infinity00]

I will try to keep my costs low if I just swap bags, otherwise I might as well take the plunge and do the lift

 

[HomersCanyonero]

There's cheaper alternatives like Arnot or these ones...https://www.amazon.com/Brand-Right-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=JYSP7CVSZPF2AS1MJAH0

However, little by little, I'm losing my "airbag aficionado" status. I say repair them cheaply for now and do research on a spring conversion. In fact, save your money and do the front and the rear together. You will spend between $1000 to $2500 on a new spring suspension depending on what you go with.

 

[Infinity00]

Then when I’m in there, I’ll probably want to upgrade my control arms...

 

[HomersCanyonero]

Are you planning on building up your GX470? If you are, it's good to have a plan, so that you can line up the changes to meet your goals. This includes tires, LCAs, UCAs, springs, shocks, wheels, etc.

If you want a frugal low-cost entry-level build up, I have some suggestions...

 

[Infinity00]

Well, I just picked it up from the dealer and the airbags are definitely shot now. It wasn’t bouncy and uncontrollable like it is now. The airbag search did reveal other people lost their air bags after taking it to the dealer. Oh well, time to do research ASAP.

 

[Infinity00]

I wasn’t planning on totally building it up. I already have a jeep and 60 series land cruiser but I was hoping to drive this more and if I found trails hat I wanted to do then have it built enough to be able to do them. I was thinking I’d be more likely to drive this to the farther places since it’s so much more comfy. On the other hand, if I can find a setup that is still a nice comfortable ride but I can still do intermediate stuff I’d be pretty happy.

 

[GXMac]

Well, I just picked it up from the dealer and the airbags are definitely shot now. It wasn’t bouncy and uncontrollable like it is now. The airbag search did reveal other people lost their air bags after taking it to the dealer. Oh well, time to do research ASAP.

If they put it on a lift and didn't deactivate the height control they are most likely ruptured for sure now. There is a height control "OFF" button near the height control switch that turns the system off so the compressor won't overfill the bags during a service.

 

[Bluetribal]

FYI, swapping out the air bags is a little tricky with the air line part of it. There is a special tool to remove it and I tried to figure out away without a tool based on someones successful description. So I ended up just cutting the lines since I wasn't saving the compressor and swapping to springs.

 

[Infinity00]

I called the dealer to let them know this happened while they had it. Not expecting much of a response but I thought they should know. Meanwhile, I’ve parked it until I can figure out the best options.

FYI, swapping out the air bags is a little tricky with the air line part of it. There is a special tool to remove it and I tried to figure out away without a tool based on someones successful description. So I ended up just cutting the lines since I wasn't saving the compressor and swapping to springs.

Good to know, so I might not want to go that route, or see if I can pull them before buying the used ones.

If they put it on a lift and didn't deactivate the height control they are most likely ruptured for sure now. There is a height control "OFF" button near the height control switch that turns the system off so the compressor won't overfill the bags during a service.

I was afraid of that. I read about that after I dropped it off and they had already worked on it. You would think they would know not to do that. The AHC was not turned off when I got it back and I hadn’t thought to turn it off. Yeah, they are definitely broken now. Compressor doesn’t turn on either - kinda sucks.