91 Continental suspension

[Petrified]

Left rear drops over night and the rear of car sits very low (about 1 1/2" off the wheel well. Is there an adjustment for the height and is it possible the pump could cause the one wheel to lower?
Thanks for any replys

[BLUECOLLAR]

1)You can adjust the one sensor to raise both sides up.
2)The pump will not cause just one side to be lower.

Driving the car with leaking air struts is making the pump work 2 to 10 times what it was designed to. A good pump won't last long under those conditions.

Sounds to me like the Air Struts are leaking. There are 2 ways to leak test:
#1 Spray a soapy water solution on the rubber bladders of the air struts and look for bubbles(leaks).
#2 After the car is pumped up all the way, turn the suspension switch off and drive it. If the rear goes down, the strut(s) are leaking.

Always replace air struts in pairs. If one strut is leaking, the other WILL leak very soon.

[RC]

Another thing to consider is getting rid of that old air suspension completely. You can replace it with springs and struts for 449.00 + shipping, then you never have to worry about it AGAIN!

I did it about 5 months ago and wouldn't go back for ANYTHING. Check it out http://www.strutmasters.com

As your Cont. ages, it ain't gonna get any better, save yourself some heartache AND some money!

[Petrified]

quote:Originally posted by BLUECOLLAR:
1)You can adjust the one sensor to raise both sides up.
2)The pump will not cause just one side to be lower.

Driving the car with leaking air struts is making the pump work 2 to 10 times what it was designed to. A good pump won't last long under those conditions.

Sounds to me like the Air Struts are leaking. There are 2 ways to leak test:
#1 Spray a soapy water solution on the rubber bladders of the air struts and look for bubbles(leaks).
#2 After the car is pumped up all the way, turn the suspension switch off and drive it. If the rear goes down, the strut(s) are leaking.

Always replace air struts in pairs. If one strut is leaking, the other WILL leak very soon.


Thank you, I will check it this weekend and let you know what happened

[BLUECOLLAR]

If you wanted a taurus....you would have bought a taurus. Think about resale value and overall ride before making that mistake.

There is no way a Continental rides likes a Continental after switching to normal "coil spring" struts! With the factory setup, the car is actually riding on air PLUS is has 2 settings IN THE STRUT, that automatically go from soft to firm while driving.

By the time you spent money on parts and LABOR to do the conversion, you could have bought reman parts and retained the factory ride. :rolleyes:

[mflood]

Goto www.strutmasters.com (http://www.strutmasters.com) and check out their selection of normal shocks and air suspension. Also goto www.bagmasterair.com. (http://www.bagmasterair.com.) These guys offer more air suspension.
This is one solution.
Check out this release from Monroe Shocks: http://www.tenneco-automotive.com/news/newproduct/11021999_3.html
Monroe makes a replacement set for all 4 shox. the part number is LE90001 I think. I just got the shop manual and Star Tester and will be trying to diagnose my own air bag problems. If I can not fix them easily, i have a quote from a tire place for about $820 to replace all 4 with normal shox.

The resale value on a 10yr old vehicle is probably marginal, it may be time to stop the bleeding. If it were a show car, you would just spend the money, otherwise we need functionality as well as form.

Get some paper and do the math. The bottom line is that the conversion kit will only need to be done once, the air suspension will be another maintenance issue in the future.
Something to think about, the final solution...

[BT61]

I bought the Monroe kit today for my 92 Continental. It was $462.00. I assembled the struts today after work and will go in tomorrow and install them. It should take about 1 1/2 hours and my suspension problems should be over. The kit comes with instructions on how to disable the air ride controls and what looks to be a module to kill the warning system. I'll let you know how it turns out.

BT

[mflood]

quote:Originally posted by BT61:
I bought the Monroe kit today for my 92 Continental. It was $462.00. I assembled the struts today after work and will go in tomorrow and install them. It should take about 1 1/2 hours and my suspension problems should be over. The kit comes with instructions on how to disable the air ride controls and what looks to be a module to kill the warning system. I'll let you know how it turns out.

BT

Great Price on the shox! Email me you email address, I would like to talk further about the Monroe shox.

:eek: :D

[BT61]

I got the Monroes on the car tonight. It took a little longer than expected. The fronts were done in 40min. But to get to the tops of the rears, you have to take out the back seat and package shelf so it took another 2hrs to do the rears. The ride is much firmer than the air suspension but still comfortable. If you're like me and bought a Continental in overall good condition with high miles and bad suspension for $250.00, then the Monroe kit is the way to go. But if you want it to ride like a Lincoln it would be best to keep the air.

BT

[RC]

Petrified, what happened?

[Bluegrass]

..I submit the following position respectfully.
..The air suspension vs coil spring suspension seems to be more an issue of mentality than reason.
..Rubber as it is made, is the same process for air bags as for tires in general. As the chemicals leave the rubber, the rubber gets hard and with this, stress cracks develop, same as aged tires. No body objects to replacing tires more often the air bags, and cost more.
..As for coil spring, these cars are heavy and I think it is being under estimated how much more compression the spring is under upon starting, stopping and rough roads use, and could result in earlier failure than on lighter cars.
..The cost of change over seems to be acceptable to some owners in lue of keeping the original system in repair and could be due to lack of wanting to understand the air system operation as opposed to springs that are nearly static devices.
..With the costs of change to coil springs being in the 500 to 700 range plus labor, this is far more than what 4 bags would cost at present prices without debating quality issues. Assuming the airpump has not been allowed to run excessivly into a problem, caused by some system problem being left go to long.
..I short,I feel it's false economy to jump on the coil spring change over just because some one else thought it was a way out of a problem and lose the special features these car have been built with.

[RC]

I would first ask if you have owned a vehicle with both systems for an extended period of time to make the suppositions you have made. I have.

In my case, my computers were insane, the dealer couldn't tell me what was wrong with it. The Solution was to start replacing stuff 'til it quit running around with it's ass in the air.

That was just the computer. That didn't address the fact the rest of the system is 12 years old and questionable at best.

The fact that the dealer didn't know what to do except replace things and there was no one here who knew anything convinced me to do it and I couldn't be more pleased. It's been close to six months and the car is a joy in every way now.

As these Continentals age and continue to lose value, spending money on complicated air systems simply doesn't make sense to me. You replace bags and you've still got dodgy, aging air parts to worry about, where is the sense in that open ended money pit?

It's over. I'll never worry again whether my car will be ass up or ass down when I go out in the morning again, It will be sitting there just like I left it.

As far as strut/springs being a false economy that is almost laughable! My kindly dealer was quite prepared to spend 2500.00 to fix my little problem and guess what! I would still have a 12 year old car with aging air suspension.

Strutmasters has a 5 year guarantee on their struts and I hope to Gawd I don't still have this car 5 years from now! But as long as I do have it I know I will never have to worry about the suspension again and that peace of mind is priceless!

[mflood]

I agree with you RC. I have a 90 Continental. When the front end dropped, I started hitting the boards here and called around for repair. The shops said only the dealer will handle it. I called the dealer and the Service Manager started throwing around prices in the $1000 to $1500 range. :mad: I was taken by suprise. I found out about Strutmasters and then about the direct replacement kit for Continentals from Monroe for about $499 for all 4. On a 10+yr old car that runs well, this is the one-time fix.

I was lucky so far. I borrowed a Star Tester and the Ford Shop Manual and started troubleshooting it. By a miracle, the front came back up and is fine now :confused: tongue.gif .

I checked out www.bagmasterair.com (http://www.bagmasterair.com) and they come to your house and will replace one air strut for $380. The prices for the computer, sensors and compressor can start to add up on an aging vehicle. If mine go, I will go for the Monroes (part no. LE90001) like BT61.