air ride, best course of action?

[elcapitanmas]

Its been a while, and a super busy spring/summer for me so I havn't been on in a long time. The hoe has been put through her paces towing boats, thousands of lbs of camping and fishing gear and the air ride has most likely seen its end. A few months ago upon parking in the driveway there was a def hissing sound coming from the drivers rear area (small box just above the tire) No noticeable difference in ride height or quality at that time. I towed the boat to the lake last night for some fishing and didn't notice the compressor come on when I hooked the boat up. Upon loading the boat back on the trailer at the end of the night I got the service air ride control message on the DIC.

SO the question is............what is my best course of action for repair?

Is it even worth troubleshooting to figure out what component on the auto ride is shot?

What is the ride quality/towing difference if I were to switch to regular shocks?

For the guys that have made the switch, would you do it again and what setup did you go with? I want to keep a level ride, but will occasionally have a ton of gear in the back and be towing a boat.

This couldn't have happened at a worse time as I'm leaving for vacation in 3 weeks and am now worried about how much gear I'll be able to haul and towing the boat may be completely out of the question.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice, and yes, I did my searches.

E

 

[CEN2MENTAL95]

replace the compressor with a new arnott one and go from there!

 

[elcapitanmas]

doesn't look too difficult, price isn't too bad on the compressor. Is there a for sure way to tell if its the compressor thats crapping out or is that just a given. $200 for the compressor right before vacation is a tough nut if it turns out to not be the compressor. I spoke with a friend that has the autoride as well, his crapped out 2 years ago and hes done nothing and had no problems going to florida and back as well as canada towing both times.

 

[krt]

Just replaced my compressor with the Arnott but still have a leak, (suspect shocks). If I put any kind of load on it or in it the compressor runs excessively. I'm pretty sure the shock failure, while towing, is what killed my original compressor.

 

[CEN2MENTAL95]

if your rear shocks aren't holding the air, you'd see rips in the boots

 

[elcapitanmas]

how did you decide to start with the compressor? Was it just not coming on? I have to check when I get home, but I don't think mine is coming on anymore. When it was, it DEF didn't sound right. Did you replace it yourself? If so how bad of a job was it? Doesn't look too dificult and somewhat easy access.

---------- Post added at 11:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 AM ----------

If the rear shocks weren't holding air, i would assume there would be some serious sag issues, everything looks normal.

 

[musicman]

I just did the compressor/shocks last month. I wrote the compressor write up in the tech section. The job is so easy to do it was actually shocking to me.

After a LOT of research and discussion with people on here, I did the Arnott compressor/Remanufactured combo. I liked the ride before, so I just wanted it repaired. Was simple to replace. About 1.5 hours for the compressor, and 45 min per shock going slow. You can order the entire kit from Arnott, and it will be at your house in a few days. The shocks have a lifetime warranty which is nice as well.

FWIW, with an 06 (I didn't see a milage count) I wouldn't replace the compressor without replacing the shocks. I believe the service life on them is around 120k. Whole set-up will cost about $600 or so. If you went to a GM dealer, it would be $600 per shock parts only.

 

[elcapitanmas]

Musicman, you wouldn't happen to remember where you ordered the kit from would you? I doubt I'll be able to do the shocks myself, but it makes sense to order the whole kit. I only have 76k on my 05 but the shocks would have to be replaced eventually anyway.

 

[OHSIXX]

Its been a while, and a super busy spring/summer for me so I havn't been on in a long time. The hoe has been put through her paces towing boats, thousands of lbs of camping and fishing gear and the air ride has most likely seen its end. A few months ago upon parking in the driveway there was a def hissing sound coming from the drivers rear area (small box just above the tire) No noticeable difference in ride height or quality at that time. I towed the boat to the lake last night for some fishing and didn't notice the compressor come on when I hooked the boat up. Upon loading the boat back on the trailer at the end of the night I got the service air ride control message on the DIC.

SO the question is............what is my best course of action for repair?

Is it even worth troubleshooting to figure out what component on the auto ride is shot?

What is the ride quality/towing difference if I were to switch to regular shocks?

For the guys that have made the switch, would you do it again and what setup did you go with? I want to keep a level ride, but will occasionally have a ton of gear in the back and be towing a boat.

This couldn't have happened at a worse time as I'm leaving for vacation in 3 weeks and am now worried about how much gear I'll be able to haul and towing the boat may be completely out of the question.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice, and yes, I did my searches.

E

That is where the compressor is-are you sure the air line just didn't come off the compressor? After startup you should crawl under there and listen. You can get a replacement one from Arnott. I picked up a set of shocks and compressor in a package via ebay. Compressor is easy to do-just be prepared to replace the 3 mounting bolts as they will most likely snap off. Not a big deal though-just drill out the old ones and replace with a little larger diameter self tapping screw. Plenty of threads on this subject-some with pics.

 

[elcapitanmas]

Im not even sure the compressor is coming on anymore, when I hooked the boat up last night the compressor didn't come on and usually it does, I'll have to do a little more digging tonight.