Air Compressor Replacement + Air Line & Air Shocks inspection DIY

Thought I'd post this as it may be helpful for others. Especially if you can DIY and don't want to pay Tesla many £1000's to fix these air compressor/suspension-related issues.

I started to hear my air compressor turning on a lot more than it used to and it was getting a lot noisier than it used to be. At the same time, I started getting 'Air Compressor Disabled, Car Cannot Raise' messages, these increased as the temperature dropped to 0c and below.

The other issue I noticed was that the front left suspension was losing pressure and making the car sag on that front side. Clearly, this air shock or the lines to it were leaking and in turn making the compressor run a huge amount more than it was designed for.

To test the lines and suspension I got some leak detection spray and covered all the lines, connections, pumps and tank with it to see if anything was leaking. It wasn't. On to the shocks and the suspect shock created a nice foam party The other front one is fine as were both the back ones.

Good one:

Bad one:

Next thing to tackle was the Air Compressor itself. I would have loved to rebuild this but I can't find the parts, unfortunately. I found that this pump is used in the Audi Q5, Lamborghini Huracan, Porshe Panamera and probably others. It's made by Wabco with the motor by Lucas. I took it all apart and it was full of rust and most probably the press-fit piston ring shot. I have pics of this dismantled if anyone wants me to post them. I ordered a 3rd party part for £300. It has arrived and I fitted it today. It works well and is super quiet! The replacement air shock won't be with me for another 10 days so it will have to handle being used a little bit more than usual for a few days.

While changing the compressor I found another issue. One of the lines from the pump had been rubbed away by its surroundings. It's probably 0.1mm away from a pinhole! I'll order a new piece of line for this and move it away from the rubbing parts near it.

Compressor location (after I removed it) and 2nd pic circled where the black line had been rubbing against the electrical connector:

You need a few hours to troubleshoot, take things apart, and remove and reinstall the air compressor but it's an easy job. You do have to jack up the car (put it in jack mode) and remove the FR wheel so for anyone attempting this, make sure you use the right safety measures, Jack stands etc.

 

[Zuikkis]

Thanks a lot!

 

[Tech Geek]

I guess it’s not a $5,000 repair after all huh? Lying Service Team at Tesla.

 

[jookyone]

Following other threads and now this one. I have the "Air Suspension Adjustment Is Not Available, Car May Not Be Level" message which happened during a long distance drive thru a snow storm. Is it possible that just emptying the system and recharging with Nitrogen is an option? I noticed in service mode it described needing to have Nitrogen if I hit the deflate sequence. In my case the front wheels properly raise and lower, however in service mode on the Chassis > Suspension screen the values the rear shows -2mm and 86mm which would seem to indicate some other issue with the ride height sensors. The rear wheels will not raise to the same level of the front, but do appear to raise and lower albeit slightly. Additionally if I lower them to anything lower than normal it immediately goes into Jack Mode.

Funnily enough when I took my other car in for an alignment, they brought it back out and it looked like the rear wheels were slammed to the ground like a lowrider and I asked "Does that look right to you?" at first they replied "Yea looks right" and so I walked them over to another car 10 ft away and said "See the difference?" They took it back in and about 20 mins later had it resolved and said there was some procedure to recalibrate the min/max on the ride height (that was the extent of the explanation). I feel like simple access to whatever this recalibration step is might solve my issue, but who knows. @MobileClimate do you have any insight into the "ride height recalibration" procedure and if that's even a thing? Based on what I'm reading here, I don't think I have a leak and my compressor seems to function properly. Just tracking the coincidence in weather causing issues with water in the system. If I have water in a line that is feeding front vs rear struts, that would add up, but I don't have enough direct knowledge to know how this all works.

Cheers!

 

[MobileClimate]

After raising to high and than back to std on a level ground both the front and rear should at 0 mm with setting at standard level + or -5 mm mine is a 0 every time. You want to fix that because the system will try to level that setting while driving if you don’t have it already in limp mode ..you wanna put the car in service mode plus and drive it with CAN viewer on the screen so you can see what the car is doing while driving down the road

 

[Zuikkis]

The way the sensors work, it's a rotating potentiometer that is being rotated by a lever that is connected to a suspension link.

If car is raised too high or too low, it is possible that the sensor lever flips around to the wrong side. Then it will show incorrect values, and also will measure in wrong direction! Show less when should be more..

I'm pretty sure this is what has happened when they did the alignment. It should be an easy fix. Remove wheel, pop the sensor lever free from its ball joint, rotate lever 180 degrees and reconnect..

 

[Tech Geek]

Funnily enough when I took my other car in for an alignment, they brought it back out and it looked like the rear wheels were slammed to the ground like a lowrider and I asked "Does that look right to you?" at first they replied "Yea looks right" and so I walked them over to another car 10 ft away and said "See the difference?" They took it back in and about 20 mins later had it resolved and said there was some procedure to recalibrate the min/max on the ride height (that was the extent of the

Cheers!

This is what’s so frustrating with Tesla service.

 

[infinkc]

​

DESCRIPTION​

During normal driving a burst of pressurized air can be heard venting into atmosphere.

The Electronic Air Suspension (EAS) system is filled with nitrogen and if a leak is present, the system will compensate by drawing in normal air from outside. Ambient air expands more than nitrogen and may cause the system to go over the expected maximum system pressure.

​

Curious on this.
So i had a leak on my left front strut for awhile, to the point the compressor was working overtime and went out. I changed the compressor and the strut, i didnt let any air out of the tank, just what was in the lines.

The X moves up and down fine now. I dont hear the compressor "blowing off" air anymore.

Do i need to get the system drained and filled with nitrogen? Curious as i thought the system was a "closed" system, but obviously its not as all the nitrogen would have been lost from the leaking strut. I dont have any pressure gauges that go up to 300psi to see what the system has in it.

 

[MobileClimate]

What year is the x ? EAS is only the older systems That's why i believe they got rid of the continental system because it wouldn't compensate for a leak like the TAS system will ..Yes i would put nitrogen in it because it removes moisture from the system. moisture is going to cause a valve block to not seal etc
I dont have real data to prove this but the handling of the car seemed better after filling with nitrogen and at normal height im always at 0 all the way around plus or minus 5

 

[MobileClimate]

Tesla air suspension updated may 3 2023

If there is a leak in the system, dry air escapes the system through the leak instead of through the exhaust valve. As a result, not all dry air runs through the dryer when lowering the vehicle. The dryer has to dry more air than it can use to regenerate. At some point the dryer becomes saturated and can no longer dry the ambient air. This is the moment where water starts to enter the system. This can quickly lead to corrosion of valves and compressor or in cold climates lead to frozen valves.

 

[buckets0fun]

What year is the x ? EAS is only the older systems That's why i believe they got rid of the continental system because it wouldn't compensate for a leak like the TAS system will ..Yes i would put nitrogen in it because it removes moisture from the system. moisture is going to cause a valve block to not seal etc
I dont have real data to prove this but the handling of the car seemed better after filling with nitrogen and at normal height im always at 0 all the way around plus or minus 5

Lol. Sorry… you’re saying that adding nitrogen to the (non sealed) air suspension system, made the car handle better? I am… struggling… not to laugh.

Confirmation bias is strong here. “I spent 30$ to fill this with nitrogen, it is obviously better than plain air with lower nitrogen content”

 

[MobileClimate]

Technically if you leave your system on low that nitrogen will stay in the system the whole time i never hear my compressor run anymore and that was after a nitrogen fill to 300 psi .. on the older systems it is a sealed system and it does matter

 

[hydro]

Technically if you leave your system on low that nitrogen will stay in the system the whole time i never hear my compressor run anymore and that was after a nitrogen fill to 300 psi .. on the older systems it is a sealed system and it does matter

Just so I understand correctly : "on the older systems", is that in reference to EAS = Continental system ? If so, when you mention it does matter, could you tell me what it means for me as I have an S with such a system (2013). Thanks in advance

 

[DCGOO]

Lol. Sorry… you’re saying that adding nitrogen to the (non sealed) air suspension system, made the car handle better? I am… struggling… not to laugh.

Confirmation bias is strong here. “I spent 30$ to fill this with nitrogen, it is obviously better than plain air with lower nitrogen content”

In particular, since regular plain air is 80% nitrogen already.

 

[buckets0fun]

Technically if you leave your system on low that nitrogen will stay in the system the whole time i never hear my compressor run anymore and that was after a nitrogen fill to 300 psi .. on the older systems it is a sealed system and it does matter

It physically can NOT be a sealed system.

You really need to understand how air suspension works.

 

[MobileClimate]

Nitrogen doesn’t expand like the air when affected to temperature changes. Your suspension system will not have different behavior depending on the fork temperature. On the long down hills the damping will stay constant from the beginning to the end.

– This is an inert gas. By removing the oxygen and humidity there is no corrosion within the internal components, extending the lifespan.

– Oxygen molecules contained in the air are 4 times smaller than the Nitrogen ones. By using Nitrogen there is less mass loss along the time which translates into keeping the initial preload settings much longer than with air.

The compressor run time is very little with nitrogen compared to long run times to get to 280 psi is a lot of wear and tear and battery drain on the system

Contrary to popular belief, the stock suspension compressor is only strong enough to balance the pressure between air bags and the air tank. It’s not powerful enough to pressurize the air tank to 250psi.

 

[buckets0fun]

Nitrogen doesn’t expand like the air when affected to temperature changes. Your suspension system will not have different behavior depending on the fork temperature. On the long down hills the damping will stay constant from the beginning to the end.

– This is an inert gas. By removing the oxygen and humidity there is no corrosion within the internal components, extending the lifespan.

– Oxygen molecules contained in the air are 4 times smaller than the Nitrogen ones. By using Nitrogen there is less mass loss along the time which translates into keeping the initial preload settings much longer than with air.

The compressor run time is very little with nitrogen compared to long run times to get to 280 psi is a lot of wear and tear and battery drain on the system

Contrary to popular belief, the stock suspension compressor is only strong enough to balance the pressure between air bags and the air tank. It’s not powerful enough to pressurize the air tank to 250psi.

Please explain to me how your air struts cycle back to the tank to unload said magic nitrogen back into the reserve tank.

Can you show the valve body and the series of lines to these struts that allow the air to flow out of the strut and into a storage tank?

You can charge the tank with nitrogen, but it will not stay in the system if your car’s height adjusts. It will go back to the pump taking over.

The system does not work how you’re attempting to describe. At. All.

 

[MobileClimate]

The Electronic Air Suspension (EAS) system is filled with nitrogen and if a leak is present, the system will compensate by drawing in normal air from outside. Ambient air expands more than nitrogen and may cause the system to go over the expected maximum system pressure.

with no leaks it uses nitrogen from the reservoir

 

[MobileClimate]

• list of codes related to air leak in system
• 
  
• #4266- EAS_556298 - Compressor temperature very high
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #4596- EAS_556292 - Switch on Time Compressor Relay Exceeded
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #20935- [EAS] Air suspension compressor purging air while running
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #22895- EAS_111666 - Compressor temperature too high
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #24559- TAS_a121_maxDutyFL
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #24560- TAS_a122_maxDutyFR
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #24561- TAS_a123_maxDutyRL
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #24562- TAS_a124_maxDutyRR
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #24563- TAS_a125_maxDutyReservoir
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #24566- TAS_a128_maxDutyCompressor
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #24608- TAS_a293_frontAxleTooLow
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #24609- TAS_a294_rearAxleTooLow
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #26134- TAS_a295_targetHeightNotMet
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #29268- TAS_a224_openAirline
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #46914- [Pre-FW 2023.2] TAS2_a121_maxDutyFL
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #46915- [Pre-FW 2023.2] TAS2_a122_maxDutyFR
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #46916- [Pre-FW 2023.2] TAS2_a123_maxDutyRL
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #46917- [Pre-FW 2023.2] TAS2_a124_maxDutyRR
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #46918- [Pre-FW 2023.2] TAS2_a125_maxDutyReservoir
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #46921- [Pre-FW 2023.2] TAS2_a128_maxDutyCompressor
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #46969- [Pre-FW 2023.2] TAS2_a213_yellowWarningLamp
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #46979- [Pre-FW 2023.2] TAS2_a224_openAirline
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #46990- [Pre-FW 2023.2] TAS2_a295_targetHeightNotMet
  (No Model Qualifiers)
• 
  #72600- [Pre-FW 2023.2] TAS2_a175_staticLeakDetectRL
  (No Model Qualifiers)

 

[Zuikkis]

@MobileClimate thanks for the schematic! I have known that the Continental system is closed loop, but never really figured out how it works.

But it really seems that when lowering the car, it uses the compressor to push nitrogen back into the tank. There is an environmental valve, but that probably isn't used if gas can fit into the tank.

 

[MobileClimate]

@MobileClimate thanks for the schematic! I have known that the Continental system is closed loop, but never really figured out how it works.

But it really seems that when lowering the car, it uses the compressor to push nitrogen back into the tank. There is an environmental valve, but that probably isn't used if gas can fit into the tank.

Even tesla techs don’t know how the system works but to find the leak can be very time-consuming. Remember it doesn’t fill the system all the way intill your going 50 mph plus so you could have leak but not hear the compressor running

Auto-filling whilst driving works according to below thresholds.

• If vehicle speed is greater than 80 km/h (50 mph), the reservoir will start filling if reservoir pressure is 17 bar or less.
• If vehicle speed is between 40 and 80 km/h (25 and 50 mph), the reservoir will start filling if reservoir pressure is 15 bar or less.
• If vehicle speed is between 16 and 40 km/h (10 and 25 mph), the reservoir will start filling if reservoir pressure is 8 bar or less.
• If vehicle speed is between 0 and 16 km/h (0 and 10 mph) and reservoir pressure drops below 8 bar, the reservoir will start filling and stop filling at 18 bar.

Fill spring(s) from compressor (reservoir pressure = 0-4 bar)link​

The compressor will use ambient air to raise the air springs. This is only done when then the reservoir is almost empty.

this is on the newer system same concept its not taking ambient air its reusing the tank