Hello all,

A few weeks back I had a local ship replace all the front light bulbs, and they had to remove quite a bit from the front-end to do this. Including the front wheels. It now rides very rough, rocky roadish, and sounds noisy when I go over the smallest of bumps in the road. The shop told me that they put it in "service mode" and that they had Googled about it for Bentley, but I'm a little skeptic that they figured out the Jack Mode.

The car will raise and lower itself when I press the button without any errors that I can see.

Any suggestions on where to begin looking for the cause of this?

 

@xclens ,
Is the suspension in sport mode by any chance ?

Johnny

 

No, when I put it in sport mode it becomes totally unbearable.

 

In previous threads users have used the work 'clunks' when describing the knocking noise. It seems that I could need new bushings?

Edit: There are no issues with the air suspension that I can gather, it raises and lowers itself just fine. And it holds the same height before and after sitting for the night and then going for a drive.

It is when driving over imperfections in the road, speed bumps etc, when the front does that rattling/clunking noise which can also be felt slightly in the steering wheel.

 

Could they have way overinflated your front tires?

 

Bushes seem plausible, maybe drop links? I think your best bet would be to get it on a ramp and check it out.

I'd have thought tyre inflation would have to be barking high, but maybe worth a look.

I can't imagine how the suspension would read ok and yet be in massive sport mode, but then I'm struggling to get my head around how it changes spring rates anyway

C

 

I find it very odd that all was fine, then they put it on the lift to perform the work, and now the ride is horrible.

I would be checking the following before going into front suspension parts, especially if the ride was as good as you say prior to work performed.

1) Tire pressure as already stated.

2) Check the level links (rods) from the body to the lower control arm for proper hookup at both ends, while in there make sure that the plug is seated properly on each level sensor, I only say this because we have no idea what they touched.

3) Check the electrical connection plugs at the top of each strut under the hood/bonnet for proper connection.

4) Run a scan of the level control module #34 for any faults and clear them if any, maybe if you are comfortable with RT VCDS put the suspension through it's test/actions from the drop down menu in VCDS.

As far as the ride difference of the four stages from comfort to sport, it is not just the inflation and deflation of the air bags mounted on the outside of the struts, it is the struts themselves that give the comfort to sport ride via the electronic dampening valves in each strut, when the struts are unplugged, the ride is harsh, I just had that myself as I stated in my rebuild thread, how I plugged the wrong connector onto the driver's side strut with that extra spare plug we all have lying around in our scuttle area.

Then I may start looking at the front end bushings and such, who knows, maybe by the wheels hanging it was the last straw for the upper, lower control arms, and or links.

Johnny

 

As ever, Johnny the voice of experience

Crash course in air bags and just about to try and lear about the damping valves

C

 

Agreed 100 %, first thing to check !

 

​​​​​​Hello @xclens ,
You stated that the work was a few weeks back, when did this ride condition start, right after pickup, or a few weeks later ?

Johnny

 

Thanks so much for the answers!

We will do some digging around. A couple of things:

* The tire pressure was 2.6 for both fronts, the sticker by the driver's side door said 2.9 under 270 km/h, so that is OK.

* The wheels are not loose, although that's really what it sounds/feels like!

* When I place the car in Jack Mode (by pressing the two buttons), I immediately receive a "LEVEL FAULT WORKSHOP!" error on the dash. It goes away when I disengage Jack Mode again. This error comes up if the car is both normal and raised when I place it in Jack Mode.

I received the same error this winter when my battery had died and I had recharged it. Could that be a reason behind the fault? It was immediately after this that I took it to the local shop, so they could go hand in hand. Being a computer nerd, sometimes a computer just needs a good reboot.. Is there a similar thing for Bentleys?! heh

Edit: Sorry I didn't see your question there, Johnny. Right after the 2-3 month winter hiatus (and battery depletion) I drove it 5 minutes to the local shop to have the front bulbs replaced. I do not remember feeling the clunkiness on the drive there, or back for that matter. It just kinda dawned on me since then how rough it now feels compared to before winter. So no, I have no way of saying for sure that it was the shop's fault in any way.

 

Yes, a scan and fault clearing, as most faults will stay as a hard fault, therefore not allowing the faulted system to fully operate or sometimes at all, as a way to protect itself, just as my suspension system compressor would not kick-in until I scanned for old faults, and cleared them, as the parts came from the black GT collision vehicle shown in my rebuild thread, quite a few things did not work properly until the old faults were cleared.

Johnny

 

Thank you, I hope that's all it takes!

I scan & fault clear my Jeep Wrangler on my own, but I'm guessing doing this to a Bentley is a little bit more difficult? Am I able to do this myself?

 

Did you ever get the Ross-Tech VCDS ?

https://store.ross-tech.com/shop/cat/VCDS/

Johnny

 

Thanks, I found a Swedish distributor of Ross-Tech and ordered one! I must have missed that before, I appreciate the reminder.