Thanks for doing the legwork on searching. Mazurda was the user that kindly shared his manual with me. It did not have any information on air suspension, only coil spring. I paid the piper $15.xx and pulled the instructions on replacing the strut. That’s where I got the bleeding and filling information too. I think I mentioned before they watermark the first page with your user id to try to discourage you from outright sharing their documents though....

With PIWIS you’re supposed to fill the system from the right front line up to 17 bar with nitrogen spec 5.0. Also notes somewhere to fill each individual strut to 7 or 8 bar using that adapter, I’m assuming after installation...

I’m about to take the car back to the shop and ask them to install the Unity strut. I know their price seems high but they are the only highly rated Porsche independent shop near me, that would even quote me a price. The dealers never called me back, even though I asked labor AND parts. I’m running out of time to get the SCITOO strut off the car and shipped back to Amazon...

 

I vaguely recall reading something like that, and then promptly forgetting about because of the need for the PIWIS , even the clones are a bit spendy

If I get to that point I might try and make a manual controller for the valve block and do it that way.

 

Brief update. Towed car back to Porsche Dealer last week and they have agreed to replace the front left strut with a new one under the warranty. Should have back in a day or two. A couple of interesting things. The Snap On Modus Ultra is able to command the individual struts to inflate and deflate. In my case the front left actually went up then after 10 minutes or so was flat again. Also, we looked up under the bellows that covers the airbag/strut interface and could see that one of the two black plastic tabs from the airbag to the strut was broken off. I would have thought those were really for locating the strut but apparently that is enough to allow it to leak. Finally, as we put air in the strut and tried different troubleshooting methods we never heard any air escaping nor were we able to see any air leaks while spraying every part of the strut with soapy water. We even did it with the car in the air, putting air directly into the air bag. Bottom line... If one corner is squatted all the way down, even if you just had them replaced, it's a bad air bag.... period, dot, end of story!

 

what issues did you have with RMT? I was curious if we are experiencing Same issues?

 

Hi Ciaka, thanks for all the useful infos you provide on this forum.

I just wanted an advise if possible. my 2012 panamera 4s had the chassis failure, I did notice that one corner of the car(Front left) was lower than the others. The Porsche dealer told me that I have to change all the height sensors. my question is : wouldn't it be enough to change the sensor of the corner in question? just dont want to get ripped off.. lol

thanks for your time

 

It will be easy for you to tell. Open the hood, remove the triangle trim on either side of hood (where tops of shocks are), use soapy spray to spray water on the air connections and on the top of the shocks. Refer to the air suspension thread for details on how to do it. Once you spray, if you see bubbling, you will know that the system is leaking air.
Think what the mechanic said. Said the height sensors need replacement. Would a height sensor make your car go lower over time? If your height sensor is damaged, it would stop reporting to the ECU on height of the car, and you would have a permanent air suspension fault on your cluster.
As I understand, you drive car, park it, and after some time, the front dips (and you can see because at least one of your front wheel wells are much closer to tire after some time).
Would a defecting height sensor cause the suspension to be lower over time? Chances are not. If you see bubbling top of shocks, it is your 100% proof that you have an air leak. If you do not, there is a chance sensors going bad, but sensors do not go bad, and keep working. These height sensors, get broken, get electrical connection interrupted, the mechanism stops working, but I have not heard of such sensor work to lower your car too much and only after some time passes (a day or so).
Common sense here tells me air leak first, sensor not likely bad. You have to do the check though. Use the thread and do the troubleshooting yourself. Dealer will be more than happy to take 750-1k off your hands for parts and labor to replace both front sensors.
Let us know what you find.

 

Remember, the compressor does not put air into the shocks. The compressor only tops up the air tank that is under your car, where compressed air sits, and when ECU and sensors detect your car get lower, they open valves at the valve block, and the shocks in need to put air from the air tank, into the shocks. Or if too high, the same valves open to drain air out of shock into air tank.

 

These air shocks sometimes leak from under bellows, internally. You wont be able to see any bubbling this way. Only if leaking from top of shock will you see bubbles in a leak.
Just a bit of info. Thanks.

 

Excellent info here too.
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...out-seals.html
similar thread by the same OP on Rennlist.

 

If the system is not leaking, for example you need to replace the valve block, how do you drain the system considering the high pressure?

 

Pop a connector off. It's not going to explode.

 

Agreed, just loosen any of the air lines and let the air bleed off. No sweat

 

If you're just replacing valve block, I would put jacks under front so they don't bottom out. Or anything that will safely keep shocks from bottoming. Then loosen any line ( my thread tells you what line connects for what. Make sure you disable suspension before start.

 

Officially you use PIWIS or an equivalent tool to bleed, and then fill the system with N2 gas. It is not clear whether you can replace the valve block without losing some N2.

I was able to depressurize one air strut and then refill it without losing much, if any, N2, with a Foxwell NT510 Elite. (I heard a tiny bit of gas escape when I loosened the air line to the strut).

 

Same with Icarscan. Just follow the procedure in the tool. You’ll need it if you re-pressurise with N2 (if you are going to do that.)
It pumps the N2 into different places and closes the valves so as not to loose any.
definitely four axle stands - the bags need to ‘dangle’.