Davpmars

How can I tell I'd the site ride suspension is working correctly?

I can hear the pump running often but eventually it does turn off. I OK under there and can see a rubber boot that is torn but I'm not sure if that matters.

I typically have about 150 lbs in the rear cargo space and it seems to sag a little even though I have the leveling suspension. Is that typical?

{tpc}

When you first turn on the vehicle, it may run for a few seconds, maybe 10-15? This is normal as the system is looking for proper operation.

When you load the rear past a certain "level" the system should turn on and attempt to return the rear of the truck to its preset level condition. If it doesn't, I would guess the system would either run constantly for a while and then shut off and rinse and repeat.

If the rubber around the bottom of the shocks are torn, and when you hear the compressor turn on the truck doesn't appear to be returning to the normal spot, then your rear shocks are likely bad. (torn rubber is a fairly good indication of this)

This area on the shocks is actually an airbag which inflates from the compressor. That is how the system returns to level once a heavy enough load is put in the back.

The real issue is the fix. If you like the system, it can be expensive to replace. Arnott industries offers oem rebuilds and entire system replacements to change over to a non-air ride system. Either way isn't very cheap, neither is going to the local shock/tire/dealer to have it replaced with oem or oem replacement stuff.

Davpmars

The compressor usually runs for more than a few seconds, more like 3-5 minutes (or possibly longer). The rubber boot is torn pretty bad. My question is: does that boot hold the air or is that simply a dust boot while the air is actually pumped inside the shock itself?

When the system is working properly, should I actually be able to see the rear of the vehicle rise as it is pumping up?

bird

my boots get rock hard once inflated. I had holes in my old ones, and they were not holding air. I never got a service suspension message, I just replaced with Arnott's. Now I think my Compressor is going, as I have received the Service Suspension System message at random, each time it happens I don't hear the compressor kicking on, so I assume it's that. I'm at 171,000 miles on it.

{tpc}

Yes the boots hold air. I don't know if they are called boots or bags or whatever. 3-5 minutes is not normal. Once the compressor goes, your looking at another 4-500 dollars on top of the shocks to replace iirc.

For me I bought used and realized that despite everything seeming to work ok, I wouldn't be very happy if my first attempt at towing failed because the shocks wouldn't inflate. The dealer had just replaced the compressor with new to clear the service suspension, but after reading about the system, I didn't want the new compressor to die right away from running all the time. So I replaced the rears with OEM rebuilds from arnotts.

When I pulled off the originals, even though the boots (or bags lol) did not look torn when on the truck, they were completely torn when off. Maybe they were fragile enough to tear all the way when removed, but I doubt something that has to hold that much psi would be so easily torn.

Just FYI, the fronts are just as if not more expensive, and there are no rebuilds on those, just replacement with new or ones that "bypass" the system. You can also search around here for info on a way to bypass the system for the fronts and go with regular shocks up there.

If your a DYI guy, the rears are pretty easy imo. The fronts, I probably would have done myself, but I was too busy and felt they needed to get done sooner than later.

Davpmars

Thanks everyone

It looks like I need to replace those rear shocks. I like the idea of having the shocks work they way they did when they left the dealer. I found a company that sells the shocks for about $140 a peace. 2000-2013 Chevy/GMC Avalanche, Suburban, Tahoe, Yukon/XL - Bilstein / Arnott Rear Air Shock - Single - AS-2715 | $139.95

I think they are easy enough that I could do it myself in a couple hours.

I didn't even know that the front shocks also had air bags... If those ever go bad, I will definitely bypass those. Don't see the need for that.

{tpc}

Thats a damn good price on those shocks, iirc. The top bolts on the rears can be a little challenging, and you might want to start soaking all the bolts in pb blaster prior to the arrival of the shocks.

Its pretty easy, a couple of hours should be no problem. Be sure to torque everything down to specs. Also, be prepared to remove all the wheel well skirting and tire per side. Maybe you could get away not doing all of it, but its not going to make it easier.

The fronts do not have airbags, but they are specialty shocks as well. They contain a magnetic fluid and have a electrical connector that plugs into the top. The module in truck senses load and ride conditions and sends voltage through this connector to fluid in the shock making the front suspension firmer or softer as needed. You can remove this connector and replace with resistors to trick the system into thinking the special shocks are there.

Not sure how many miles your truck has, but you can tell when the fronts go bad in a couple of ways. Mine were leaking fluid...so that was pretty easy. They also were making a hollow thudding sound when going over smaller bumps. That sound was extremely annoying. A couple of places couldn't (or wouldn't) tell me if it was the shocks or possibly ball joints making the noise. After replacing the shocks, most of the noise went away, but a slightly different noise is there on occasion. Because they wanted to do the ball joints when they did the shocks, tell me the uppers needed replacement, I am fairly certain the noise is related to that. I simply didn't want to pay the crazy prize they quoted to replace them.

Chevytim

I replaced my 2007 shock and strut front assembly to find my replacement did not have the connector the sensing unit, how do you bypass this

{tpc}

I wired in a 3.9 ohm 25 watt resistor in place of the connector which I cut off and kept in case I wanted to get the originals back on it.

I bought self sealing shrinkwrap (has glue inside the wrap) to seal everything up resistor and all and then tie wrapped them to whatever was nearby.

Chevytim

Placing the resistors went great. The check suspension light went off. I am now thinking of changing out the rear with some standard non-air controlled shocks. Do you have a similar solution for the rear. That has the autoride?