Leveling Kakadu air suspension side to side

[Phs Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Phs]

Hi,

I have been attempting to get my rear air bags to sit level left to right with no luck
Prior to lift it was leaning about 10mm-15mm to the passanger side, straight after lift it was 15-20mm
After it all settled the front is spot on and the rear was 20mm lower to the drivers side
I spoke with airbag man they could only suggest packing the drivers side sensor another 6mm or so they also mentioned the airbags will force any KDSS lean out of there was Any ( doubtful as the front is good )
So I packed it out another 5mm and it raised the drivers side by 10mm so only 10mm from one side to the other
Now over 3-4 weeks it has gone back to 20mm ? There has to be something that is overriding the indevidual L and R sensors it's just to much of a coincidence for them to revert back to 20mm again

Any ideas ?

[Guest Close Guest]

Are you parking on level ground?

[Phs Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Phs]

Yeah, always check it in my garage which has a level concrete base.

The odd thing was when I further packed the drivers side sensor it initially made a difference but now it has reverted back to the same 20mm lean
Do the sensors connect to a module ?

[Guest Close Guest]

1 of the sensors controls the headlight levelling system. Not sure which one.

Usually if you park on uneven ground, the issue comes back.

Adjusting the front struts will make more of a difference than the rear.

[Phs Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Phs]

The Front sits level.

Statewide also mentioned the headlight leveling being at the back he discribed it as the hight sensor too
These are the same sensors air bag man pack out to raise rearbag hight

So are we saying that there is no L to R hight adjustment ? Just one is the " rear " the other is " headlights "
It does sound odd

I'll have to get back into Airbag man again tomorrow, there engineer was confidant packing the drivers side one further should level L to R

[Guest Close Guest]

Given the ladder chassis is pretty rigid, if the front is level, the rear should be also. So you need to rule out other differences like floor level, tyre pressure, tread depth. Maybe reverse park into your garage.

[Phs Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Phs]

I hear what you are saying but the measurements from bottom of rim to wheel arch are as follows

FDrivers 800
FPass. 805
RDrivers. 810
RPass. 830

Visiblely looks unlevel at back on all surfaces and looks level at front

[Milkmanstan Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Milkmanstan]

PHS,
You will need a scan tool to see the output of the sensor. It seems that if you move one sensor the other sensor reading changes and does not remain static and you will have to re adjust. I use a foxwell scan tool to take the live data reading, sensor height is displayed in mm. Norminal sensor reading at normal height is 2.3v - 2.6v.

Steps required
1) Measurement of rear height should be done using the front rear control arm bolt centre.
2) Turn off the air suspension switch.
3) Jack up the lower side to measurement you want at the rear frame. The higher side may shift down, so jack up both side to desired height.
4) Check reading of sensor reading and zero both sides( as close as possible) Note that by moving on sensor the other sensor reading changes so a few adjustment is required to get them both zeroed.
5) Start vehicle and cycle through high and low mode and back to normal level mode. Inspect the vehicle height. The sensor reading will not be exactly at zero. mine show approx. 5mm diff with driver side lower and passenger side approx. +/- 0.3mm
5)If car is still leaning more than 20mm perform KDSS vehicle tilt calibration. Do not open KDSS shutter valve more than 3 turns!
6) Perform zero point calibration after you are done adjusting the ride height.

Hope this helps.

[Phs Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Phs]

PHS,
You will need a scan tool to see the output of the sensor. It seems that if you move one sensor the other sensor reading changes and does not remain static and you will have to re adjust. I use a foxwell scan tool to take the live data reading, sensor height is displayed in mm. Norminal sensor reading at normal height is 2.3v - 2.6v.

Steps required
1) Measurement of rear height should be done using the front rear control arm bolt centre.
2) Turn off the air suspension switch.
3) Jack up the lower side to measurement you want at the rear frame. The higher side may shift down, so jack up both side to desired height.
4) Check reading of sensor reading and zero both sides( as close as possible) Note that by moving on sensor the other sensor reading changes so a few adjustment is required to get them both zeroed.
5) Start vehicle and cycle through high and low mode and back to normal level mode. Inspect the vehicle height. The sensor reading will not be exactly at zero. mine show approx. 5mm diff with driver side lower and passenger side approx. +/- 0.3mm
5)If car is still leaning more than 20mm perform KDSS vehicle tilt calibration. Do not open KDSS shutter valve more than 3 turns!
6) Perform zero point calibration after you are done adjusting the ride height.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, just a few questions and I might be able to have a go.

2.3-2.6v is tell me the sensors are operating correctly, If they are outside of this range they need to be replaced ?

1) bolt centers on upper control arms that connect to the sensors
2) turn off via in cabin switch
3) got it
4) how do I zero the sensors, via adding or removing spacing on the sensor or via the bolted adjustment arm ? the airbag man kit requires the sensors to be spaced to gain lift do I want it start at 0 ?
5) got it
6) not sure what this is

[Milkmanstan Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Milkmanstan]

Hi Phs,

Sensor @ high mode - 4.4 - 4.6V
Sensor @ normal mode- 2.3- 2.6 V
Sensor @ Low mode - 0.4 - 0.6V


1) Toyota uses the measurement of the lower control arm bolt ( forward most) to check vehicle height. More specifically. Gound to centre of wheel hub - height of lower control arm bolt= 65mm= Difference between wheel hub centre and rear lower control arm bolt( forward most) @ standard Kakadu height). Mine is 365 - 300= 65mm. Yours would be different due to raised height.

4) The sensor are normally adjusted by loosening the 12mm nut on the slide hole. Pushing the sensor arm bolt upwards tells ecu that level is too low add air. If you use a scan tool under air suspension/ live data mode. It should show the sensor height readings, mine does it in mm and not volts. Just set it to 0mm both sides at height you want.
As you have raised the suspension, Adding washers effectively moves the sensor arm upwards as it moves the sensor downwards which would tell ecu that the vehicle is low and add air to compensate. In your case, washer might be needed as there might not be enough adjustment in the slides to compensate for the raised height.

Easiest is to use a scantool to see what the sensor is reading and adjust the sensor arm bolt by "slide hole" to fine tune in order to avoid too much left right imbalance. Things can get confusing under the car especially after breathing too much exhaust fumes.

6) Don't bother for now... if you have VSC kicking in too much than you'll get this done.

Cheers

[Phs Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Phs]

Thanks a lot mate

Cool think I have got it, I'll just use tech stream and load up air suspension, then jack up drivers side from chassis till it is level and adjust via the 12mm bolts till I get it to 0. The bolts already are very close to the top of there adjustment and are in the same position both sides but the rear still sits fairly low especially drivers side.

I'll most likely just bring the passanger side down slightly if that works

[Phs Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Phs]

Something is playing up there is no consistency,
After seeing a lean last week I scrolling through all modes and it was 20mm out to the drivers side
Today it looked fine So I put the tape over it and it is only 7mm out leaning towards the drivers side
As before the front is the same a few MM lean to the drivers side.

[Phs Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Phs]

Played around with the sensors again, the drivers side one does not seem to respond to changes
The passanger side one seems to adjust both sides together but with about a 15mm lean to the drivers side
loaded up tech stream not anything I can see that can be adjusted I did take snap shots of the sensor hight measurements does not make any sense to me

Normal mode


High mode


Low mode

[Milkmanstan Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Milkmanstan]

Hi Phs,

I am assuming that you have a extended airbag matching the lift in the front.

Both your sensors should read 0mm at normal mode. Did you adjust and set both sensors to read 0mm after jacking each side to the correct/desired ride height?
Your sensor height readings should be consistent and have less than 10mm side to side variation when cycled through the 3 height modes. i.e +40mm at high, 0mm at normal, -20mm at low. If not perform kdss tilt calibration.

Your rear right sensor shows -83mm. Which means that the sensor is telling height control ECU that right side is low but your left sensor ( +79.1mm) is telling it that is too high. I think the imbalance of the left and right sensor reading confuses the height control ECU. Tip- Adjusting nut upwards in sliding hole makes it more negative.

[Guest Close Guest]

The ECU takes an average reading from both sensors to determine how much air to pump or release. The system has to work (raise and lower) when on uneven ground. I don't believe that the airbags are independent. You would need to bleed the KDSS system or make some small adjustments to the front level (or both).