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I had noticed over the last couple of weeks a gentle list/tilt to the right on my Kakadu. I've only had this Prado a couple of months and it may have been there from the start. Measuring the wheel arch heights showed a 25mm difference with the right side of the car being lower. Techstream also confirmed a 36mm difference. The KDSS has been working well and the rear air suspension system works fine for all three levels it is just that the back end moves up and down on a slight angle.
Any way, I checked out my service manual and see that there is a tilt calibration procedure and it seemed pretty straight forward. It involves loosing a couple of control valve on the KDSS stabiliser control module and then simply rocking the car until the car is level. This unit is located underneath the vehicle on the left side roughly inline with the B pillar. It sits on the outside of the chassis rail between this rail land the side step. Access is easy from underneath - no need to put the car on a hoist (you can't anyway). There's a protection plate covering it too. Pics below.
The steps are.
1. Make sure the car is park on a level surface with the front wheels dead straight. Bounce the car's suspension left to right to stabilise it. I stood on the side step and grabbed the roof rail and shook the car with my weight.
2. Ensure tyre pressures are all equal
3. Vehicle is off and in park. Check you vehicle heights on each side at the each rear wheel for a reference.
4. Remove the protection plate. You'll need a 12mm socket here either 3/8" or 1/2" drive to remove the bolts as they are quite tight.
5. Loosen the two control valve (see pics) with a 10mm spanner or socket (they're not very tight) until the head of is around 10-12 away from the body. This takes around 2-3 turns only. Do not remove these valves.
6. Shake the car again left to right until the vehicle levels out. I shook mine for a few seconds each time and then measured the heights of each side. Rinse and repeat. Took only a few goes to get it correct for me. I got mine to around a 2mm tolerance which is great. I can't tell there's a tilt looking from behind the vehicle.
7. Re-tighten the valves. These were not very tight so be careful. These are steel valves in an aluminium valve body. Spec say only 9.0Nm.
8. Put the protection plate back.
9. Double check your heights and you're good to go. If this procedure doesn't fix the problem then there's another procedure to bleed the system and that looks painful.
Hopefully that helps someone out in the future. Can be done in only ten minutes is you're prepared.
Any way, I checked out my service manual and see that there is a tilt calibration procedure and it seemed pretty straight forward. It involves loosing a couple of control valve on the KDSS stabiliser control module and then simply rocking the car until the car is level. This unit is located underneath the vehicle on the left side roughly inline with the B pillar. It sits on the outside of the chassis rail between this rail land the side step. Access is easy from underneath - no need to put the car on a hoist (you can't anyway). There's a protection plate covering it too. Pics below.
The steps are.
1. Make sure the car is park on a level surface with the front wheels dead straight. Bounce the car's suspension left to right to stabilise it. I stood on the side step and grabbed the roof rail and shook the car with my weight.
2. Ensure tyre pressures are all equal
3. Vehicle is off and in park. Check you vehicle heights on each side at the each rear wheel for a reference.
4. Remove the protection plate. You'll need a 12mm socket here either 3/8" or 1/2" drive to remove the bolts as they are quite tight.
5. Loosen the two control valve (see pics) with a 10mm spanner or socket (they're not very tight) until the head of is around 10-12 away from the body. This takes around 2-3 turns only. Do not remove these valves.
6. Shake the car again left to right until the vehicle levels out. I shook mine for a few seconds each time and then measured the heights of each side. Rinse and repeat. Took only a few goes to get it correct for me. I got mine to around a 2mm tolerance which is great. I can't tell there's a tilt looking from behind the vehicle.
7. Re-tighten the valves. These were not very tight so be careful. These are steel valves in an aluminium valve body. Spec say only 9.0Nm.
8. Put the protection plate back.
9. Double check your heights and you're good to go. If this procedure doesn't fix the problem then there's another procedure to bleed the system and that looks painful.
Hopefully that helps someone out in the future. Can be done in only ten minutes is you're prepared.
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