Comment by technothrasher
1 day ago
> If the failure is a physical sensor reading out of range?
Then you buy a new sensor and put it in, just like you would any other failed part.
> You would need a proprietary manufacturer tool to force a relearn or adaptation.
You can do almost anything you need to do with a non-proprietary Autel tool.
I mean, I get it, the manufacturers are absolutely doing their best these days to lock up repair and maintenance. But so many folks seem to throw their hands up and over-exaggerate the inability to fix modern cars. I've always worked on my own cars, from a 1960 Triumph TR3 to a 2025 Audi A3, and everything in between. Maybe once every four or five years have I hit something where I needed to take the car to the dealer, and that was true in the 1980s as well as today. Repair information for newer cars can be somewhat difficult to obtain (looking squarely at you, BMW) but with a bit of sailing the high seas, you can get all the shop manuals.
> Then you buy a new sensor and put it in, just like you would any other failed part.
In the middle of nowhere?
Until the sensor itself has a microcontroller and does a cryptographic handshake with the other side before it's allowed to work, for "security" reasons obviously.
If you're driving to the middle of nowhere you carry spares and tools.
Source: live in Scotland, frequently drive to the middle of nowhere in a Range Rover.
Haha, how far is the middle of nowhere from the nearest town in Scotland? A few dozen kilometres?
4 replies →
From experience if the air suspension ECU freaks out over a sensor reading out of range it's either water in one of the connectors, or the sensor is getting a bit worn and you've run it to the far end of its travel.
Getting the vehicle four-square (possibly jacking up the corner with the faulty sensor so it sits about the right height) and resetting the EAS ECU with a diagnostics tool will solve the problem in the short term.
The other thing of course is you can just get it to sit level or at least level-ish, then unplug the ECU, let it complain about some unspecified fault, and drive it without self-levelling until it can be repaired, probably when you're not knee-deep in mud.