Hello All

After reading about how the air springs mostly last about 10 years I figured this is what is happening to me.
Last week I had the "Suspension Fault" message, without the speed restriction.
As I'm on holiday in Norway atm I first thought it had to do with the dropping temperature.
But now I've seen the front drop to (or a little below) access height while parked for 48 hours.
During a couple of 30km / 30 minute drives (shopping runs) I hear the compressor start once as I removed the trunk (spare wheel) cover and folded the smaller rear seat part forwards.
Is this normal or already too much?
Normally I never hear the compressor run so I have no idea how often it runs.

How do the air springs fail?
Is it possible they blow out, like a tire?
Or do leaks slowly increase to the point the fault with speed restriction appears?

As I'm about 3500km from home this is kinda on my mind.
I still would like to do some more sightseeing up north.
Low temperatures, -10C/-15C here and even lower when driving south again worry me a little.

What do you all think? 2012 4.4TDV8
2000 Honda S2000

The suspension fault is likely because the compressor didn't get the air reservoir up to pressure in the allowed time. As the front drops overnight the assumption can be made that air is leaking from an air-spring preventing the reservoir from filling soon enough.
On rare occasions an air-spring can burst but usually only ever have a slow leak which gets worse which will cause a more severe suspension fault when normal height cannot be achieved within the allowed time which triggers the vehicle being lowered to the bump-stops. Hence delaying replacing the air-spring can get nasty. If this occurs then the vehicle can be restarted then as soon as the vehicle is more or less at normal height the 20A suspension system fuse in the rear fuse panel needs to be removed to prevent the system from again lowering to the bumpstops. The vehicle will lower at the corner that has the leak but at least can be driven. A warning chime and maximum speed error message will regularly occur but they can be ignored.

It's not an ideal place to have this kind of issue. Air loss can also occur on the hoses, hose connectors and valves as well so don't assume it's the springs. The compressor will attempt to keep the pressure up but if it runs too long it will fail. 2012 TDV8 Vogue (L322)

Thanks for the replies.

It's good to know the speed limit warning is just a warning.
I thought it actually reduced the speed as it does when it shows 'Reduced Engine Performance'.
(This happened when the big turbo valve failed to open at some point, that was fixed and never seen again)
With removing the 20A fuse the system stop leveling left/right, I assume?

Yes, the further away from home the more problems, it's always like that.
As it's a 2012 with little over 200.000km I suppose the air springs are most likely the issue, it will be checked out with soap/leak finder when I'm home.
So far the compressor hasn't been running longer than 30-40 seconds, going from normal to off-road.
The display shows it's in off-road height in less than 10 seconds, and by looking how fast it raises I think that's correct.
Is it normal for the compressor to run that long even when the car is at off-road level?

Thanks in advance  2012 4.4TDV8
2000 Honda S2000

They tend to fail right on the bend of material in the air bags at the bottom, where the expansion/contraction takes place. When my front left air spring went at 10 years old (just after I'd been using it in off-road height), I could see obvious cracks in it, and if I stood beside it and raised into off-road height, could see them widen into splits and hear the air gushing out!

I personally wouldn't drive it very far without getting them sorted/replaced - limping to the supermarket carefully is one thing, but 3500km home is quite a journey on broken suspension, given the handling will be pretty compromised if one corner is resting on a bump stop.

'IF' the above is the case, then get some butyl repair tape from a hardware store, clean the airspring where it is leaking with brake cleaner or similar and apply a strip of the tape to the damper core, so that the rubber sleeve will roll over it when you lower the suspension, unless the leak is really bad, that will seal it until you can get home and replace the airspring. I know it works, I've done the above temporary repair and it got me back to UK from Libya many years ago.

This is the sort of thing you need https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0822FNHFQ/

So far it drives normal, the leak(s) can't be very big... yet.

That's a very good tip, Phoenix! Thanks!
There are plenty of automotive part stores (Biltema) along the way south where stuff like that 'must' be available.
It's good to know there is a get-me-home fix available.
 2012 4.4TDV8
2000 Honda S2000

You're more likely to find it in a hardware or plumbing store - they sell anything in Norway, I bought some brass wire for making snares from one, I have no idea what a plumber would use it for!

Just watch the compressor doesn't run too long, it can 'not quite' overheat and cause distortion or scoring of the bore reducing the effectiveness of the compressor which in turn means it needs to run longer. A spray bottle of soapy water will give you an indication of leaks - big bubbles, big leak, small dense bubbles, liveable with in the short term

last week I went to a general electronics store in Lakselv to see if they had the Webasto remote CR11108 battery.
They did, no worries
So I hope the general plumbing store there has the repair tape.
It's always good to have the backup stuff in the car. 2012 4.4TDV8
2000 Honda S2000