Air ride compressor sanity check

[Go Mifuni]

If I put 12v to the black and red wires on the air ride compressor and nothing happens, it's dead, right?

[Richy04]

It doesnt work that way, the compressor has a switch which must determine the ride height in the rear, too high, it lets air out, too low, the compressor engages. You should start by checking the fuse, then the switch, if you disconnect the rod you will be able to work the switch to see if the system resonds to the rod movement. Some systems have two ride height switches. I never looked at the MM so maybe someone can fill us in on which type it has.

Hooking up power to the system may not engage the compressor unless you go directly to the compressor motor, if you did go direct to the motor and it doesnt spin and you bypassed all of the electrical components which trigger it, suspect a compressor failure.

[fastblackmerc]

The MM has one (1) ride height sensor located on the Watts link.

[Go Mifuni]

Yeah, I suspected an issue with the compressor so I took it out and applied voltage to the red and black wires directly going into the compressor and got nothing.
I just want to be absolutely sure it's dead before I buy a new one. I did find some good info searching here. I'm going to replace the dryer also as that seems to be advised alot.
I followed a trick from someone here about getting air into my shocks while I wait for my compressor to come in.
I took the air line that comes out of the compressor and hooked my little tire compressor up to it. I turned it on and started the car. At this time, the compressor usually comes on and the soleniod opens for the shocks. After 10 seconds (solenoid open and compressor run time), I shut off the car and restarted it. I did this a few times and started to get the rear to rise. After I got it up to an acceptable level (and before I burned out my li'l compressor) I shut off the switch in the trunk so the solenoid would stay closed. Pretty cool.