Morning all

2010 facelift with VDS struts.....

Car will rise and fall across all 3 height settings.

However will intermittently drop whole front end when switched off. Simetimes takes 30 mins other times will take 3 days, sometimes not at all! Rear is not affected

Will do the same with battery connected or disconnected.

Its in original 2010 struts

The other day i heard a faint hiss from left hand side but today I cant!

Tried soapy water on airbag but cant see much

Im half tempted to bite the bullet and order a new strut but is there a possibility the leak maybe from the air line to strut?

No fault codes...

I dont understand why a leak could be random - either there is a hole or there isnt, right?

Thanks all

Wear / age related leaks occur on the fold so slight changes in strut height can open and close the leak. Best to change both sides. 2012 TDV8 Vogue (L322)

Park it up in off road height and see what it does in the morning, if Ok try parking it up in access height and see the next morning.

Sounds like one of the bags is on its way out. I had this recently, changed one of the struts and bags, then the other one went about 4 weeks later, so probably bite the bullet and change both at the same time.

i had the left side go down one day, then it went up on its own, stayed there for about three days, then went down, this went on for some time.
the guys on here said air bag, but i couldn't hear it leaking
it was the air bag RR 2005 4.4 petrol
Any spelling mistakes are the fault of spellchecker
Previous MG J2, CITROEN light 15 x 2 gone unfortunately
Present MERC 180e, RANGE ROVER L322, JAGUAR XJS, MERC 280SE, MG F, JAGUAR S-Type 6v 2003, jaguar s-type 8v 2004, Ford Cougar

When mine went I coaxed it back home by setting a slightly different suspension height with my GAP IID tool that was just enough to stop the leak. 2012 TDV8 Vogue (L322)

Last year, 2024, one of the front bags on my 2007 tdv8 went somewhat spectacularly on the mot ramp just after the suspension had been raised as part of the test. Funny thing was I didn't think anything of it as the sudden sound of rushing compressed air is normal to me as I have an automatic drain valve on my big compressor in my garage that releases every hour or so for a few seconds. The mot guy on the other hand was alarmed!
Obviously the bag was on its way and could have gone at any time, but it just goes to show how fickle they can be. I had no loss of height overnight, or even many days, before the sudden failure.
Somewhat fortuitous timing too as we were able to diagnose the exact problem at a comfortable working height on the ramp. I wished I had such a ramp when fixing it on the gravel driveway at home.

Chris

It might beneficiary to the bags to raise the vehicle as high as possible and clean the plastic every now and again where the bags sit on regular ride height. Maybe even put silicon spray on that area so nothing sticks to the area easily.