Community Forums

NowGo · 07-10-2024, 11:23 AM

My Classic has always lost front air bag pressure when parked, takes a week or so. It has always settled down equally from side to side.

I now have an issue where over time the coach drops down more on one side - about 2 inches more on the passenger side than on the driver's side.

When aired up it levels off as it should. I am wondering if I have an air ride valve that is leaking ? I don't quite understand how one side can leak off and not have both bags drop. I also don't remember it previously dropping as far down as the passenger side is now dropping, although that could be my imagination.

I am thinking this issue is pretty unique ? Has anyone else ran into this ?

brobox · 07-10-2024, 11:28 AM

I had that problem on one of my coaches, it was the ride height valve, it was split. Can you hear the air leak when fully aired up, everything shut of and in a quite area? I could hear mine leaking. If not, spray all of your air line connections with soapy water.
I took mine to Florida Spring and Axle, come to find out they had a mobile unit that would have come to my location. It's common on trucks and they make "house calls."

NowGo · 07-10-2024, 12:12 PM

Just aired up and checked for an air leak I could hear. Nothing. I will check with soap and water next.

I am now wondering if the coach is road worthy for a few day trip, only about 400 miles round trip. I will be able to get it into a service location when I get back

brobox · 07-10-2024, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NowGo

Just aired up and checked for an air leak I could hear. Nothing. I will check with soap and water next.

I am now wondering if the coach is road worthy for a few day trip, only about 400 miles round trip. I will be able to get it into a service location when I get back

If you can't hear the air leaking and the gauge doesn't fall to below 75 psi instantly, you'll be fine to drive 400 miles.
Mine split on top of Vail Pass, I could hear the air leaking with the window open, made it to the rest area a few miles ahead. . Patched it with, JB WELD and wrapped it with duct tape. Had lunch and took a long walk waiting for it to setup. Made it to Denver Cummins, to late to look at it so we spent the night. Next morning Cummins said it would be 2 weeks to get the part in, He took the duct tape off, looked at it and said the patch was better than new and said to run it. I ran it for 11 year, never replaced it.

The JB Weld was stronger than the factory sonic weld that had split.

NowGo · 07-10-2024, 03:20 PM

Chuck,

Thanks to you I believe I found the culprit.

No leaks at the levelling valve, but I traced the lines through a hole in the frame rail to what I believe is just a tiny manifold (might be some other device, not sure).

Soapy water did the trick, it is a brass 90 elbow that appears to have started to leak at the threads, picture attached.

VERY slow leak.

However, I will need to bleed off air to back out the fitting and re-seal, looks like that is a job for a service center. I don't have big enough jack stands to make it safe so I'll leave it for the technicians with the gear.

brobox · 07-10-2024, 05:59 PM

The good news, it won't ruin your trip coming up and it is an easy fix.

JazzBus1 · 03-23-2025, 02:53 PM

Hi Everyone,

I have 2016 Entegra Anthem. I’ve noticed the coach seems to be sagging on the front passenger side after parked for a few hours/when stored but not so much on the driver side. I’ve seen a few posts regarding the ride height valve or another fitting that was leaking after spraying some soapy water on it. Specifically where am I looking for these valves under the wheel well? Any help to assess would be appreciated. Also someone mentioned that these type of “fixes” can be done by a Mobil repair… any suggestions on if that’s accurate? Taking it to the truck dealer that services the spartan chassis wants $500+ just to diagnose.

Thanks everyone!!

JazzBus1 · 03-23-2025, 02:54 PM

Where is this located? I seem to have a similar issue.

NowGo · 03-24-2025, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JazzBus1

Where is this located? I seem to have a similar issue.

Jazzbus1,

I tried to get a picture of our levelling valve this morning, but we are set up now and the front of the coach is too low for me to get you a good picture.

So, I searched this forum and found this post:
https://www.irv2.com/forums/f103/199...ve-389930.html

the picture in the post is a picture related to a Dutch Star, but it will give you an idea of what a ride adjustment valve looks like.

Look for the air bag and the levelling valve won't be too far away.

On our coach I started by spraying a soapy water mixture on the valve, but there was no leak there.

Next I followed a hose that runs through the frame to the manifold. Then I sprayed the manifold with soapy water and voila I found the leak.

The manifold is in the picture I included in this thread above.

In my case the 90 degree fitting was leaking. As it had to be removed to be re-sealed and re-installed, I had a Cummins service center do it. I do not have axle jacks strong enough to handle the weight of the coach, and since the air would have to be bled off to accomplish this I was not able to do it myself.

You may be just as well off to have a service center find the actual leak and do the repair.

Hope this helps.

JazzBus1 · 03-25-2025, 06:04 AM

NowGo,

Thanks again for this! I’m going to attempt a aired up soapy water evaluation by the end of the week and I have an appointment at my local truck repair (Raleigh NC area) to do a airleak diagnosis on Monday. My goal is to try and isolate where the leak is and they can dive into a repair. The links you provided were great to familiarize myself for what I’m looking for.

All the best and thanks again!

NowGo · 03-28-2025, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JazzBus1

NowGo,

Thanks again for this! I’m going to attempt a aired up soapy water evaluation by the end of the week and I have an appointment at my local truck repair (Raleigh NC area) to do a airleak diagnosis on Monday. My goal is to try and isolate where the leak is and they can dive into a repair. The links you provided were great to familiarize myself for what I’m looking for.

All the best and thanks again!

You are most welcome. Brobox was a big part of helping me resolve my issue. This forum is chock full of experienced and kind folks like him who are always there to help.

JazzBus1 · 03-31-2025, 10:43 AM

Ok - so I brought the coach to our Raleigh repair shop - they got under the coach and soaked all the fittings, airbag and associated air stuff on the front of the coach and there are no obvious culprits. No sounds of air anywhere and no bubbles produced on any of the fittings left/right even checked the rear.

I noticed that while driving the coach the front air pressure seems to dip a bit when taking big sweeping corners (such as an onramp) at speed… probably dips down a quarter of an inch and then once the coach levels back out on straight road the air comes right back up. As I’m now a bit obsessed to find this leak I also noticed that the front air seems to be slightly less then the rear air as far as where the gauge indicates. It’s either ALWAYS been this way or i’ve just never noticed till today - aside from the gauges are both pointing essentially to 2pm on the face and nothing is dipping into an area that makes it overly noticeable. I can also hear when I take turns onto roads that there appears to be air sort of supporting the equipment of the front suspension. Nothing sounds overly concerning, but with the coach off there is no sound of air doing anything.

When I arrived back at my garage today I stepped out of the coach and of course I could hear what sounded like air bellowing (hollow sort of sounding). I sat on the step and sort of lift/sat, lift/sat and I could get it to make that noise. I couldn’t of course get it to do it at the repair shop.. UGH.

Repair guy said - no big issue as of the moment - until I can hear air leaking.

Thoughts?

brobox · 04-01-2025, 04:55 AM

Air usage while making curves, changing lanes or when ever the air suspension is used will show on the gauge.
Spartan says 3 psi loss per minute is there "acceptable" range. I don't like it either, but they will not do anything under warranty unless it is higher than that. Here are normal specs for air ride chassis from Google. https://www.google.com/search?client...on+semi+trucks

The on again off again will be hard to find until it breaks. Look for cracks in the plastic ride height valves. Both of my major leaks have been cracked ride height valves, one in front (air manifold) one in the rear. Both of those I could hear.