Dot Matrix (warning?), Automatic Suspension

[stjxs01]

When I first purchased my 1992 2.1 TD (3-years ago) the dot matrix would display "AUTOMATIC SUSPENSION" perhaps once a week at indescriminate occurancies. The incidence of this is now getting more frequent to the point of annoyance i.e. every 4 or 5 seconds. Has anyone been here before?

I have checked the LHM level and this is fine. Suspension rises and falls as expected.Ride hight is normal. If I switch to sport mode I get the same problem but this time the warning is "SPORT MODE".
My first impulse is to change the two accumulator spheres. Additionally, the ride in the back is a little hard - so I expect the rear spheres could do with changing too. Can anyone shed any light on this before I throw money at my vehicle.

[noz]

Hi Jim,

At that age (of car, not you!) the dot matrix philosophy was centred around a bunch of stored messages in the display eeprom. By earthing a particular terminal it brought up the corrresponding message stored in the eeprom. (I haven't figured out how it prioritised the messages if it receives more than one at a time.) Your message must be being triggered by the earthing of the appropriate pin. Can I suggest starting at the Sport switch? This switch will earth (or not) the terminal from the suspension ecu to switch between modes. The display will share that same line. If the switch is made, say, for automatic mode and its a bit dicky then it might be switching on and off intermittently. Take the switch to bits and give it a good clean. Try measuring it with a continuity meter before and after cleaning to detect any change. If that fails, let me know. I might have a spare switch in the garage.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

noz

[stjxs01]

Once again Noz thanks very much for impartng your knowledge. Am I glad I found this website.
What you say makes a lot of sense. Recently we went to the beach and on our return the centre console was rather dirty with fine sand. Perhaps it has found its way into the switch. Thank goodness for these light evenings - I'll go and have a look now.

[stjxs01]

Cheers Noz - took the switch to bits, cleaned out all the dirt and now works perfectly. I never knew there was a light bulb in there!


What would I do without you?
You have saved me a small fortune on my vehicle.
I'll buy you a pint or six if ever I'm up your way.

Kind regards

Jim