Air suspension repair
A burst air bag drops the trailer onto the bump stop and makes it impossible to carry on loaded. We replace the bag at the roadside, check the levelling valve and confirm the axle returns to correct ride height. We also trace slow leaks in the circuit with a detector — the kind that leaves the truck sitting on its stops overnight.
An air-suspended truck rests on rubber bellows working through millions of cycles in dirt, cold and salt. When a bellows cracks, the compressor runs continuously trying to hold height, overheats and wrecks the air dryer: an eighty-euro fault turned into a four-figure bill if you keep driving.
At the roadside you can diagnose a lot: listening for leaks with the axle loaded, watching chassis height at rest, checking the compressor cycle. What you should never do is run hundreds of kilometres on a badly seated axle: it eats tyres and stresses the frame.
What never to do
- Do not drive on a burst bag — it wrecks the damper
- Do not pack the axle with timber to carry on
- Do not ignore a constant hiss of escaping air
- Truck leaning at rest. One side lower while empty points to a bellows or levelling valve.
How it works
With the truck loaded and parked safely, soapy water goes over bellows, fittings and the levelling valve to find the exact escape. Once the faulty part is swapped from stock, we verify design ride height and fill cycle, leaving the system free of height-related codes.
- 1Find the leak
Soapy water over bellows, lines and valve with the system pressurised.
- 2Replace the part
Bellows, fitting or valve using the correct axle reference.
- 3Set the height
Design-height check and measured circuit fill time.
- 4Loaded test
Full raise/lower cycles watching that height holds.
Component
Axle bellows. Part depending on axle; far below replacing compressor plus dryer.
Rinse the bellows with low-pressure water at every wash and look into their folds: a crack caught early is half an hour of work, not a weekend stranded.
AP-7 · Girona
Half-way along the corridor, this stretch merges the flows coming off the border with those climbing from Barcelona: braking, overtaking and lane changes without pause.
Girona North/South junction, AP-7/A-2/A-11 connection. Girona service area. Mixed port-city traffic.