Air Suspension vs. Mother Nature

So, we’re not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but the weather in the UK has taken quite a cold turn in the last few days. News channels and social media have been covered in pictures and videos of everyone’s experiences, and it doesn’t resemble March out there at all!

What I’ve seen a lot of recently, is cars with air ride suspension suffering from frozen components, rendering the car pretty much un-driveable, this is due to moisture in the air lines and components freezing, stopping them from working properly, or at all.

The best advice we can give you is

DO NOT AIR OUT OVERNIGHT IF THE TEMPERATURE IS BELOW ZERO 

If you do, and you come to realise that in the morning, your lines are frozen, you will have to thaw the system out before using it, potentially leaving you stranded or late for work etc.

There is another option I’ve heard of but would only recommend this as a last resort, a DIY hack, it involves putting a very small amount of Methanol (HGV brake line anti-freeze) into your tank, this will help defrost lines/components, just don’t make a habit of doing it, if you do have to use Methanol then just make sure you empty your water trap and drain the tank afterwards.  (beware it could invalidate warranty so stay aired up if concerned)

So, the best option, from personal experience too, is just don’t air out the system overnight, leave it at a sensible drive height. That way, if anything does freeze, you can still drive the car and you wont be stranded.

We hope the weather isn’t too bad where you are, but, if you are snowed in, what better excuse is there to keep warm, and order some nice new parts to cheer you up!

Pic credit: @benhiggins94 on Instagram for the snowy Rocco

@nicolajoy_lupo on Instagram for the Icy Lupo

Let us know how your doing with your Air Ride and the snow :)  comment below