Suspension Airbag spontaneously exploded

[TD5Discovery]

Hi everyone,

I parked up about 8 o'clock on friday night and was in for the night, at around 11 o'clock I hear a gun shot sound followed my the car alarm going off. I turned the alarm off and investigated in the morning to find the explosion was my passenger side airbag. What on earth would have cause this to spontaneously explode? 

The airbag has now been replaced and the truck was returned last night, went out this morning to find it sitting on the floor again, turned the engine on and the airbag started inflating, is this a ride height sensor fault? A slow leak (in the brand new airbag)? What could this be, it is only on one side too so dont think it is the compressor. 

Edited October 6, 2019 by western
title amended to avoid confusion

[Puffernutter]

To clarify, air spring, not air-bag (as in internal safety feature?)

Regards

Peter

 

[Simon_CSK]

7 hours ago, Puffernutter said:

To clarify, air spring, not air-bag (as in internal safety feature?)

Regards

Peter

 

My guess is the air spring.

I had one explode on me, on the motorway at Carlisle on my way home, to Glasgow. That tuned out to be a faulty sensor causing the bag to over inflate however this case the car was parked up and the engine off so I don't know how the sensor could cause the spring to over inflate.

[elbekko]

It shouldn't, my guess is the bag was just so rotted it blew out instead of slowly leaking.

The new bag going down could be as simple as the line not being in properly, or it needs a bit cutting off so the o-ring bears on a new bit.

[Mean Green]

I heard of someone with an Audi A6 allroad - which uses the same compressor and IIRC air srings - he was aware of a popping noise coming from the car every few minutes. He had a look and apparently there are some stitches holding the different parts of the air spring together - the noise were the stitches breaking one by one. He bid a hastie retreat and about 20 mins later there was an almighty bang as the spring exploded. 

That car was parked up at the time too - maybe it is deterioration of the rubber springs.

[Snagger]

I have seen one let go on a D2 before as it was negotiating a roundabout - we were in convoy two or three cars back and the noise may me jump!  It ripped from top to bottom.  I think that’s how these tend to fail. 

The lean on the OP’s vehicle could be from any number of things, from a damaged height sensor or wiring to incorrectly connected plumbing.  At least it won’t be the compressor and is unlikely to be the valve block.