Rear Air Bag Suspension 2007 Eagle...

Kent Dorsey

Kent Dorsey

PCS Member / Funeral Director
So the rear of the 2007 Eagle is lowering itself after sitting for awhile, when cranked it slowly rises up to it's normal heighth. Took it to local mechanic, he was a little unsure if this required some type of commercial suspension/motor or standard Cadillac. I wrote Mike Kellerman who responded: "It is my understanding that there is a unit underneath the car that is a factory unit and it's no longer available. If you could find this unit, that would be the best way to to fix it, but if not, you could buy an aftermarket air compressor with a switch. You could have a mechanic install it by connecting the air compressor to the factory air bags. You would be able to adjust the height up and down using the switch...".
I went through this issue with the 1996 S & S that now resides with Sean Meyers, I fixed the issue and 2 years later it did the same thing. At that time, the option was given to convert to standard coil springs, which is what I did.
On Ebay, there is a "Rear Air Suspension to Shock Coil Spring Conversion Kit for LeSabre Lucerne", that according to the compatibility list, has "Rear 2006-2011 Base Hearse 4 Door" listed.
Just asking the mechanically inclined on this site is that sounds like it will fly on this 2007 Cadillac.07 Eagle 7 20 3.jpg
 
Knowing that GM would use parts a cross the lines i would say it sounds like it would. But does your system in the hearse run all the time or pump up and shut off? If it pumps up and shuts off, will come back to riding height if you toss a couple hundred pounds in the rear and stay there. It just a decision living with it sagging over night or not. My 86 does the same thing. The bleeder valve is not closing properly. But as long as it pumps up, doesn't come on running down the road after it gets to the heigth its set at i just let it.
 
It could be a pinhole in the airbag that is part of the shocks, or it could be a loose fitting on the air tubing. The fact that it comes back up when you start the car tells me that the compressor is working properly. There is a valve mounted on the body with a piece of linkage that is connected to the rear differential that controls the ride height and from your description of the problem that is working. Your problem is an air leak somewhere in the system. I would use soapy water with the car on a 4-post lift and fully inflate it to find small bubbles when brushed with soapy water. Unfortunately, it might be such a small leak that it might not show up with bubbles.
 
Thanks guys, we had the Mr. Bubble discussion, and my concern after dealing with the 96 issue, was a more permanent solution. The wording on the rear air suspension is "conversion kit" leading me to believe I can abandon the air bag system that Kellerman himself admits is a problem finding future parts for. I think I am going to take the parts listing to the mechanic and see what they think.
I am not wanting to live with the sagging rear end that fully inflates when you crank it, if I can help it.
 
So Coil Spring Specialities did make a pair of coil springs for it(have dealt with them before and they are good at what they do), but the springs they provided dropped the rear pretty bad and the mechanic took them back off, and the air bags are back at work.
So they are going to manufacture a replacement pair, so that tells me that apparently this is an option to have them permanently changed to springs. Stay tuned to your local stations for another update on this exciting adventure. Aloha.
 
Kent Dorsey said:
Thanks guys, we had the Mr. Bubble discussion, and my concern after dealing with the 96 issue, was a more permanent solution. The wording on the rear air suspension is "conversion kit" leading me to believe I can abandon the air bag system that Kellerman himself admits is a problem finding future parts for. I think I am going to take the parts listing to the mechanic and see what they think.
I am not wanting to live with the sagging rear end that fully inflates when you crank it, if I can help it.
Click to expand...
unfortunately we all get sagging rear ends as we get older
 
So we made 2 attempts at converting to coil springs, neither of which worked. The first set were insufficient and my guess is were built for a standard sedan, the were extremely heavy, but the mechanic said there was no way to get them to secure at the bottom, and they were subject to slide toward the center of the car and he said they would strike the gas tank, which could cause you a big story to tell later, but probably wouldn't be the best thing for the future of the car.
So a hearse dealer put me onto CarParts. com and the part numbers are RC28800001 and RC28800002.
I had some frustrating issues with the company over shipping and the way FedEx handled it, but after a few weeks we got that resolved. The mechanic installed them yesterday and everything is good now, the mechanic said they appeared to be identical to what he removed.
Another PCS member mentioned he was reluctant to trust more airbags, and while I agree(went through this with 96 S & S Lincoln when new airbags only lasted 2 years, and it was then successfully converted to coil springs), I was running out of options.
 
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