Syed Kamran

In hope that this post will help someone.

OK so recently about 10 days ago, I started noticing my CTT would hug the ground from the front every day. It would get back to normal once I start the car and after sometime it would give the yellow "Chassis system faulty" and occasionally a red one. When I start to drive the warning would come up and would stay on until I restart it. Until then the car seems to be doing a dance and working too hard to keep the nose up until I get the "Accumulator charging" warning.

So after putting my head in searching on the web, I had no real information that I can use. Occasionally my heart would skip a beat thinking that my air shocks are kaput and have to go to the dealer.

I decided to put all the symptom into consideration.

1) one of the front side (left) would be lower than the other.
2) battery seems weak everyday although it's a brand new battery.
3) car doing a wavey dance like those low riders in da hood.
4) accumulator charging
5) before the warning, I try to set it to normal ride height but it goes all the way up. And sometime it would go all the way down. Specially when driving, suddenly the air from the front shocks goes completely empty and my car becomes a low rider.

I realized the reason why the battery would go weak is because the compressor is working too hard trying to auto adjust. Which also explains why it throws the accumulator charging message. Even after trying to remove the relay and the fuses, it didnt help.

The discovery

So my attention was on the front left suspension because it seem to be lower that the right one. I was so wrong. I peeked into the tyre well by raising the car to the highest setting, thinking that I should try to disconnect the sensor wire. I saw a crack on a plastic tubing, which I realized instantly is just a clip on the casing protecting the wires of the sensor. It wasn't a crack but just a 1mm gap.
Curious, I wanted to the check the front right side to compare if the gap was even supposed to be there.

AND THERE IT WAS

The sensor looking at me as a kid who gets caught when playing hide and seek. I immediately sat down holding my head how lucky I got and still in disbelief that this was what was causing all the problems.

A broken ball joint plastic washer. (don't even know what to call this dumb motherf**ker). The problem wasn't the left but actually the right one. It was a side effect. The left kept trying to level but the right had other ideas in mind.

The connector rod/arm was dangling, and was not holding the ball joint anymore. The plastic thing that was holding the ball probably got brittle and fell apart. The sensor is fitted on the body itself and the other end with the arm is fitted on the air shocks, which senses the height and lowers or raises the headlight / ride height.

Now, I still didn't want to take it to the workshop yet. I Googled " porsche 957 headlight / ride height sensor" and it gave me very limited information or stores nearby who's selling those. I was hoping to get some insight at least how the plastic lock actually looks like so that I can just order that plastic washer instead. Unfortunately I couldn't find it.

I figured a ball joint link doesn't have to be plastic, I kept looking from other car makes and models and I came across a headlight height sensor arm for lexus/Toyota which were made from metal. I found something which seems to be a good replacement. A permanent one which is not going to fall off soon.

I had a friend who worked salvaging car parts, I gave him a call and sent him a sample photo what I was looking for, instantly within few minutes he sent me a picture of the link.

I drove to his workshop and got the link on the very same day for free. A little effort was required to make sure its the same size as the original one.

I set the ride height to the highest and then turned off the regulation and jacked up my car.

Took out the two original ball joints from the sensor arm and connected my custom ball joint arm. ​​​​​Took about a total of 30 mins.

I removed the jack and the car went all the way down. I went in and started the car and immediately I got the red CHASSIS SYSTEM FAULTY message. I wasn't bothered about that error anymore because I was confident it would work. A few seconds out, the back of the car lowered followed by a dance on the front and both front and back came to normal position. I switched off the ignition and then started it again and went out for a 10km rough ride in both sports and normal mode and no errors popped up again.

The satisfaction was overwhelming, I hadn't slept with such relief in ages. Posting the photos below on how I did it and what had caused it. If anyone has more questions feel free to ask. I'll edit the post again to add a few more photos after installing the metal ball joint.

Porsche should really consider in making this more robust, a simple sensor can really cause a lot of problems. The same goes for Audi and VW toureg, it used the same parts. At the same time, we are talking about a 10 year old car, it has held it up this far. I think porsche thought of cutting corners to save weight, the cayenne is indeed a very heavy car.

Replacing the sensor would've costed me at least 200$ excluding the recalibration.
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The clip is missing

At first I though of reusing a clip from the hood support to hold it in place

Later I realized it might just affect the movement.



Set the metal joint to the right size


Part before it was adjusted to size.

This is how it looks after the retro fit.


This is the part number. However If you search for head light level sensor then you get tons options to choose from.

Petza914

Nice job.

Also pretty cool that the Lexus one is adjustable in length. That would actually let you fine tune the rake of the Cayenne without having to do anything with Durametric as changing the arm length will change the height at which the sensors were made

TomF

Great writeup! I am going to refresh my suspension from top to bottom and this route using the Lexus components seems to be a good solution for this component. Thanks for posting.

Cheers,
Tom

TomF

As a follow up, would you kindly post the part number of the Lexus/Toyota component that you used? It could help others with the same issue.

Thanks,
Tom

Syed Kamran

I just added the part number from a lexus.

Thanks,
SKR

TomF

Excellent! Thank you.

Cheers,
Tom

TomF

I'm not sure this is a route many will take. Even used, the parts seem to be very expensive, over $300 each. I am not sure the cost of an OEM replacement, but I suspect it is similar and I would probably go the OEM route.

Syed Kamran

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In that case have someone from Dubai (UAE) delivers to you. It'd probably cost like 50$ a piece in the used market for the porsche one.

I got the Lexus link for free just cuz I knew someone whos into used car part dealer. I decided to stick to the Lexus one because it was strong and made from metal.

Here's a link I found for the Lexus part. Or better yet just head down to a Toyota spare parts store and show them the image below, pretty sure he will have something that looks similar. It just needs to be a size 10 nut which is a common size for all the Lexus models.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REAR-LINK...-/132609910241

bobbyjimmy

Could also buy a set of 4 lowering links for ~$100 and adjust them to standard length (or longer to lower the vehicle).

Syed Kamran

Good idea actually. Didn't know something like this existed. The upside is that you can have a standard length so you don't have to measure the length with a scale. I don't see a point of getting it lower than the sports level, the ride gets really bad.

BTW where can I get it for 100$, got any link?

Thanks.

bobbyjimmy

eBay search
Most are around $99.
They are basically all the same, some use seals around the thread were they bolt-on.
I bought some that were listed as stainless steel and I also used anti-seize on all the threads.

These are supposedly the "original" but who knows.
And these are red and black for more so they must be better...

TomF

Interesting. I've seen those listed but it never sunk in that they were simply adjustable links for the ride-height sensors.

User 4221

When one of my arms broke last year, I used these guys: https://www.ghostmotorsports.com/ghost-links

Replaced all four and was able to dial-in my ride height/rake exactly as I wanted it.

Petza914

Are those plastic or metal? Seems like upgrading to adjustable metal ones (like the Lexus versions) so they don't break again is worthwhile if doing this.

User 4221

They are a high-strength resin-based reinforced plastic. Good quality and easy to install.

I had some of the original metal adjustables from http://adjustableairride.com/

The rubber cup that attached to the ball broke down after about 30k (very easy) miles and failed. The Ghost links look like a very durable solution and are easier to adjust.

Well worth the $$ and they are really easy to deal with. I called and ordered links from Ghost on a Saturday afternoon and the parts arrived on Monday after paying overnight shipping. Good dudes.