TEMPORARILY rough ride - SLS actuators?

[arzueck]

Hi there,

I recently replaced my leaky hydraulic lines and filled my system with fluid (no idea how long it ran without it - car is new to me). Ride quality or height doesn't seem to have changed much (generally pretty good), but its only sagging a little bit, which isn't concerning me too much.

BUT...

When driving the other day a large man got into the front seat (~300 lbs) and rode for about 10 miles with me. After a minute or two, the ride became incredibly harsh. Then after a few minutes it went totally back to normal, even with him still in the car.

I was afraid I had an accumulator failure, but that wouldn't have gone away like that. I'm confused and worried. Are they about to go? Should I bite the bullet and keep some on hand in that case?

[shadetreemechan]

My guess is your valve added pressure to the system until it maxxed out and thats why the ride got hard. Mine does that occasionally when I load it. Not sure what you mean by actuator, but its definitely not your accumulators.
I would rebuild the valve. 300TD on here has kits.

[arzueck]

Thanks a lot! That makes sense.

And yeah, I meant accumulators.

[kerry]

I wouldn't worry about it. It takes a while (not usually that long though) for the system to adjust to load changes. For instance, when I have a lot of passengers and we stop and get out, I can hear hissing as the system adjusts to a lower weight by bleeding off some pressure.