Recently, in the past month or so, I've noticed that the leveling system in the rear end of my '93 Fleetwood seems to be running for quite a long time, and well past the 7 minute limit that it warns of in the manual. This was never a problem before, even when we had four people in the car and stuff in the trunk, it was done leveling after about 2 minutes. Now, my brother and I will get in to go to school in the morning and it starts going (can hear it slightly and the light is on), and going, and going, and after driving for about 5-6 minutes, it's still on. Eventually though, it does go off and only comes on for a brief few seconds every now and again as it should. Most noticeably though, is after I get to school and park, when with the two of us (neither weighs that much!) inside and on a perfectly flat surface, it starts leveling again and runs for a good ten minutes unless one of us gets out, in which case you can see it raise itself about 1/2" and then shut off. All the while, the car never looks low and they must be working to some extent, because there only ever seems to be about an 1" of travel that needs to be compensated for.

Now I know that these shocks are probably cooked (doesn't feel like it when driving though), but could there be anything else wrong? The fact that the car has never sagged or looked low is kind of weird. It just seems like their too weak to do the job.

Another question is, we have little intention of replacing the leveling shocks when need be, and would rather just get a set of new heavy duty gas shocks. Any ideas as to what might be a good one to get? Oh, and for any of you that have changed the leveling shocks to regular ones, is there any difference in the height of the rear afterwards?

To find heigth of with air shocks replaced by regular ones, just pull the fuse overnight and maybe add 3/32" to 6/64" to figure the additional ht. that gas-charged shocks could possibly add. :rolleyes:

Trapped water between the air bladder and housing completely rusted out the originals on my '95 until they leaked. Autozone sells a set of Gabriels far cheaper than "Genuine GM". You'll have to buy the "Re-build Kit" for a fitting that modifies the hose routing.

My compressor started blowing fuses once a day, so I just now found another one at a yard for $75. It came out of a Sillouette, and I'll have to swap over the end fitting and maybe the pressure spring from the original. Supposedly the basic unit is identical for many apps, - Aurora, older Rivs, minivans, other B-Bodies . . .

Bilstein seems a good firm shock if you're sticking with stock springs, but especially fitting if going to OEM Impala SS or even aftermarket coils.

It would actually get a little higher? Sounds good to me, actually.

Are the Gabriels you're talking about load leveling? I think when we do replace the shocks on the Caddy, it will be going to all normal shocks and no more load leveling (it just annoys me and I don't want the trouble anymore).

The shocks really don't feel all that loose or worn out, but there is some extra sponginess and float that I think a nice, quality gas shock might get rid of.

Our Avalanche has Bilsteins on the front and load levelers in the back, and boy does it ever ride well! Not sure what the load levelers on there do, as I've never seen or heard the truck leveling, but they must do something. Wonder how much a set of Bilsteins would cost?

Thanks, by the way!

I removed the front and rear stock shocks and replaced them with Bilstein 9C1 shocks (9C1 is the Caprice cop car). The cheapest place I could find them on the net was:http://www.copcars.net/bilstein.htm They have 2 varieties and both of them will work.

The 1104 front and 0929 rear are what I ended up choosing. These were designed for the '77-'90 Caprice. This is what most Impala SS owners upgrade to. I have been very happy with them.

The 1516 front and 1517 rear are the latest design for the '91-'96 cars. They are progressive, thus they are supposed to feel softer and get stiffer as required. I read mixed reviews from Ipamla owners. Mostly that they were too soft and maintained the floaty feeling. They can also get much stiffer in certain circumstances. I ordered these first, as I liked the idea of the floaty ride to maintain some Cadillac-ness. But they called me to tell me they were back ordered. So I switched. No regrets at all.

I changed my shocks in conjunction with changing to stock Impala SS springs. Doing both, I would call my ride comfort European touring for Americans. Though not as stiff as a European car. I rented a Chrysler LHS recently and it's ride was stiffer than my car.

In the meantime, look under the hood on the right side for a fuse box. Inside there is a ride leveling fuse. I'd pull that before you burn the motor out.

It is probably that your rear leveling shocks are bad. These leveling shocks seem to meet their maker at about 80,000-100,000 miles. Disconnect the motor or, as mentioned before, you will burn it out. You might have a hose leak in the system somewhere, but 9 out of 10 times it is the shocks, which usually die before the motor.

You could go to regular shocks and get out of the air ride system, but the key is getting your car to ride at the proper level. Too many RWD Cadillacs look too high in the back - a dead giveaway that the owner went for the wrong rear shocks. If you choose to get new Cadillac air ride shocks, I can almost guarantee that you will feel an improved ride.

Too many RWD Cadillacs look too high in the back - a dead giveaway that the owner went for the wrong rear shocks.
Using any Impala SS springs, stock or lowered, on the '93-'96 Fleetwood will do this too.

Using an Impala or Caprice shock with your stock FW springs doesn't.

It would actually get a little higher?

It will get a little higher perhaps comparing to the ride ht. of your current airshocks if you just let all the air out of them, since there is no such thing as "gas-charged" airshocks. What I was referring to with the original comment was a past heated thread about how some gas-charged shocks might have such a strong gas charge that they actually slightly raise the riding ht. over having no shocks installed at all.

I drove around for awhile on new airshocks with no air in them and found the actual dampening quality was nothing to write home about. Going to a good set of gas-charged regular (non-airshock type) shocks will provide much better performance by comparison, but then you lose autoheight unless you want to consider some kind of coil bag setup.

It is possible to get a lower constant ride height while retaining the airshock/autoride feature intact by adjusting the sensor arm pivot located ahead of the rear axle and connected to the upper trailing arm. It's a good idea however not to have the arm adjusted below the point where it's 'make-point' actually is lower than the static loaded springs, in which case the compressor will never come on at all. Not preferable since all airshock systems recommend operating with at least a few pounds of pressure. HTH.

As inviting as all of those solutions are, I personally know that when I had this problem I chose the cheaper route. The problem for me wasn't in the shocks themselves, but rather in the air hose that ran from the compressor to the shocks. I've twice had the air hose touch, or at least get near enough to the exhaust to have it melt through. That is what is causing your compressor to continuously run. Pull the fuse before the compressor blows because those run about $450 new. I just went to my local cadillac dealer and ordered a new hose. Took me about an hour to install in my driveway and the only tool I needed was a set of ramps to get the rear end up. I also wrapped some tap around the hose where it came near the exhaust. That's worked great for me more a long time now.

I removed the front and rear stock shocks and replaced them with Bilstein 9C1 shocks (9C1 is the Caprice cop car). The cheapest place I could find them on the net was:http://www.copcars.net/bilstein.htm They have 2 varieties and both of them will work.

The 1104 front and 0929 rear are what I ended up choosing. These were designed for the '77-'90 Caprice. This is what most Impala SS owners upgrade to. I have been very happy with them.

The 1516 front and 1517 rear are the latest design for the '91-'96 cars. They are progressive, thus they are supposed to feel softer and get stiffer as required. I read mixed reviews from Ipamla owners. Mostly that they were too soft and maintained the floaty feeling. They can also get much stiffer in certain circumstances. I ordered these first, as I liked the idea of the floaty ride to maintain some Cadillac-ness. But they called me to tell me they were back ordered. So I switched. No regrets at all.

I changed my shocks in conjunction with changing to stock Impala SS springs. Doing both, I would call my ride comfort European touring for Americans. Though not as stiff as a European car. I rented a Chrysler LHS recently and it's ride was stiffer than my car.

In the meantime, look under the hood on the right side for a fuse box. Inside there is a ride leveling fuse. I'd pull that before you burn the motor out.
You sir, Are a book of knowledge when dealing with these awesome caddy's.
Myself I just went to Auto Zone, and got air shocks for the rear, gas for the front.