2022 RTL rear air suspension leaking air - is this common? Any fix/ideas?

[Medicbiker]

I have a new 2022 Spyder RTL with approximately 1500 miles on it. During a ride had the Suspension fault warning light come on and it posted codes C210A and P194A. Took it to dealer who had it for 2 weeks and stated they found significant air leak in fitting from the compressor. They allegedly tested the system and it was holding air and the compressor was run. Picked bike up and took a ride and not even 40 miles in a complete duplicate of the problems with only code C210A. Limped home gently and once again found that the rear suspension had no air in it and filling the system with bicycle pump it would not hold any air and the suspension was all the way bottomed out. Is this a common problem with this year of the RTL's? Any ideas on what might have caused the second failure? Of note when I got the bike back from dealer the cords for the heated seats were connected wrong. The driver seat male connected to passenger seat female and second wire not connected at all. Didn't inspire a ton of confidence in the techs. Hope they do better the second time around. Had a 2019 RTL and had no problems in 16K of riding. Thanks for any suggestions or ideas.

[Snowbelt Spyder]

Whenever someone in Maryland has issues with their dealer, I always check to see how close they are to Hanover, Pa. in your case, about an hour-ish. If you're so inclined.

https://motosportsinc.com

P194A and C210A aren't even related to each other. P194A refers to your clutch, while C210A refers to your suspension. However, I got a P194A once during break-in, so I wouldn't worry about it. Time to reach clutch pressure. It seemed like a break-in issue. Never happened again.

Yes, a severe air leak would trigger C210A, and looks like that you've verified that you have one. No, this is not any more common on the 2022 that any other MY. Yes, you are under warranty. It's broke. Make them fix it. It's not rocket science. Refer to my first sentence. Good Luck.

[RealWing]

My 2022 RTL is in the shop now to find and repair air leak. Did not get any codes, just heard compressor running a lot when starting out. Did some leakdown tests and pressure would drop from approx 65 psi to 20 psi after several hours. Soap checks of the fittings did not reveal any leaks. I think that leaves the compressor discharge check valve, the solenoid valve or air bag.

[oldguyinTX]

This has been an all too common issue with Spyders over the years. I had a similar problem three times with my cursed 2013 RTL. Fixed under warranty all three times. The master tech who fixed it said that in his opinion the air suspension system was a lousy design, what with bag punctures, leaking fittings, and/or burned out compressors. Also, way too complicated with too any components that would fail.

[chipveres]

Unfortunately the soap test is not reliable. We had a push-on fitting that would go from fully sealed to fully open without warning. Some folks have advocated replacing all the air line fittings with the superior ones available from McMaster-Carr.

[mecsw500]

This is like a recurring nightmare I had when I picked up my new 2021 RT LTD.

It threw C210A codes from new...

1. The rod that connects the swing arm to the ride height sensor was never connected at the PDI. I suggest you look to see if yours is connected. This is often the prime cause. Sometimes the bolt was not tight and falls out.

2. The result of this lack of height measurement was that the compressor ran constantly and burnt out.

3. In diagnosing this far they found the pressure release valve was not closing and the solenoid for this was not working either.

4. Then they found a leak in the airbag.

5. The Schrader valve under the seat was found to be leaking too.

This all took about half a dozen returns to the dealer, where the poor tech, who was a good guy, just about tore all his hair out going from one thing to the next.

6. In the end, he gave up and got BRP to send a whole new rear air suspension system and fitted it. It finally fixed it.

All this took about 5 months, though Covid supply chain issues weighed heavily on that.

My Spyder would be fine on surface streets and the canyons, but after five minutes on the freeway it would throw a code. It seems that when I went over a freeway joint that caused the bike to unload the suspension that would cause the problem to indicate.

Now the air system merely sets the ride height. The suspension is actually a regular spring and shock, so it will run fine without the air suspension as long as you don't have too much load.

One way of testing it is to ride around a bit, then stop, but don't turn the bike off and don't go out of gear. Then measure the air pressure at the valve under the passenger seat. It should be about 30 psi.

Try it with a passenger, without turning off the bike or shifting to neutral, an observer should be able to hear the suspension let air out as your passenger gets off and the rider it still sat on it.

It seems to my experience, the air suspension only does things when the bike is on, engine running and in gear. I couldn't rely on the pressure readings when you shut the thing down or put it into neutral.

However, if the bike is turned off, it should still hold pressure to some extent overnight. Don't fill from a compressor, use a hand pump, the volume is small and easily broken from a high volume of air being inserted. Put 30 psi in and see if you have at least some pressure in the morning.

The other thing I found is that the compressor has a non return valve that stops the air leaking back through the compressor. If pressure is completely lost overnight, it might be that non return valve not doing its job.

It is a simple system that has a complicated implementation, all parts of which must be working correctly otherwise many different problems can cause the same fault.

It is a hard problem sometimes for even a good tech to solve.

Good luck, it's worth it in the end but mine was a nightmare to fix.

[RealWing]

My 2022 RTL is in the shop now to find and repair air leak. Did not get any codes, just heard compressor running a lot when starting out. Did some leakdown tests and pressure would drop from approx 65 psi to 20 psi after several hours. Soap checks of the fittings did not reveal any leaks. I think that leaves the compressor discharge check valve, the solenoid valve or air bag.

My dealer finally found the leak. It was on top of the airbag. Had to replace the airbag.

[Medicbiker]

Quick update to the air leak problem on my Spyder RTL. The dealer determined that air bag was leaking and replaced it. One problem is they had my bike for 36 days before returning it to me. According to their notes on service invoice the problem was diagnosed on 9/7/23 and according to them the vast majority of the time to get it fixed was 25 days to get BRP to authorize the warranty work. I realize that I only have the story as told by the dealer, but the bottom line is this is pretty poor customer service. Once approved the parts were ordered and delivered in 7 days and bike repaired. I have ridden 600 miles with no further problems so far. Hope they got it right this time.