Rear height control

1down4up

Active Member
Jan 13, 2017
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I just bought an 06 sequoia limited that came with the factory rear height control. Is there a way to bypass the saftey that lowered it back to neutral when driving? I tried searching it and didn't come up with much. Thanks!

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izzyzlat

New Member
Jan 11, 2017
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I have a 4Runner with the adjustable rear suspension so I will assume it's similar in the sequoia. When one of my sensors went out, the rear lowers to the Low position by default making it bouncy as hell. Instead of getting he $250+ sensor replaced, I set the desired height and pulled the fuse for the air control system.

The height stays at whatever I set it at. The only issue is, with the fuse removed the "off" light under the height indicator flashes and there is no up and down adjustment. If you want to change the height again, you'll have to put the fuse back in, adjust the height and pull fuse again.


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paulstoute

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Dec 28, 2016
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If you wanted to drop some money, you can swap out to a standard non-air suspension set up, but that requires new springs, struts, and possibly coil bucket... I haven't had an opportunity to look under one to get a true list of parts needed though.
 

XPLORx4

New Member
Jan 10, 2017
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To replace the AHC air bags with coil springs, you only need the replacement coil springs and new spring insulators (p/n 483130C010). They cost about $140 each new, or you can source them at a wrecking yard. Of course, you'd also need to disable the AHC system.
 
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AdvancedSR5

New Member
Aug 6, 2017
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So seeing as I would love to eliminate the rear air bags all together. The isolator idea seems brilliant. But is there a rear spring perch on the top that it would bolt to? Or is that an isolator for the bottom perch? And has anyone put together a build list to do the swap on a sequoia? I've only seen them for the gx470 and it's all land cruiser parts used. Any help from you fine folks would be great
 

Viol8r44

New Member
Feb 11, 2018
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To replace the AHC air bags with coil springs, you only need the replacement coil springs and new spring insulators (p/n 483130C010). They cost about $140 each new, or you can source them at a wrecking yard. Of course, you'd also need to disable the AHC system.
The spring insulators...do they just bolt up to the top where the air lines go thru? Sorry if this is a dumb question, its for my wifes Sequoia and we have been quoted $1000 to replace the air bags and I'm trying to see if I can do this myself...I have swapped shocks and springs on my TLC 80 with no problem but never messed with an AHC system. I'm hoping I can just bolt something up and put some stock springs on and thats that. I dont want to deal with the air bags anymore, and I cant seem to find a good solid answer on the coil spring swap anywhere. Any help will surely be appreciated.
 

AdvancedSR5

New Member
Aug 6, 2017
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So what I did is I ordered all the parts new and then I decided to go to the junk yard and see what I could find. Dumb move . I found a much older sequoia and yanked the springs and retainers off it and figured for $80 it wasn’t to big of a deal and I could return them for lot credit if I needed to. There is a small tab holding the bags in place that u remove. And then just yank them suckers out. Air lines and all. The retainers snugged right up in there no bolts just the weight of the vehicle and spring tension. It’s common sense at that point. I returned the brand new ones I bought so now I’m only $80 in the hole. I will say it was much easier with 2 people aligning the springs. Also you don’t need a lower spring retainer cup like the 4runners do so don’t sweat that. My lessons learned was now the “manual” light flashes for the air system and no relay or fuse can make it go away. And second is that the springs from the junk yard weren’t the 3rd row / towing rates springs. So....... I know when there is a full vehicle because I’ll hit the bump stops on large bumps. Hope all that helps. If not let me know.
 
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Viol8r44

New Member
Feb 11, 2018
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So what I did is I ordered all the parts new and then I decided to go to the junk yard and see what I could find. Dumb move . I found a much older sequoia and yanked the springs and retainers off it and figured for $80 it wasn’t to big of a deal and I could return them for lot credit if I needed to. There is a small tab holding the bags in place that u remove. And then just yank them suckers out. Air lines and all. The retainers snugged right up in there no bolts just the weight of the vehicle and spring tension. It’s common sense at that point. I returned the brand new ones I bought so now I’m only $80 in the hole. I will say it was much easier with 2 people aligning the springs. Also you don’t need a lower spring retainer cup like the 4runners do so don’t sweat that. My lessons learned was now the “manual” light flashes for the air system and no relay or fuse can make it go away. And second is that the springs from the junk yard weren’t the 3rd row / towing rates springs. So....... I know when there is a full vehicle because I’ll hit the bump stops on large bumps. Hope all that helps. If not let me know.
Great info thank you very much
 

Rob

Familiar Member
Apr 4, 2017
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Just unplug the bulb in the cluster to get rid of your flashing light?
So what I did is I ordered all the parts new and then I decided to go to the junk yard and see what I could find. Dumb move . I found a much older sequoia and yanked the springs and retainers off it and figured for $80 it wasn’t to big of a deal and I could return them for lot credit if I needed to. There is a small tab holding the bags in place that u remove. And then just yank them suckers out. Air lines and all. The retainers snugged right up in there no bolts just the weight of the vehicle and spring tension. It’s common sense at that point. I returned the brand new ones I bought so now I’m only $80 in the hole. I will say it was much easier with 2 people aligning the springs. Also you don’t need a lower spring retainer cup like the 4runners do so don’t sweat that. My lessons learned was now the “manual” light flashes for the air system and no relay or fuse can make it go away. And second is that the springs from the junk yard weren’t the 3rd row / towing rates springs. So....... I know when there is a full vehicle because I’ll hit the bump stops on large bumps. Hope all that helps. If not let me know.
 

Viol8r44

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Feb 11, 2018
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So my wife vetoed the spring swap idea so I was just going to replace the air bag....and I cant find them in stock anywhere. I literally had them in my cart on Amazon now they are out of stock everywhere...I guess folks got their tax money and fixing up their rides! LoL I hope it doesnt burn out the compressor before I can get them replaced?! Oh well if it does I will just have to INSIST on swapping for springs I guess.
 

TomInKY

New Member
Mar 27, 2018
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So my wife vetoed the spring swap idea so I was just going to replace the air bag....and I cant find them in stock anywhere. I literally had them in my cart on Amazon now they are out of stock everywhere...I guess folks got their tax money and fixing up their rides! LoL I hope it doesnt burn out the compressor before I can get them replaced?! Oh well if it does I will just have to INSIST on swapping for springs I guess.
Have you had any luck finding a set of air springs? Saw them listed all over the place on eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=2006+sequoia+air+spring&ul_noapp=true
 

TomInKY

New Member
Mar 27, 2018
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Also, I found that the maker of one of the aftermarket replacement air bags, Suncore Industries, also sells a spring conversion kit for a little over $220.00. I may go this route on mine, as long as I know for sure that the spring rates are heavy enough for towing. Too worried about going through the time and expense of replacing the air springs only to have them fail again, or some other component go bad. Truck has 235K on it already.
 

TomInKY

New Member
Mar 27, 2018
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Viol8r44, did you get a chance to install your air springs? I am thinking about just replacing mine with a set of aftermarket ones. We really only drive the truck occasionally now, and I can't justify dropping $500 for a set of OEM air springs. I see a nearly identical spring for the Lexus GX 460 for about half of what the Sequoia springs sell for. I can get two of them for less than $100. The only difference is that the connection for the Lexus bags are at a 90* angle instead of inline with the retainer pin like on the Sequoia. Are the air lines flexible enough that I could move them around a little and still get them to hook up?
 

Viol8r44

New Member
Feb 11, 2018
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They are not super flexible, and I am by no means a mechanic but I probably wouldn't try it, now I'm not saying you cant do it but I would be concerned about putting a constant tension on that air line by bending it especially with time taking its toll and that plastic just getting more and more brittle. I ended up paying $110 each for them on Amazon and it took less than an hour to replace both air bags honestly for peace of mind it was definitely worth the money.
 

PhillH

New Member
Jan 13, 2019
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I love having the hieght control, Mine has 139k now and they still look and work perfect, though it is a FL truck and has never seen salty roads.
Does anybody else notice how easy it bottoms out when unloaded? Put any weight back there or a boat trailer they firm right up.
 

TomInKY

New Member
Mar 27, 2018
9
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So I bought a set of aftermarket air springs and installed them last week. Everything went smoothly, they pumped right up, drove it a little and it rode fine. Then yesterday I hooked my trailer up to pick up a dethatcher, and while on the highway it suddenly got real bumpy. Pulled over, and sure enough it was sitting on the bump stops and the pump was running. I pulled the relay and drove home, figuring an air line popped off. When I got home I checked the lines, and didn't see any loose connections. Reinstalled the relay and it ran for about 30 seconds and then shut off. Now the pump wont run again. Worried that the pump has burned up. And I'll be damned if I'm spending $800 for a new one! Guess I'll have to analyze the situation to make sure it's not a blown fuse or something. Stay tuned for more. Right now I'm pretty pissed.
 

Jgrauman

Well-Known Member
Feb 18, 2019
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Just For Thought, you can replace those air springs for a couple hundred dollars with coil springs. May consider sending the air Springs back as defective since they probably cracked or ruptured and invest in a set of springs
 

TomInKY

New Member
Mar 27, 2018
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I had considered the springs, but wanted to make sure I could find dome that can handle the toungue weight of my boat trailer.