Suspension went bonkers and theory why. Anyone else?

[ksmauk]

I left my R1S in my garage for a week in cold weather, then, when I went to drive it last night, I waited until just after the "raising suspension" message went out, and started backing out. I got the message a few times as reversed out into the dirt road we live on, but eventually it went away. However, I notice that it wasn't driving quite right and that the suspension setting on the screen was "blinking". Luckily it was a 10 minute drive but when I stopped, the suspension would not respond to any changes and the blinking remained. Did a soft reset but no effect. I went in to my meeting, came back 2 hours later, suspension looked low. Got into the car and sat ... suspension raised normally after a bit of a delay and no blinking. Drove home normally.

My theory (with nothing to back it up) is that I should have been more patient when I got into the car after multiple days of sitting in the cold. I think that perhaps driving while it had not fully got all systems/sensors normalized confused it. Now, in an ideal world, the car should have figured this out once I started driving and definitely once I stopped, but as we all know, there are still a few weird teething troubles with these awesome vehicles. In any case, I'll be overly patient next time I get in after a few days of "storage".

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[Dark-Fx]

Do you use kneel mode? It doesn't start coming out of kneel automatically until after you've already reached a slow speed (I think it's like 5 mph). Those warnings will just keep persisting until it's out of kneel. You can manually make it exit kneel though.

 

[White Shadow]

I'd like to learn more about the air suspension system that Rivian uses....like for example, is it a closed system like Jeep uses or is it an open system like Land Rover uses? The reason I ask is because open systems (or leaking sealed systems) can draw in atmospheric air. And of course atmospheric air contains moisture....and that moisture can freeze in cold weather, which can then in turn call all kinds of weird stuff to happen with the suspension.

As a long time Jeep owner, I learned a lot about air suspensions since my first one in 2015 and the most important thing is to keep moisture out of the system if you live in a cold climate. Just about every complaint I hear is from someone who's air suspension is acting up only in sub-freezing temps and then goes back to normal once the temperature warms up. This makes me wonder if Rivian has freeze-up issues with air suspension since you mentioned cold weather issues.

 

[ksmauk]

Kneel mode is off.

 

[RayzorBEV]

My suspension on my 2023 R1S went ghetto and decided to do the 'gangster lean' on me. Tried varies resetting to no avail.

 

[Erikbecker]

I left my R1S in my garage for a week in cold weather, then, when I went to drive it last night, I waited until just after the "raising suspension" message went out, and started backing out. I got the message a few times as reversed out into the dirt road we live on, but eventually it went away. However, I notice that it wasn't driving quite right and that the suspension setting on the screen was "blinking". Luckily it was a 10 minute drive but when I stopped, the suspension would not respond to any changes and the blinking remained. Did a soft reset but no effect. I went in to my meeting, came back 2 hours later, suspension looked low. Got into the car and sat ... suspension raised normally after a bit of a delay and no blinking. Drove home normally.

My theory (with nothing to back it up) is that I should have been more patient when I got into the car after multiple days of sitting in the cold. I think that perhaps driving while it had not fully got all systems/sensors normalized confused it. Now, in an ideal world, the car should have figured this out once I started driving and definitely once I stopped, but as we all know, there are still a few weird teething troubles with these awesome vehicles. In any case, I'll be overly patient next time I get in after a few days of "storage".

Your idea about patience makes sense! Another thing to think about is how the temperature might be messing with the battery. Cold weather tends to mess with battery performance, and if the system needs the battery to be just right for all its sensors and stuff, that could be the issue at the start.

Batteries usually take some time to warm up to their best operating temperature, which could be why you noticed the suspension acting funny at first. Maybe it's worth checking if there's a connection between the outside temperature, battery status, and how the suspension behaves.

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