I just got a KR Verada, and the ecs system doesnt seem to work at all.
I have the alarm light showing on the dash, and all the fuses seem to be ok.

I dont understand the workshop diagnostic procedure at all..
Can anyone help me with this?

I don't think there's many here that have had ECS. Mal (MadMagna) is probably the best bet.

I guess the first thing to check is to see if you can see if you can see any damage to the rubber of the aircoils. BUT I think I recall something about it possibly needing to be set to "high" before jacking up otherwise you can damage the aircoils?

Another suggestion is to get someone to help you, one of you in the car, one out, hit the switch and see what noises/movements you can hear and see. Might hear leaks, or the compressor, or solenoids activating, at least then you have a few starting points as to what appears to be working and what doesn't, we can then start making some semi-educated guesses as to how to help.

Well nothing is working at the moment,
When I press the button nothing at all happens.

Seems like its not connected?

OK, asking the probably obvious, but have you checked that the suspension still exists? Most of these ECS-equipped cars have had the suspension replaced with standard struts by now due to damage, blowouts, faults, whatever. Can you see rubber sleeves/bags instead of the usual spring coils? Are there air hoses connected to the top of the strut mounts (under the bonnet)? Is there an air tank behind the front bumper (on the driver's side I believe)?

Would be cool to have ECS, but the fact is that most are cactus by now, and not worth the cost to replace, so people just replace with standard gear. Could be possible to retrofit a different airbag kit and use the existing control system, dunno how hoard it would be, but "I know a guy" who used to supply air kits and has stock he's needing to get rid of if desired. Was top-range stuff though, so could still be pricey.

Everything is still there, and I have though about switching it all over to standard gear, but that seems quite expensive to do too.
Im not very skilled in working with suspension Im afraid

ECS was a good idea at the time, but turned out to be problematic and wasn't continued past the KS series. I think it was an optional extra at the time. Ride level sensors, air pump, integrity of the air bags, etc need to be checked. If you can't fault find it, and the car rides and handles ok as it is, use it like that, but there are plenty of TR and TS wrecks at various places for you to buy bits from. Time to get your hands dirty, in that case!

If its not working at all, the previous owner has probably disconnected the ECU or disabled it in some way. You will need a MUT to look for error codes.

Im not really too worried about the system working, but I have to run the car over the pits, so just worried whether it will pass ok.

As it is, the car sits quite low over the rear, and reaches the end of its suspension travel over moderate bumps in the road.

Just hope itll go though ok like that then...

Doubt it will pass like that and to be honest it is simply not safe to drive like it is

Your best bet is if you have a self serve wrecker locally, you can get standard struts from any Manga or Verada to fit in place

They have common issues, first of all is the air compressor on top of the trans fails, you will need to check to see if there is power there. After this is confirmed if the comp is not running there is one of your issues. The next are the air bags and and the rear struts were well known for total failure, the seals would go and the insert would simply fall apart internally. If this is the case the only solution is to replace as to get these fixed used to be horribly expensive when there were actually people about who could fix them, these days I dont think that there is anyone about who can actually fix these let alone get parts for them

I did do a write up many years go on my old web pages which surprisingly still exist on the free host I used to use, http://madmagna.atspace.com/veradahome.htm

Click on tech and then in second gen is a write up on ECS removal

Interesting to see that a KS with ECS mostly intact physically, if not functionally, still exists after all these years. I've never seen one at the wreckers, probably weren't too popular on the "tick the options" list at the time. Maybe a max of 10 ever produced in Australia? lol

AFAIK the KS did not have ECS The only ones with it were teh KR Xi with no ABS, think oyu had the option to get either ABS or ECS from memory, or at least this was the case when I brought my new KR back in the day but I did only end up getting the Ei in the end

How easy is it to replace the struts with the conventional kind?

Do I need any special tools?

Im still a noob when it comes to suspension stuff..

If you are replacing entire strut&coil assemblies as a whole, ie., without trying to pull off the coils, then I think it's basically a few bolts top and bottom, that's about it. IIRC, three nuts at the top, two at the bottom (front suspension that is, dunno about rear), but then again I was just watching as a mate swapped my front struts for me, didn't do it myself. And there's the brake line attached to the strut by a bolt I believe.

Hmm time to find a wrecker...

Its very easy to replace the ECS with standard suspension, I have had 2 KR XI's and when the ECS chucked it in I just ripped it out and fitted standard struts, just make sure you tell the wrecker you want V6 front struts, think the rears would be the same as the four cylinder though. Just a matter of taking the old struts out and bolting the new ones in, very easy and the car will still drive fine, way cheaper then paying someone to fix the ecs, which may cost you $$$$, cheers


Hmm time to find a wrecker...