As some of the beads had broken down to dust I tried blowing airline through the "filter material" at each end as I suspect that gets easily clogged. Didn't see anybody come up with a replacement source but overall seems to be a system that is relatively easy to clog the airflow with painful (to the wallet) result. I didn't look too closely at the new AMK arrangement to see how/if the filter was improved - I was told it has been.

 

Old desiccant had pretty much fused together:







New desiccant is in and the compressor re-installed. No faults in the driveway or on the first drive. I'll report back after a few more drives.

 

So it looks like the OE silica is the color change variety. (Or its already been replaced once).

After a couple of hours in a 250° oven, it is starting to turn blue. It was all completely white or tan colored when removed from the dryer.





As broken down and powdery as the old silica is, I'm not sure I'd reuse it after recharging it, unless maybe the beads were sifted out of the dust first. But as cheap as the new stuff is, unless I was in a hurry I'd just order the new stuff from amazon.

Also after a couple of drives I've still seen no faults, so I'm thinking this will be a good repair (knock on wood).

 

Fault came back.

It's different now, and doesn't come on EVERY time a drive it. I can watch the "gallery pressure" on my scantool, whatever that means, and I can watch it bleed off quite rapidly. If this is the pressure in the reservoir, I'm guessing I've got a pretty big leak somewhere. My next course of action is soapy water. I'm kind of hoping it's the springs.... because they've got a bunch of miles on them anyway, and so I wouldn't feel too bad throwing some money at new springs. If it's something else, I don't really get any additional new benefit, other than the error going away. If it's springs, I get new springs (and maybe shocks too).

 

There is no sensor for the reservoir. It uses gallery pressure, which is pretty much the system between the valves.

This includes the compressor, as the exhaust valve is built into it, to the valve block next to it, and the lines that run to the front and rear valve blocks, and those blocks them selves.

Main issues with it are the dryer, and exhaust valve. Seen a few valve blocks leak from the seems too.

 

Good to know. I think the exhaust valve is what was in the "kit" I bought. So it looks like my dryer was leaking where it twists onto the pump. The new o-ring I bought was pretty much destroyed. It was noticeably different from the old one. The new one was purple and the old one was orange. I've re-installed the old o-ring and used some o-ring lubricant/sealer on it. I'm thinking that the filter pads inside of the dryer are packed full of silica dust, and they just aren't flowing like they should. I'm going to try one more attempt and a "free" repair, and then I'm buying a new dryer.

 

Ok. So I ordered a NEW dryer yesterday, and it showed up today (I live close enough to the online parts dealer that everything is overnight, just about). I've installed it, and once again everything seems to be working. Knock on wood. This time I've noticed the gallery pressure is holding a LOT better after the pump cycles off, and the total pressure goes up a lot higher because there is still pressure left when the pump kicks back on.

I'm thinking at some point I may replace the two little lines that go into the dryer, they look just a little rough where they are gripped by the fittings, so they might leak a little bit?

 

So still going fault-free after putting the new dryer on. I should just follow the advice from the pro! Looks like spending the $100 online for a new dryer is the way to go. As stmcknig said, I'm guessing that the filter media inside the dryer and maybe some of the o-rings inside are just as much a part of the problem as the silica being used up.