UPDATED 6/2 - Delivery day (Hello!) and Return day (Goodbye) ... argh! "Ride height change not possible due to overheated air compressor"

[RivianXpress]

After two plus years I took delivery today of my R1T Launch Edition. They delivered it on a flatbed and walked me thru all the setup and LOVE the looks and size of the truck even more in person. Delivery folks were very nice and helpful.

I crawled around the vehicle for 10 min checking things out and then said 'let's go drive this beauty'. I left my house in Conserve mode and then got to a windy part of the road 1/2 mile from my house and thought I should put in Sport mode. I promptly pressed "Sport' and expected to feel the truck handle the curves even better. Instead I hear this horrendous rubbing sound and soon realize the truck is grinding against the tires. I try to raise it back up but nothing. I pull over into the shade - it's only 75 degrees here - and get out and see the truck is all the way down sitting on its front tires. I try to change ride height and nothing happens (with "Ride height change not possible due to overheated air compressor" error message).

A call to roadside assistance and they have me do a hard reset but it doesn't fix the problem. It's gonna have to be towed back to the service center from where it came from less than a hour prior. 20 min later the same people that dropped it off to me an hour before come and reload it onto the truck.

Rivian Roadside assistance was great, kept me informed and called me a Lyft to get me home.

I saw a warning that the air compressor was overheated even though it's not hot here and therefor it could not raise the vehicle.

It's hard to describe the excitement and then frustration happening within such a short time frame. I mean I was less than a mile from my house!

I'm gonna chalk this up to growing pains and be thankful it didn't happen on a long rad trip. Hopefully it'll be fixed quickly and I can try and relive my delivery day!

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[dleewla]

yikes. hope its a simple fix.

 

[AllInev]

Anyone know if Rivian is allowing test drives on delivery day? In other words, can people drive the R1 a bit before signing the purchase papers?

 

[staples]

The compressor overheating issue hit me once as I was showing the truck off to some people. It was stuck at the lowest and would not raise. After a few hours, dinner included, it was working just fine. Not sure how long that compressor overheat timeout is.

But that horrendous rubbing and grinding does not sound good at all. Hopefully it's a quick fix.

 

[cohall]

Very sorry to hear. I don't think my heart would be able to handle things as well as you seem to be.

 

[RivianXpress]

The compressor overheating issue hit me once as I was showing the truck off to some people. It was stuck at the lowest and would not raise. After a few hours, dinner included, it was working just fine. Not sure how long that compressor overheat timeout is.

But that horrendous rubbing and grinding does not sound good at all. Hopefully it's a quick fix.

Thanks - truck was sitting in the sun while the delivery folks showed me the features but it's not hot here. I can only assume a hose came off or something. I sat for 20+ min in the shade at 60 degrees (?) waiting for the flatbed.

 

[AllInev]

I left my house in Conserve mode and then got to a windy part of the road 1/2 mile from my house and thought I should put in Sport mode. I promptly pressed "Sport' and expected to feel the truck handle the curves even better. Instead I hear this horrendous rubbing sound and soon realize the truck is grinding against the tires. I try to raise it back up but nothing. I pull over into the shade - it's only 75 degrees here - and get out and see the truck is all the way down sitting on its front tires. I try to change ride height and nothing happens.

Am I correct in inferring from this (see above), if the air compressor is not working when the R1 is in its lowest height setting, the R1 is essentially not drivable --i.e., horrendous rubbing sound?

 

[Crc83]

Bummer! Hope the repair is quick!

Similar thing happened to me on my first mile drive. The rivian employee showed us the highest suspension setting while in the driveway. Then we went to test drive and it wouldn’t lower due to compressor overheating. It restricted the speed to 25mph (or around there). Drove for 5 mins and then it was able to lower the suspension and we continued the test drive.

 

[agame32]

Sorry to hear and +1 hopefully you’re back in it soon. That’s also a pretty informative error message so kudos to them on that, at least.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

It sure sounds like the air compressor overheating is a consistent point of failure and I think a recall is forthcoming unless it's related to software not allowing for a wide enough operating range.

A truck with dynamic ride adjustment is sort of pointless if you're constantly afraid of adjusting ride heights at the risk of overheating the compressor.

 

[electruck]

It sure sounds like the air compressor overheating is a consistent point of failure and I think a recall is forthcoming unless it's related to software not allowing for a wide enough operating range.

A truck with dynamic ride adjustment is sort of pointless if you're constantly afraid of adjusting ride heights at the risk of overheating the compressor.

I can all but guarantee the compressors aren't overheating from normal adjustments. More than likely there is a leak or other problem causing the compressor to be overworked which leads to the overheating. Or perhaps even a bad sensor or software issue causing a false alarm which shuts things down. In the OP's case, it looks like there was a leak causing the compressor to work overtime to compensate (which it can't when there is a leak) until it had to be shut down due to overheating.

 

[Akay07]

After two plus years I took delivery today of my R1T Launch Edition. They delivered it on a flatbed and walked me thru all the setup and LOVE the looks and size of the truck even more in person. Delivery folks were very nice and helpful.

I crawled around the vehicle for 10 min checking things out and then said 'let's go drive this beauty'. I left my house in Conserve mode and then got to a windy part of the road 1/2 mile from my house and thought I should put in Sport mode. I promptly pressed "Sport' and expected to feel the truck handle the curves even better. Instead I hear this horrendous rubbing sound and soon realize the truck is grinding against the tires. I try to raise it back up but nothing. I pull over into the shade - it's only 75 degrees here - and get out and see the truck is all the way down sitting on its front tires. I try to change ride height and nothing happens.

A call to roadside assistance and they have me do a hard reset but it doesn't fix the problem. It's gonna have to be towed back to the service center from where it came from less than a hour prior. 20 min later the same people that dropped it off to me an hour before come and reload it onto the truck.

Rivian Roadside assistance was great, kept me informed and called me a Lyft to get me home.

I saw a warning that the air compressor was overheated even though it's not hot here and therefor it could not raise the vehicle.

It's hard to describe the excitement and then frustration happening within such a short time frame. I mean I was less than a mile from my house!

I'm gonna chalk this up to growing pains and be thankful it didn't happen on a long rad trip. Hopefully it'll be fixed quickly and I can try and relive my delivery day!

And I thought mine was bad. Here to a speedy recovery as well

 

[harkco]

It sucks! I'm in the same boat. Dropped mine off at the beginning of May and have been patiently waiting. Should hopefully get it back this week. I've owned it 3 months and have only been able to enjoy it for about 2 weeks. Good luck with yours. Hopefully it's an easy fix. It seems that the service centers are starting to backup. I think the wait times will only get worse from here as they scale.

 

[bsaik]

I can all but guarantee the compressors aren't overheating from normal adjustments. More than likely there is a leak or other problem causing the compressor to be overworked which leads to the overheating. Or perhaps even a bad sensor or software issue causing a false alarm which shuts things down. In the OP's case, it looks like there was a leak causing the compressor to work overtime to compensate (which it can't when there is a leak) until it had to be shut down due to overheating.

This was my experience with RangeRover air suspension. After about 55,000 miles It would overheat from time to time. I changed out my compressor at about 60,000 miles after it wore out trying to keep up with the leaks in the system.

But day one is clearly a manufacturing screw-up. I also hope I can be as positive as the OP if something like this happens.

 

[IlliniRivian]

I feel terrible for OP.

The more of these stories I read the more worried I get about taking deliver - although based on current communication skill of Rivian that may never occur anyway.

I accept some degree of early adapter risk but these stories are getting worse and worse.

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