"Self-Leveling error" update/question

[Steve972]

I just got my car from the BMW shop yesterday, $300 bucks later, they found a blown fuse. I had checked the fuses myself, however, the way the rear panel is labeled, I apparently checked the wrong fuse.

After spending two hours on diagnostics, their elaborate BMW computers could not figure out why "self level susp inact" was still appearing on my dash, they ran all of the tests, including height tests, compressor tests, sensor tests, and nothing.... in the third hour they happen to check the fuses, and remove the spare tire, some of the air lines appeared to be distressed, possibly due to removing the spare at one time to get to the battery.

If you are getting this error message and want to play detective prior to spending $300 bucks, check for the following, Fuses in the rear. Since its difficult to check which fuse since the panel labeling is some what confusing, I would check all of the fuses. There are two air suspension fuses, one that is 7.5 and the other that is 30 amp. Remove the spare tire and locate the air lines to see if any of them have been pinched. If you have removed your spare tire previously, chances are that when replacing the tire back in the trunk, you might have moved the air lines which now are directly under the compressor housing causing them to be pinched.

My questions are the following..... I am hoping some of you mechanic types can answer this. Why didn't the BMW computer throw a fault code immediately if a fuse was burned out, why was the computer still showing everything was correct, including the vehicle height?? Lastly, my X5 still seems to be lower on the back, will it take a some driving miles to level out on its own? Or is the problem really not fixed by replacing a blown fuse....... what would cause the fuse to burn out in the first place, pinching of the lines, air compressor not working properly, or is it an module of some sort that has short in it.... Air compressor on these cars is about $800... Yikes...