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Fair enough, each to his own. No offence intended, just wanted to clarify for others in case they found this thread and were looking for info on the Arnotts.
Interesting about it being a bilstein insert though, hadn't heard of that before. Enjoy your ride!
I will be updating this thread this weekend. I am taking the X350 out of a year long hibernation, getting rid of the god awful Arnott's clunky air shocks and installing the Strutmaster coil over suspension. I received the parts yesterday.
Will be posting pics and initial impressions here.
Hey Lagonia. I see you went the Strutmasters route too... Sport units, or comfort? What are your thoughts as to their quality? You think they have sachs or Bilstein shocks?
Hey Lagonia. I see you went the Strutmasters route too... Sport units, or comfort? What are your thoughts as to their quality? You think they have sachs or Bilstein shocks?
I ordered the Sports units and it appears to have the Sachs shocks. From the visual perspective, the look really good. But then looks can be deceiving. I am hoping to complete this job today.
I have just completed the conversion and I just came back from a short test drive. *THE FREAKING CLUNK IS GONE!!!* I am so happy. I spent all that money on unnecessary parts thinking it could not possibly be the Arnott's shocks but it was - the source of the clunk was the Arnott's air shocks.
My initial impressions of the ride quality are very positive! I was concerned about a really harsh drive but under normal driving conditions the ride quality is superb. Need to put through its paces of course but its nice knowing you have a suspension that won't leave you stranded.
Glad to hear the Strutmasters setup was to your liking! I have the Bilstein version. They were a bit stiff at first and the ride quality is excellent now 5k miles+ later. It has dramatically simplified the car as well too. I've removed every air suspension component in the car minus the lines themselves.
Alignment will be needed. Even slight differences between the resting height of the Strutmasters vs. the air shocks will affect the camber and possibly caster.
I disconnected fuse F12 from the luggage compartment fuse box - that is the fuse that controls the air suspension to avoid getting the warning message on the dash. That seems to work, however, I wonder if that is the right thing to do. The conversion kit did come with a device to disable the air suspension but that requires removing the rear seat and splicing wires in existing harnesses.
The question is whether fuse F12 controls other functionality that I should not have disabled. Auto leveling lights? Are those motors fed from the same circuit? If someone has the answer to this, that will save me some research time....
I'm not sure. All I did was disconnect and remove the module behind the seat and disconnect the battery to reset and I've had no warning lights. I didn't use a defeat module. My kit was from before they offered one. I'm not sure on the headlamp leveling as the 2005-up x350-x358s don't have this feature.
Im curious about this too. What is it that decides Weather the ride is Sport or Comfort? Is it the type of strut or the Control Module of the car?
It would seem that if bilstein has the same part number for both comfort and sport on their struts, the determination of ride would be made by the Module Onboard the car
And idk if you can tell by looking, but the comfort and sport struts appear to be identical on Arnotts page.
Arnott don't actually have different struts for sport and comfort. They list one strut for both, all they offer is one strut. Probably closer to a comfort and no CATS.
The original factory struts are differentiated by a physically different design, nothing in the electronics.
The aftermarket Bilstein airbags also only have one replacement for both sports and comfort. This is however a comfort setup.
Ah i see. Well im going to have quite a conversation with arnott then because ive spent alot of money on their struts under the impression it was CATS functional. If i had know that it wasnt i would have just went with coilovers.ive only replaced rhe passenger side f&r so far so this will save me some money, thankya sir
Fail!! Less than 20 miles and one of the rear struts dumped!
Shocking! I was taking my wife to dinner about 8 miles away for our house going about 20 mph when I heard a loud bang!! Stepped out and saw the right rear tire buried in the well. I limped it home and put it on the lift and that is what I found. The spring let go.
WTF?
Right rear tire buried in the well
Left rear strut: That is the way it is supposed to look
Right rear strut: The spring let go. Poor quality? Workmanship? Strutmasters will hear from me.
That's crazy! It looks like the mount on the spring perch snapped. I haven't had an issue with mine, but I did notice your first completed pictures shows your car sitting lower than mine after a few thousand miles. My height is still the same as these photos 6+ months later. I'll definitely inspect my spring perches tomorrow.
No damage. A loud bang and sinking of the right rear. I inspected the area and at first sight, nothing looked out of the ordinary. I'll update the thread after I have a little chat with them tomorrow.
