Hi,
the car have 103k miles, I have replaced the two front shocks myself, I used Arnold Brand, new ones from Rock Auto, then last fall the car got too low on all four sides, a jaguar friend suggested i change the solonoid in the trunk by the air tank, the weather got cold, so i didnt get to it till few days ago, i had ordered one off Amazon according to my friend suggestion because he had the same issue and had ordered the same solonoid off amazon and it has solved the problem for his car. so after installing it and starting and shutting the car off 4 times so the air compressor will run, the car still too low, nothing has changed.
1-my next step is to check the fuse box and relays, and i will report after checking them.
2- when i removed the old solenoid, 2 wide air lines were pressurised, one goes throw the floor and one goes throw the tank, and thats being the car sitting all winter and the battery was disconnected.
3- any suggestions please.!, thank you!

 

Is it a message "Vehicle too low" in message center?
Do you have code reader that can read JLR specific chassis codes?
Without codes you will be throwing parts at the problem.

 

1-no, the message center says" air suspension fault"
2- no code reader yet, i dont have a scanner and i dont think i can drive it to an auto part store , should i buy a scanner.an inexpensive one may be.
thank you!

 

Without a code reader, it's complete guesswork. You've already started throwing unguided money at the problem, and that's all you're ever going to do.

Be aware that once "Air Suspension Fault" appears on the dash, the air controller shuts itself down to protect the compressor from burning out by running constantly, so no further corrective action is taken until the car is turned off and restarted. In other words, once you see the message, don't expect anything to get better.

I am firmly in the camp of toss the air system and get coilovers. I did it with my car, got the Arnott struts and couldn't be happier. My air system had reservoir plausibility and other codes, I pulled the compressor out for a rebuild as recommended by many on this forum, and the dryer chamber was literally a water tank. The issue is that water in the system has no way to get purges; if it's in there, it's there forever. Valves will rust and stop working, which is why your friend suggested the valve body replacement. In my case, the outlet valve in the compressor was rusted solid, so I know the solenoids were probably no good. I had a few leaks, too. I had to wait a couple of minutes every time I started the car for it to raise up, and I couldn't go more than 15 minutes without an error on the dash, and the car would start to settle.

After coilovers, the car rides better than it did before, and it's 100% reliable being suspended by steel springs the way God intended cars to be built.

You lose the self leveling with coilovers, but you don't have that anyway with a failed air system. You also lose the CATS shock system which automatically switches the shocks between soft and firm depending on driving style, which again, is irellevant if the car won't stay up in its ride height. In other words, you lose nothing by going to coilovers and gain a completely reliable suspension system.

 

Hi tanios,

I have moved your thread from the forum for the X308 to the forum for the X350, which is the Jaguar factory project code for your 2004 XJR. Here you are already finding knowledgeable owners of similar cars.

As others have already mentioned, you really need to have your car scanned by a system capable of reading all of the proprietary Jaguar Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs), including the Chassis (C-prefix) and Network (U-prefix) codes. Most generic OBDII scanners can only read the Powertrain (P-prefix) codes. You need either a Jaguar dealer-level system such as IDS or SDD, a Jaguar-specific scan tool such as those made by iCarsoft and Foxwell, or a high-end professional scan tool such as those made by Autel and Launch.

While many of our members agree with wfooshee that a coil conversion is the best solution to air suspension problems, I personally prefer the air suspension when it is operating properly, especially on the supercharged cars like yours.

One thing to be aware of is that, as far as I know, the Arnott air spring/damper units do not preserve ECATS functionality. Did you have to install an Electronic Bypass Module (EBM) to prevent the CATS FAULT warning lamp from illuminating constantly?

If you can have your car scanned properly and post all the codes here (even those that do not seem to be related to the suspension), we will try to help. Codes begin with a letter and have four numerical digits. For example, C2302. Please post all the codes and we'll see if we can give you any helpful advice.

Cheers,

Don

 

First of all a decent code reader that does read the jaguar related airsuspension codes would certainly help . SDD IS THE WAY TO GO ON AN OLD LAPTOP AND A BATTERY CHARGER OF AT LEAST 10 AMP CHARGING .
BETTER WOULD BE 30 AMP CHARGING DEVICE WHILE YOU HAVE A CODE READER PLUGGED ALSO SDD .
I CARSOFT LR 3.0 COULD HELP BUT ONLY FROM 2005 JAGUAR MODEL X356 WITH 3 HEIGHTSENSORS AND THE WASHER FLUID BOTTLE LEFT SIDE OF CAR.

 

Hii, thank you Wfooshie, Don B and Petz
1- i did start and shut the car off withn 10 or 15 minutes, so that the compressor will run again, I did it 3 times, then the next day I started it ounce and the suspension didnt move at all.
2- I had rebuilt the air compressor 3 years ago and its true the beeds inside it were very soaked in water, but i only drove the car last summer not more then a 1000 miles
3- based on my researches and the high price of OEM struts, the Arnott struts were the second best thing to do by keeping the air ride, and even though they are acting as comfort struts and not a sport struts, because arnott blocks the sports feature in them, these cars are made to race a ferrarri, so the sport feature in them is very complicated, knowing all that i still wanted to keep the air ride.
4- what i understand from your replies, that the compressor may not being working properly or the water in the system is causing other issues
5- I am more convinced now to go with Arnott coil over struts, and if i can sell it the way it is , I prefer to do so, because im 70 years old and the car is kind uh low for me and I prefer the 97-2003 xj8 jang non XJR, I had a 99 one and i loved it.
6- please advise me, also how can I post it here?, thank you!

 

You can list your car for sale in the Member Marketplace. Hover your cursor over the Marketplace button at the top of this page, then in the dropdown menu, select Member Marketplace.

Cheers,

Don

 

Oh the water or humidety in the desiccant beads is exactly why I change them every time I open a compressor . You can take them out and dry in an oven for . 30 min at 50 to 70 celcius. Once that warm compressed air with that humidety or even water gets into the valveblock condenses there and may cause trouble . The reservoir can most probably handle it.

 

Some body capable on Sdd could be really helpful trying to find out what the problem is.

 

super, thank you!

 

true , but when i changed the solenoid and two lines were pressurised moisture didnt hit my hands, possibly like one menber said, something in the compressor is broke, idont know, ive installed and reinstalled the compressor two or three times, and the front air shock, i had installed one from the remanufactured tech , it lasted a week, then one of the Arnotts, two were deffective, so I installed and reinstalled three times also, with my age everything is getting to me, I mean yeah, i should remove the compressor and see if nothing is broke, I dont know right now im getting discouraged.thank you!

 

Hii, what is an SDD?, you see there is only one foreign auto repair shop in the area that handels Jaguar but the guy is a rip off.thank you!

 

SDD is Symptom-Driven Diagnostics, a Jaguar dealership-level diagnostic system. Some independent shops that service Jaguars have working SDD systems, and many of the owner-members here have working SDD systems. SDD allows you to communicate with the Air Suspension Control Module (ASM) to read stored diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs), inflate or deflate the suspension, recalibrate the ride height at each corner, etc.

In addition to SDD running on a laptop, you need a compatible Vehicle Communication Interface (VCI), such as a Ford VCM (not VCM2 or later), DrewTech JLR Mongoose, or a Mongoose clone. Getting an SDD system up and running can be very challenging. I prefer version 131.03, which only runs on Windows XP Pro (a very old operating system). Newer versions of SDD may run on later operating systems and may also force you to log in to Jaguar's online servers and pay a subscription. For those who have not taken the time to get SDD running, it is usually more cost- and time-effective to find a shop or fellow Jaguar Forums member who has a working SDD system.

 

hii, thank you
no i did not, according to Arnott tech support that they have something built in the strut .

 

thank you for all the info!, I'm a slow learner when it gets to computing, i dont know im still leaning into selling it as is if i can.