Hi fellow connoisseurs,

I have a 2007 XJR and a few months ago I noticed that when I came out to my car after it's been sitting for a while the passenger side front fender looked REALLY close to the tire. It would inflate (rise) when I opened the door or trunk or hit the "unlock" button on the fob - most of the time. Other times there would be a delay in the inflation and I could hear the tire rub on the wells and I even got the "Vehicle Too Low" (VTL) warning a time or two. But it always ended up rising and we were all good once on the road.

Anyway, I got it looked at today by my local independent jag shop and I was told I needed a new strut as there is a leak. $1800 parts and labor. Yikes. I have searched this forum thoroughly and there is A LOT on the air struts, but not a lot posted in the past few years so maybe there are new solutions...? I've read about compressor rebuilds, plugging leaks with epoxy, replacing the airstruts with Arnott shocks, etc. In a case like mine, is there anyway to salvage the strut by repair/ rebuild or is replacing it inevitable? And what do you guys think of the $1800 price tag? That's about $1400 for a Bilstein strut and $400 labor - does that sound fair? Steep? A deal? The mechanic said no current codes and I'm not sure of the where the leak is coming from - hood or wheel well.

I like to get input from my fellow Jag owners who feel me when I say there's a price to pay for driving these works of art. Any input would be appreciated as usual.

Thanks, P

 

Would replace both front shocks with Arnott's air shocks.
Along with the cylinder, piston ring, & Orings myself.
Sold in kits on fleabay, cheaper than Andy's set up.
The beads that absorb the moisture.
Can be dried in the oven, & reused.
Doing the work yourself, you will have some money left.
From that $18000, to replace some of the other needed parts.
You might find need replaced, like the upper arms you removed.

 

The air struts will eventually die. There's no way around it. If leaking from the rubber bladder, there's no fix. If leaking from the fittings where the air line goes in, that's fixable, assuming you can find the actual leak. Is it at the top of the strut? Is it at the valve body in the trunk? Is the air line cracked somewhere in between?

As stated above the struts should be replaced in pairs, at least; both fronts, both rears, or all four. Mine had severe corrosion throughout the system as there was water all through it, so I gave up and went to steel springs. It would have cost more than I paid for the car to bring the air suspension up to snuff, and then you have to do it all over again in 5 to 10 years. My air suspension was so bad off the car was undrivable for more than 10 miles or so before I got failure messages and the red light. It was also much rougher than it should have been, and the Arnott coilovers ride as smoothly as I could have ever hoped, and much smoother than I ever experience with my flawed air system.

Keeping the air suspension is expensive, but if the problem is only the struts themselves and not deeper in the system, it might be justifiable to keep it. Just be aware that the life of the air system will never be like steel springs.

 

Thanks for the reply Wingrider - unfortunately I am not that mechanically inclined to swap out the struts myself though it looks pretty straight forward. The problem with Arnott shocks is that the front driver's side is a Bilstein shock that has been replaced already by the previous owner - and I'd like to keep them the same. But yeah, Bilstein are notably more expensive. I will give it a thought. Thanks again -P

 

Hi wfooshee,

Thanks for the reply. Though I haven't found the leak by using soapy water, I can hear the leak coming from the wheel well. It turns out the previous owner had the strut on the other side replaced and it's a bilstein - so I would probably only replace that one that's bad. Converting to coils is definitely worth considering, the reviews from the people on this forum are overwhelmingly positive for coil conversion. I will give it a thought. Thanks, P

 

I replaced all my air suspension last year struts bagpipe Andy compressor kit and distribution block total cost including labour was $2700 au

I sourced my struts from a manufacturer in China they have the cat's system and work very well 1 year warranty per strut

My car had a passenger side leaking strut and I just bought all the stuff to do it as the car's from 05

When I checked the old struts the one that wasn't leaking was a Arnotts strut so I kept it and the others In case someone wanted a set to recondition while still using their car

Where are you located? as I'm selling the lot for $400au if your in Aussie if not shipping is going to hurt

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