I am considering replacing the air suspension struts with a conversion kit. I have checked out Arnott & Strutmasters. I think either would be OK. However British Parts (Blackdog) in Texas makes a kit that it seems all the Jaguar dealers use & swear by.
Has anyone used one of their kits?
If so is it really worth the extra bucks to buy it.
I have a 2004 Jaguar XJR which I intend on keeping for many years.
I spoke with a parts manager at a Jaguar dealership & he advised that the
Arnott & Strutmaster replacements will begin to creak and clang after a couple of years. He said the British Parts kit is superior & will give U a ride that is very close to the air suspension. He never gets complaints about them. In fact he will only install them & not the others.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thxs

 

LOL Ive never heard that, but then if he only sells BPI kits that's what he wants to sell you not another brand that you can get for less online.

 

Well stated, Brutal. Good to see your back!

OP, I'd look at Strutmasters and Arnott. Both have been used by others on here and seem to be most popular. Haven't heard of the one you mention.

 

I also live in Houston. Only heard of the Blackdog a few months ago. Googled around and saw some negative feedback. But not for Jaguar XJ. Never heard of a dealer doing conversions.
The shocks on my 2006 XJR must not have liked the 20 degree temps we have had this year. Several have started to leak since the first of the year.
I have a spare front and rear. Sending off to RMT for rebuilds. The price is great. The shocks look excellent on return. But only have a month on one. No issues so far.

 

If it were me, and I cannot say enough about the Bilstein B4's as the desired replacement, but if it were me, and I was going to look for replacements to the air modules, I'd use a progressive 1-2 ratio spring (not the linear springs sold in every kit I have seen) with the green Bilstein shock to retain eCATS.

 

I've installed a few Arnott conversions in friend's cars and the Arnott Electronic Bypass Module (EBM) makes it easy to avoid the AIR SUSPENSION FAULT and CATS FAULT warnings on the instrument cluster after the conversion. The owners are all happy with the conversion, but none of them owns a supercharged car. As far as I know, Arnott does not offer the Sports or Comfort option on the coil conversion kit, so one consideration will be how spiritedly you drive your XJR.

Cheers,

Don

 

Vertical comfort on the Arnott's is good on my R, although it tends to bottom out over humps if loaded up with passengers. (My indy actually said my air suspension is in good condition, then I pointed it out to him that it's no longer air but a coil-spring conversion). Handling body roll is significantly more than the standard XJR, until you fit in the upgraded Korean made anti-roll bar. Then it's really great (even though I only have the front uprated ARB installed presently while waiting to do my rear diff sorted out and install the rear uprated ARB at the same time, hopefully by the end of the year.)

 

klfong
Which conversion kit did U use?

 

Sorry, does Arnott's have more than one coil spring conversion now? I wasn't keeping up after I had mine done.

 

I have a 2005 xjr, which had a newly set of Arnotts on the car ,both had solenoid issues quickly. after years of research i do believe if your going to remove the Bilstein's go with Black Dog conversion plus they allow you to keep your head light leveling system. After all the research I went with the original Bilsteins with all the benefits of the active suspension and glad I did.

 

I can't speak for the other types but I'm pleased with the Strutmasters set I installed more than 2 years ago on my wife's 2004 XJ8.


On the road I really can't tell any difference in ride quality but the car feels as if it responds to steering inputs with a bit more precision. On rougher hard dirt roads there is a slight metallic sound to the front suspension over larger ruts but no sounds on paved roads.

There's no real magic to disarming the suspension warning lights as a simple disconnect from the control module mounted behind the rear seat back cushion does the trick with any additional wiring of gimmicks.

I have no reason to bitch and with 100,000 miles the car still finds 80-90mph just as comfortable and easy to maintain as 65mph...just ask my wife.

 

That is only true of early cars that have not had the ASM firmware updated. Of the top of my head, '05 and later cars, as well as earlier cars with the update, will trigger faults if the ASM is disconnected. Your car is early and must not have been updated.

Cheers,

Don

 

Ah so....my wife's XJ8 is an early build 2004 built as I recall on Nov or Dec of '03.