mlwbauer: sounds like you have the exact same broken shock that I have....it's driving me crazy and I only have one broken air strut.

USMC1211: thanks for info, I've decided to go your route and do the arnott conversion, the parts are reasonable for $1295 for all four shocks and it will eliminate all future issues which is my goal since I plan on keeping this car for a long time. I was worried about the ride with any conversion and it's good to know that you're pleased with the ride quality....Thanks!

 

Hey, no prob. Glad I could help. Arnott is a great company. They stand by their customers 100%. Their warranty is unbeatable. For add long add you have the car, you will have replacement shocks, as long as abuse of the equipment its not a factor of course. Like i said, the ride is great, but there is minor differences. They just don't adjust themselves to different driving conditions, braking and accelerating. The ride is still great. The minor differences are very easy to accept when you know you are saving a ton of cash. Also, when there are problems found with the shocks by the company, new shocks again. I get new rear on Thursday. When i fist converted, the kit was new. There were bugs. The front had a problem where they bottomed out easy. Not the cart but the shock on the bump stops. They re-engineered the front struts and in no time, like days. They fixed it. They been perfect. Afterbreaking in the struts, the rear seemed to soft. I called then up today. They had already fixed it, Thursday, new sites again. The kit its extremely easy to install and work on. It is great to know that they cooperate with the customer so well. I love it.

 

Btw, don't let the fact that there were units sold with flaws. Since you will be getting the kit after these issues were found and resolved, you will be happy.

 

Hi, I'm anxious to hear how your conversion has held up on a longer term basis. I'm very frustrated with the issues on my 2004 XJ8 VP, my dream ride is now an expensive game of try this / replace that!!

 

i've got a couple thousand miles on the car since the conversion and everything is fine. the ride is great and is VERY close to the stock airbags. I'm not gonna have any issues with what i did to my car and i have no regrets. I shipped all 4 of my old airbags to arnott and got a check for $200 which was awesome.

 

SexyBeast: Thanks for experimenting on the shocks, I've been doing the same since last November but I got deployed and couldn’t follow-up.
I was troubleshooting my suspension rattle today and found that my "right Tie Rod" was at fault. I was about to replace my upper and lower suspension components. Ordered a replacement today!

 

Thanks for your service to our country reyesl.

 

i replaced mine tie rods also this year when i was troubleshooting a rattle and saw that they were worn. i paid $50 on ebay for mine and they went in VERY easy and i did not have to use a tool to get them un-seated. before you pull the old ones off, put tape on the threads so you know how far to screw the new ones on.

 

We all appreciate your thanks.

"SexyBeast" yeh, I paid $55 with shipping on my order last night.

 

Have you noticed any codes/warning lights thrown after using the s-type suspension?

 

yes, i had to unplug the suspension computer behind the back seat and then clear the codes with a hard reset but touching the negative battery cable to the positive post.

 

Aloha I'm new here. And like so many others I'm having strut problems with my 2004 VDP. I've been looking at the strut master conversion kit, but I'm cheap and shipping to Hawaii is expensive. I would love to here from anyone else that has done this.

 

I have to add that I test drove a 2004 XJ8 the other day for a friend of mine. Afterwards I told the guy selling the guy that I could never recommend the car because he had something major going wrong with the suspention. I informed him that I thought perhaps the compressor was not working properly.

Turned out that the car had previously had a coil over spring conversion done and all the air shocks had been removed. I did not like it at all and never in this lifetime would I ever do it to mine.

 

What brand were the coilovers. If the ride was bad it wasn't done right. Mine is great!

 

Really interested in the Arnott conversion. I am planning on installing it myself. For those who did this themselves, did you use floor jacks, jackstands, etc., or did you use the lifts through MWR?

I would prefer to do this in my own garage and I finally figured out the rear seat back removal for the Super V8's rear power seat option. Was really simple once I realized the seat bottoms don't need removing.

 

I have no idea what brand they were and the ride was not bad, just different. I did not like it and as I previously stated would never do it to one of mine nor would I purchase a car where it had already been done..

 

To each his own.

 

I just installed the strutmasters kit on my 2004 xj8,it cost $1,200 delivered and is perfect, And has a lifetime warranty and has ebach springs and bilstein shocks.

 

The s type conversion is fascinating and opens up many possibilties, I was thinking if you got the parts of a CATS S type maybe you could connect the adaptive damping directly to S type units (maybe) also it would not be expensive to get different springs made to suit the XJ better? Or maybe just leave it on the air as it should be, I know the units are pricey, but there these are expensive cars and the air works well

 

its been several months now and my conversion has held up well. i still prefer the ride of the stock v6 s-type coilovers to the airbags that came on my car. The only time it feels rougher than stock is when i'm on a bumpy road at low speeds. When i hustle the car it IS more responsive and i feel the road now. I also feel that with the airbags gone there is less chance of the entire car catching air at speed over humps. the car does not feel heavy just more planted.