Im not sure the measurements of the taper in the cylinder off hand i can measure one for you if you wish to know exactly, but it looks a lot, see attached:section of compressor.pdf

it tapers for approx 20mm in depth into the start fo the cylinder then goes parrallel for the last 15-20mm of the bore, im note sure exactly why to be honest, My guess is, either to ram air into a smaller volume or due to there not being a gudgeon pin on the conrod of the piston it does not go up and down square, it tilts half way of the stroke up and down, hence it may need room to tilt slightly, this is why the pin is there in that position to keep the piston ring in its correct orientation, as not only does it grow and shrink in diameter it also will be very slightly oval in shape when at an angle, so the ring expands and contracts very quickly as you can imagine, it is not a constant diameter. this is why an old ring will look worn on the top only, it will measure good as a diameter but the wear is all on the top edge of 2 sides only.

I too streched my old ring (OHH!! EYES ARE WATERING!!), no not that one!, the piston ring!! which did help also, quite well, but i felt it had lost its "springy-ness" properties so then i made a new one

I would have guessed there was a pin in your piston but sometimes it is hard to see hence I point out to be carefull when installing a new one, The earliest i have opened is a year 2000 compressor from my allroad it had a pin, not sure what year yours is?

regards

Andy

 

Andy is a great MAN !!

one more satisified customer today .
i had the air suspension fault since i bought the car 1 month ago and garage was suggesting to replace all suspension for 8000 usd .....
last week i received the enveloppe from Andy and decided to wait the week end.
it took me 2 hours approx to do the job, most difficut to reinstall the compressor within the bumper .....

NO MORE air suspension fault message !!! this is great .
BUT still i find the car down every morning so next step will be to identify a probable air leak ...

so to all guys having this air suspension fault message, the most probable cause is the compressor not refilling the air tank fast enough .
there is no risk to try this option first for few usd and it may solve most of the cases .

jagfrenchie
Dubai

 

steady on!! I don't know about "great" , but I am glad you liked my kit and i greatly appreciate your feedback, get that leak found and it will be allsorted!

best regards

Andy

 

I don't have a Jaguar, but I have a Merc E-class with the same compressor.
I've had the error saying "visit workshop" for a while, and bought Andys kit earlier this year.

I found this forum when searching help with my compressor, and thought I'd share my experience.

I have no clue how to remove the compressor from any Jaguar, but it was quite easy on my merc. With the compressor sitting on the kitchen table, I removed two screws to dissasemble the motor part from the air part, removed the old piston ring, put the new one in, and mounted the two parts together. I did not remove any lines or anything else. This is a 5-10 min job that ANYONE can do.

The entire operation was done in 1 hr on my car.

My only regret is not doing it earlier.


If any one think it is suspicius me registering here to post a positive feedback, please feel free to conatct me. My only reason for posting this is a hope that I can help others save a lot of money. Here, in Norway, a new compressor is £950 (!!!!). Andy's kit have saved me a fortune.

 

Thanks for posting-£950 but that's only the cost of about 10 beers in

Norway? LOL

BTW Amundsen is one of my all time heros.

 

Almost :-)

£950 is for the part alone, not labour. At least labour is cheap. The dealer charges around £150 an hour (+ 25% VAT)

I wouldn't have paid the full price at the dealer, I would have bought the unit from the UK, the USA or whatever, but still, it feels way better to fix some thing than just buy a new one. And, saving a lot of money is never wrong.

 

My compressor started making a grunting noise today. It's been day five of ownership. How long do I have before it goes? It still fills the reservoir and bags are holding air, but noise is an embarrassing b$&@h. Noise does not go away with time. Ordering one of these, and I hope my compressor last until it gets here. PayPal only so add a few days to the delivery time. If anyone has a kit on hand...help ....lol... I technically could file a claim on my extended warranty, but holy hell.... That would take weeks !!!

 

'05 xj8 VDP

 

It's going to be cold here tonight. Just put the VDP away until the compressor kit gets here. I hope it works.

 

happy new year to all forum members !

just want to share with you few remarks based on my experience .

my car was always down in the morning, and it killed my compressor.
i did the retrofit of compressor from Andy, and it was fine for few months, but again after sometimes my car was taking 20 minutes in the morning to reach proper height .
if you have a leak on the air shocks, do not wait to change it, fixing compressor is good but not enough .

i installed last week a set of arnot on the front + new compressor, perfect so far , but i feel the drive comfort little harder than before .

was disappointed, if you do not live in USA, you are not entitled core return program from Arnott ... you need to pay for shipment ( so useless to get 50usd per pc )

have a good day

thierry

 

hi all, happy new year

yes any sinking of the cars suspension is an airleak and must be fixed quickly, refurbishing the compressor only makes air to lift it, if it sinks the compressor constantly fights this leak and it will kill the compressor quickly,

see my new how to rebuild video here:
www.bagpipingandy.com and go to the installation page,

best regards

andy

 

the noise could also be the compressor mounts bad which transfers noise through the car body, check this when you fit the kit.

best regards

andy

 

Will do amigo. Ordering your kit right now. If you have any control over the time it takes to ship, then Please help a brother out. We just had a cold night and I took a look this morning and both front wheels are tucked under the fenders, so I will be replacing those two air shocks. Hopefully the kit will buy me a few months. I moved the VDP to injured reserve...lol...out of commission until the compressor gets attention. We've only had this car for a week so it's disappointing, but I'm confident that this kit will do what I need it to do. Let me know if you have new compressor mounts. Or if you know where to find them. Thanks. I'm in Denton, Texas, btw.

 

thanks, before buying front air shocks, get soapy water out and look for leaks, it is not always the rubber part, it could be the airline or top orings, best not to throw parts at it, use soapy water to find bubbles and that is the source of the leak.

not sure about new compressor mounts for the jag, again inspect the compressor before buying them, it may be ok

regards

andy

 

Cherry-if you are in a real hurry to fix your compressor and have time,dismantle it and wrap PTFE tape around the piston until it is a tighter fit in the bore.

 

I just got through checking for the leak. It is coming from the air shock for sure. (See pic.)

Since getting it home, the engine has sounded nice, then yesterday, it developed a strange noise. Sounds like a loud whirring noise. It is constant throughout throttle range. Coming from the area just above the alternator. I has something like this happen on my old mercedes. It turned out to the a dead bearing on the belt tensioner. I don't think that is the problem here. Any ideas what could be causing that. I posted a pic of the general area and a video.

 

Leak location

 

So I can't get a shock shipped from Arnott until Jan17th cause they are on backorder. So we drove the VDP for exactly 22 miles before we put it away until part gets here. I have been going to my shop and sitting in it after work....lol...I can't wait to get back behind the wheel and on the road. Driving the X-type until then.

 

Hi Andy, I bought one of those piston ring kits from you about a year ago for a compressor in a Range Rover and it's still going strong with 145K on the clock. Great to know that the same compressor is used in the Jaguar should it eventually go in mine.

Keep up the good engineering work.

PS - do the guys in wheeler dealer know about you yet?

 

They just got a Range Rover that needed a compressor. He took it apart and identified it needing a piston ring however they bought a re-maned unit.

I was surprised they did not know about the kit.
Would have been great exposure .