My 2006 VDP has only 32,000 miles but is probably in need of air springs. Does anyone have any experience with the rebuilt ones from Rebuild Master Tech?

I have talked to them. The claim that all they rebuild is the air spring portion of the unit. I think that just largely consists of replacing the bellows on the outside; at least I know they do that much.

They tell me they do nothing with the shock absorber inside. She told me my original ones would be an excellent candidate for rebuilding because the shock has only 32,000 miles. She said I could send them mine and they could rebuild them.

I know about the Arnott replacements, but would rather go with one designed like the factory intended. The Arnotts are about $500 each and the Master Tech ones are $250. That's a big difference. My only concern is whether or not the Master Tech ones last very long.

Does anyone know if they are any good?

 

Most of mine were my cores rebuilt. One was their core rebuilt.
Have two of their rebuilds on the front of an A8. All have worked fine. Never had one leak air.
If the shock absorber section fails they are useless. But these active Bilsteins seem to really hold up. I hear of people running A8’s to 350,000 to 400,000 miles with these Bilstein sourced air springs.
I am biased because I use their products. But also am a repeat customer of RMT.
The Audi shocks do not leak at the top like the Jaguar struts. So they last longer. But the RMT rebuild process addresses the leaks at the top of the Jaguar air struts.
The Bilstein B4 are another option. About 900.00 each. But brand new.

 

Mine that R M T rebuilt, now on the 07.
Were off of the 04, a car from the Carolina"s.
Still in pretty good shape over all.
As well as the bottom bolts were not frozen by rust, like the 07's were.
They were just loosing air, when it got cold, more or less.
They have worked out well,on the 07
The new Arnotts on the 04, have also worked well.
Just the front shocks done so far.on both.

 

I currently have two RMT's that were just sent back to them for warranty evaluation. One started leaking after only one day in the car. I may just have had some bad luck. As you say they only repair the bellows section and unfortunately they tend to leak at the top mount in an area they don't rebuild. I will say that I reached out to them and they immediately responded and said they would honor their warranty by evaluating them for repair or replacement. I had to ship them back at my cost. I should hear from them in next day or so regarding the struts I sent back. I am hoping they do right by me but the car has been down for almost two weeks and probably will be for another week at least. I can also now change a strut in an hour or less . I would say if your budget allows for it get original equipment Bilsteins and then you know all of the components are new. I saved $500 on the parts but have lost more than that in wasted time, labor, and lost drive time.

 

Sorry to hear of your bad luck with R M T's product.
I do hope you get a good set this time.
But my new Arnotts also had to be returned.
Had to pay for new ones, and to ship them back
They then repaid me, along with the shipping a few days later

 

In trying to sort out my issue I have looked at other options. Panelhead mentioned Bilsteins @ $900.00 apiece. If GrewUpJaguar is thinking that route I suggest you go to Rockauto.com. They had the Bilsteins listed there for around $650.00. This was in past couple days because I decided that while my struts were out to replace both upper a-arms and was able to get Lemforders for $85.00 apiece on the site.

 

The Bilsteins are on sale at $665 a piece right now on Rockauto and that is the way to go IMO.

I used Suncore aftermarket front struts and they both failed immediately. I then replaced them with RMT rebuilds and I had one of those fail immediately. RMT did warranty it and shipped me another for free and it seems to be holding up ok. I just bought rear rebuilds from RMT as well but have not installed them. The Bilsteins were over $1,000 each when I was replacing my struts. If they had been this "cheap" back then, I would have gone with them.

 

Thanks for all the advice.

Some of you have mentioned Bilstein replacements. Are those the very same design as the original? In particular, is it controlled by the car's air suspension computer?

I am wanting as much as possible to maintain my car's original ride and handling--the way Jaguar intended it. It only has 32,000 miles to begin with. I don't like the Arnott's because they have a constant spring rate--Arnott has admitted this to me. The Arnott's are not controlled by the air suspension computer. If the Bilsteins are not controlled by the computer then they are of no interest to me. This is why I quite interested in having RMT rebuild my leaking (air leak) originals. I have talked to them and they are glad to do it for $250 per spring.,

 

With the low miles, yours should have a good chance of working out well.
The ones i sent in were from the Carolina's.
Still in good shape, just leaking when they got cold.

 

They are the same. Bilstein is the OE manufacturer of the air struts for Jaguar.

 

The Bilsteins will have computer controlled dampening. They are only now available new in Comfort configuration. I am not sure if a VDP had that or the Sport configuration as on my XJR. Others may know off the top of their head. Yours being low mileage bode well for RMT rebuild as Wingrider mentions. That said all of these components in used form are in the 15 yr plus age at this point.

 

Only the XJR x350 used sports struts. Even the Super V8 uses comfort..

 

The air suspension module controls two things - (1) ride height and (2) damper setting (hard or soft, there are no in-between settings). Bilstein, Arnott or whoever all are set for height by the module, but only Bilsteins have the hard/soft settings set using a valve and solenoid in the unit.

 

I wanted to make sure I updated my experience with RMT. I just received word that they sent two replacement struts, no questions asked, for the two faulty ones I sent back. Hopefully they will be good to go but I have to say that RMT was good to their warranty and didn't jerk me around at all.

In hind sight I probably should have bit the bullet and ordered new Bilsteins but I am satisfied with RMT's treatment of my issues.

 

I just replaced all four corners with the RMT rebuilt shocks..........no problems so far.

I had three bilsteins and an Arnott.........and from what I understand the arnots do not work fully with the Jaguar suspension system.......

Arnot had to be cut off...............lower and upper bolts had both seized...........

I have three bilsteins sitting here which are probably good........but no one wants to buy them to rebuild them.....even rmt said no core exchange.

 

If they do want cores they must have given up on the Jaguar struts.
For whatever reasons the Bilstein air struts Audi uses on the A8 are much better quality. People get 200,000 miles from them. Both my fronts let go at 100,000 miles but 14 years too. The Jaguar struts normally do not go even this far. The A8 has a 60/40 weight distribution and weighs 500 more than a XJ. Suspect weight is harder on the o-rings, plus age.

 

RMT gave me a shipping label when I bought my rears a few weeks ago to ship my old cores to them. They aren't paying for them though.

 

I received two warranty struts back from RMT as mentioned above and put them back in this past weekend. They sent me comfort spec instead of the sports that I sent back. I didn't care at this point. What I did find interesting is that they are doing something at the top mount area where mine were leaking and that normally never was repaired before. I am attaching a pic from a thread where someone took a strut apart, and a shot of the strut I received as warranty. It almost seems like they are somehow cutting out the plate at the top of the mount, removing the poly puck, and filling in with this rubberized epoxy. It is very thick and not just covering where the plate should be. The struts are holding air beautifully and are working so well that I now hear what is probably the sway bar bushes needing replacement.....dang it :-) Not sure if I am a tester for this new fix but I had never seen it before. (sorry for the large photo...thought I had resized it)

 

None were recent rebuilds by RMT. But they said they addressed the leakage issues at the top. The o-rings seem to hold up.

 

Glad to hear the good news, that your enjoying the rebuilt shocks.
This way you get to keep all the features of the stock suspension, at a bargain price.