Hi, my left rear air strut appears to be leaking, see photo. I want to keep air suspension and not go to coil overs. What are my options. I see Arnott and other brand names on Rock Auto. Do these all work with CATS and function as original? Is anyone selling remanufactured units? Should both rear struts be replaced at once or unnecessary?

Thx
2005 VDP

 

Arnott does not work with CATS

 

https://suncoreindustries.com/produc...guar-x358-x350
https://aerosus.com/jaguar/xj/xj-series.html

Both of them claim it works with CATS how accurate that claim I do not know. I do not have first hand experience. I am researching the issue nevertheless.

 

Jaroslav, do you speak from experience? If yes, how long? I am trying to compile information.
Trying to be smart and learn from mistakes of others

 

I had this same question a few months ago as my rear drivers was leaking. I discovered a few things that may sway your opinion one way or the other.

Being a 20 year old car, you likely have had your struts replaced. What brand are the others? I wanted to keep air suspension. I discovered both my rears were Arnott, and my fronts were two different brands not OEM, but I cannot recall which brand. I ended up going with another Arnott and will eventually swap the front to Arnott.

If you do happen to have an OEM, the big problem is no one will refurb them any longer. So you are likely going to gamble on either a China part that has some interesting claims, or Arnott. Or coil-overs.

 

one more curtesy of @Thermite :
https://www.miessler-automotive.com/...X358-2004-2009

 

The link was all I ever discovered about those. Never did grok as to whether they were actually German MADE, or just a German rebrand of Chinese Suncore - or knock-offs of Suncore. You'd have to know Chinese biz practices?



Other members, Continental Europe based, would be more familiar

For my own X350, February 2005 build date, I purchased Chinese-made ones, all four corners, WITHOUT the CATS modulation solenoid, and just placed "dummy solenoids" onto each of the control wire pairs. Around 20 Ohms, pure resistive, is close enough to the inductive+resistive load of the OEM solenoid to make the control circuit believe it IS talking to an OEM solenoid ... hence NOT throwing error messages.

It never did have closed-loop feedback. Just 'send and pray' open-loop control that ***-u-me-s the modulation device is obeying orders.

So far, so good, but "belt & braces" as it is, I also have a full set of coilovers from Max-Pee Ding-rods laid-by as backup.

Even at my age, it takes under an hour per-corner to swap, so if I HAVE to I've no real 'downtime' whilst awaiting another Chinese air-strut. OEM Bilstiens I removed didn't 'really' last the full 20 years. They just remained drivable for ten years whilst leaks slowly worsened until the leaks got too bad for the WABCO to keep-up.

FWIW - the ride is fine without the modulation. Kinda like the 80/20 redneck-rule where 80% of the goodness is still there (load leveling fore & aft and side -to-side).

I'm inclined to think the CATS modulation is less than 20% of the gain, too. More like a ten-percent improvement, if-even.

OTOH, in my 81st year, I no longer push the limits.... as often... so even a Plymouth Valiant would do me so long as the tires were brill!

 

I've been driving on Arnott air-suspension roughly for about a year ~ 6-8k km, which is under 5k miles.
I learned only later they don't support CATS. If I knew before I wouldn't still go with Bilstein (the price is hard to justify for me, maybe if Bilstein provided a lifetime warranty)...
...and I am not sure I would actually notice if the Arrnott supported CATS.

 

So, sounds like it may not be worth to try and keep CATS? Definitely not with the price of new Bilsteins. Anyone have experience with remanufactured originals, if still available? Do knockoffs from China actually have CATS or are they only fitted with resisters to fool the system?

 

Has anyone tried any of the other brand names as new replacements? In addition to Arnott Rock Auto has FCS and PRT that also have a lifetime warranty. Also Westar, but it only has a 1 year warranty. Anyone have experience with either of these?

DS