Good morning all,
Recently purchased this beauty, a 2005 Super V8, Silver/Charcoal with 74k miles.

Luckily it made the 1200 mile trip home without any issue, but I now have an intermittent leak at the top of the struts, mostly in cold weather. So my question: Is it realistic to get 10 years of trouble free operation with fresh OEM or Arnott air springs when the temperature gets down to -25C? I'd prefer OEM so I can retain the Sport struts and CATS, I do like the way the car handles.

The Bilstein literature says not to store the air struts below -15C. The car will see lower temps than that just about every year. If I'm being unrealistic expecting air suspension to work in the cold, I'll just order the Strutmaster XJR steel spring kit and be done with it.
Thanks for your experiences.

 

You might want to check the VIN over on Ford's site, because as I understand it, L bodies, like the Super 8, came with comfort modules. None the less, any NOS Sport modules have been on the shelf for years, and rubber bladders that are 10 years old would not be something I would use. I have recently performed a module replacement with the Bilstein B4's, which is the only module currently being produced. I am well pleased with them.

 

I went with the exact coil kit you are considering. I'm pleased with the results.

 

I can tell you that my car works find in the winter, and that's a Canadian winter in Winnipeg. Not uncommon to get down to -40C or lower, -35C is the norm. My SV8 has not dropped at all in those temps. Seems to work just as it should and it is parked outside. Now as far as I know my shocks are about 2-3 years old (replaced before I bought the car) but like I said, no issues with cold.

 

Cold only is an issue once the rubber has aged. Just don't find out like I did. I drove from 60 degree weather to 20 degree weather and the front end couldn't pick itself up off the ground when I got there.

 

Torrid - I will second that about cold and age of parts. If you want to find the weak parts on a car, head up here for the winter! Since the OP was thinking of replacing with new air shocks, I would say you would have years before anything starting going wrong (well, hopefully!). I do know of at least one local XJ here with the original shocks and high kms and the shocks are still fine. It's an 04 so those parts are probably at least 12 years old. Maybe that's an anomaly though and with so few Jags around these parts, not a big sampling to compare too.

I will say one thing that seems to be good about the cold though, the hoses, belts, and plastic engine bits doesn't seem to wear out as fast as they do with you southern boys! When I did the valley hose on my STR at 130,000 miles, the thing looked like new as did most of the plastic pieces. All the cold we have here seems to help keep that hot engine from cooking all the plastic parts in there!

 

The Ford site says Performance Suspension for my VIN, other cars I was looking at said Standard Suspension. The struts I pulled off tonight had green dots, so I was wrong. Besides BOX is right about not putting old stock units on the car.

Anyway, I pulled the springs apart, the bump stop was split most of the way through so I'm glad I didn't have to drive more than a mile on them. The dampers are still in great shape so I may just make some top hats and put steel springs on them. I can keep CATS that way.

I'll post up some pictures of whatever I do.

 

Look forward to your pics as I was thinking about doing what you suggest.

 

Well I went ahead and installed 2 Arnott front struts and some new ball joint & tie rod end boots. I wanted to get back on the road without screwing around since I'm awfully busy right now.

However, it's always good to have a backup plan......

A1 Racing has sleeves that fit perfectly, the shock body is ~1.555" OD. My plan is to cut apart the stock 4 bolt mount and integrate it with what you see here. You could also make a new mount with a spherical bearing, but that will probably be too noisy for a Jag. A nice 2.5" ID coilover spring and a bump stop will finish it off.