Give it to me straight. Living in CO, we see some snow here and there and it gets pretty cold. I'll inevitably have to drive it in the snow and cold from time to time. Is the air suspension a guaranteed problem given the climate it will live in?

I know about the conversions from Arnott and that could be a viable option but I'd like to avoid it if possible. I see some people on here use theirs as a daily driver and live in snowy climates, tell me what you've experienced!!

 

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Spokane, WA. Some winters in the past we drive our '04 XJ8 all winter on dedicated snow tires and other winters we store it till spring (we have 2 Jeeps).

With traction control and dedicated snow tires it does very well ... not as good as our Jeep 4x4s but very good for RWD.

Unless you have a snow storm of the century you should be find 99% of the time.

Air suspension has never been an issue for me in 110k miles.

 

Based on many posts I have read here about the air suspension, have seen that some people have occasional leaking of the air suspension seals in very cold weather, causing the car to drop down when parked. It seems to be that this *could* lead to the pump working overtime and shortening its lifespan, but that's just guessery on my part.

Most of the outright failures/bursting of the air shocks seem to be in hotter climates (including my own).

 

Thank you for the responses! Exactly what I was looking for!

I've been very hesitant to look at XJR's because of the climate I live in and the air suspension, but if anyone else has any experience that might put my mind at rest a bit please share!

Thank you again!

 

The XJR is driveable in the winter. I drove mine with dedicated winter tires (downsized to 18") here in Wisconsin.

If your air suspension is finicky...the cold weather will only exasperate any issues you are having in the warmer months.

Heated seats and steering wheel make it much easier. This winter I am still going to put on the winter wheels. But, only drive it when its "warm" (mid 30s and up).

 

Thanks for the response!

We will have our old dodge neon for most cold or snowy days, but it may see some snow periodically so this all helps tremendously!!!

 

In my opinion, the X350's lack of a limited slip differential is a big weakness for these cars in slippery snowy conditions. Lacking an LSD, the traction control computer has to work overtime with applying brakes when one or the other rear wheels slip. When we still lived in Canada, I used to find this to be a problem when going up slippery hills where you are barely getting enough traction to keep moving. Even with 4 dedicated snow tires and >20 years of winter driving experience, there were several times I was coaxing the XJ up hills while other cars had no trouble keeping their momentum and could cruise right past me. I used to get up similar hills in my prior car (a 'vette) which had a LSD using very wide summer performance tires with less fuss and muss. I'd usually have to turn off traction control in such conditions in the vette, but there's no way that car could have got up any hills without LSD. Having said that, the X350's with a good set of snow tires are pretty good in snow - a whole bunch easier to drive in snow than the 'vette was. ;-)

 

My S-Type is the same way so, for lack of a better term, I'm ok with that. Thank you for your response!

 

My XJR was new to me in January and it came up from the south. It's air suspension didn't like the cold and leaked air quite a bit. I switched to traditional arnott suspension.

The heating works great; windshield clears/melts fast, heated steering wheel is blissful.

Haven't taken it in snow yet; I prefer not to do that in anything that doesn't have snow tires; Then I enjoy snow driving.

With all the people driving distracted and without snow tire traction, I'll keep it parked when the roads are nasty and drive my truck.

 

Did you do the job yourself or did you have it professionally installed?

 

I have been driving my xj8 vdp everyday for three years in Ontario winters, winter tyres are a must but traction control works great. Never had a problem.

 

What year is your XJ8 Andy?

 

2004

 

I watched the youtube video and decided it was easy enough that my general "import" mechanic of choice would have no problems doing it. Essentially I had a non-jaguar mechanic do it with no problem.

 

It does seem like a pretty straight forward job, thanks for the input!