X350 Air Suspension has dropped completely

[hal3210]

I'm about to view an X350 that's not been driven for months. The suspension has completely bottomed out front and rear, all 4 wheels look as though they are disappearing into the top of the wheel arches. The previous owner tells me that the car should rise up once the car battery is replaced or recharged. He says that the car would go down a bit in the past but once driven a few miles it would rise up fine. But now it has sunk as low as it could go.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it likely that a leak has caused the car to sit so low? Apparently a new air compressor isn't a big job but the air shocks for the X350 can be as much as £1000 each!

Greatly appreciate any advice on how to solve the sunken suspension and the likely cost

[Risonax]

I see the same question was asked on Facebook a few days ago. Same car?

These cars are not that hard to find; you can't even test drive this one. I suppose it must be ridiculously cheap to even consider.

[Dodsy]

Most likely a leak. I picked up knock off Air shocks from amazon for £170 each on the front , work fine. Rears are i think at least twice the price.

If it does raise up but then drops overnight its an air leak, you should also get an air suspension fault warning on the dash.

[Dodsy]

Also get over to https://www.jaguarforum.com/forums/xj-x350-x358-al...

Loads of knowledgeable people who can save you £££ with fault finding and fixes.

[GeniusOfLove]

The only way to find out how bad it is would be to get the car started, let it inflate itself, then see if it ends up back on it's bump stops after a few days.

The issue with aftermarket struts and Arnott rebuilds is that they don't have the switchable damping that the real ones (or Bilstein replacements do) so you're going to end up with a car varying it's damping on the OE struts but with fixed damping on the replacements. Not a big problem if you replace all four maybe, but it could make for odd road manners if you replace one strut or just one axle pair.

Going to be an increasing problem with these X350s as they get older, they'll separate into bad/weird driving ones with knackered struts or chinese replacements and a tiny number of properly looked after ones someone has chucked a £4k+ suspension rebuild at.

[RB CV8]

S N G Barratt have just introduced aftermarket air spring/damper units for the X350 at a rather more palatable price than the "genuine" units; just over a grand for a set.

And only a week after an Arnott coilover conversion kit arrived on my doorstep from the US ready to go on my brother's XJ8......

At least the Arnott kit did not cost a vast amount more than the new units announced by Barratt, and will also do away with the reliance on the rest of the air system on what is now a 19-year-old 150k mile car.

[Dodsy]

RB CV8 said:

S N G Barratt have just introduced aftermarket air spring/damper units for the X350 at a rather more palatable price than the "genuine" units; just over a grand for a set.

And only a week after an Arnott coilover conversion kit arrived on my doorstep from the US ready to go on my brother's XJ8......

At least the Arnott kit did not cost a vast amount more than the new units announced by Barratt, and will also do away with the reliance on the rest of the air system on what is now a 19-year-old 150k mile car.

The SNG ones are Bilstein - looking at the manufacturers website it doesnt mention adaptive damping so I suspect they dont have it otherwise they would include it in the specs. .

The chinese knock offs (which I have and are very good) dont have it, nor do the new Arnott ones.

AFAIK the only way to get replacement fully functional air shock is to have them rebuilt (they call it remanufactured) by arnotts .

ETA I dont miss the adaptive damping and with the price difference being Bilstein ~£1k, arnott ~£700 and chinese £169 Im happy with my selection and the £££ saved.

Edited by Dodsy on Thursday 24th August 10:12

[RB CV8]

Dodsy said:

The SNG ones are Bilstein - looking at the manufacturers website it doesnt mention adaptive damping so I suspect they dont have it otherwise they would include it in the specs. .

The chinese knock offs (which I have and are very good) dont have it, nor do the new Arnott ones.

AFAIK the only way to get replacement fully functional air shock is to have them rebuilt (they call it remanufactured) by arnotts .

ETA I dont miss the adaptive damping and with the price difference being Bilstein ~£1k, arnott ~£700 and chinese £169 Im happy with my selection and the £££ saved.

Edited by Dodsy on Thursday 24th August 10:12

We'd been mulling over the Arnott conversion kit for a while, having never really been too impressed with the air set-up, though admittedly it was going to be past its best given the mileage (90k when purchased). More recently a well-disguised pothole knackered the n/s/f unit, so a decision on what to do about it became necessary.

The Arnott coilover kit is going on in the next few days. I'll report on the success - or otherwise - if there is any interest.

[GeniusOfLove]

RB CV8 said:

We'd been mulling over the Arnott conversion kit for a while, having never really been too impressed with the air set-up, though admittedly it was going to be past its best given the mileage (90k when purchased). More recently a well-disguised pothole knackered the n/s/f unit, so a decision on what to do about it became necessary.

The Arnott coilover kit is going on in the next few days. I'll report on the success - or otherwise - if there is any interest.

I'd love to hear. It's impossible to imagine any aftermarket kit is going to be as well rounded as the OE system that they spent tens of thousands of hours developing and perfecting, but compared to a set of knackered 100k+ mile twenty year old air struts? Yeah I can believe it'd be better.

[Stedman]

Dodsy said:

The SNG ones are Bilstein - looking at the manufacturers website it doesnt mention adaptive damping so I suspect they dont have it otherwise they would include it in the specs. .

]

interesting..! Did they tell you this?

[Dodsy]

Stedman said:

Dodsy said:

The SNG ones are Bilstein - looking at the manufacturers website it doesnt mention adaptive damping so I suspect they dont have it otherwise they would include it in the specs. .

]

interesting..! Did they tell you this?

Says it on their website . They also do the aftermarket ones but they are a lot cheaper on amazon

[reddiesel]

What is the cost please Dodsy of having the originals rebuilt ? Extremely prohibitive ?

[ChocolateFrog]

If all 4 corners are down its less likely to be a fault with a strut I'd suggest.

I don't think the price differential between cheap ones and good ones really makes an unknown quantity viable unless it's really, really cheap and you can change parts yourself.

The compressor itself is an easy change or a rebuild is about £25 and 2-3hrs work.

[Stedman]

Dodsy said:

Stedman said:

Dodsy said:

The SNG ones are Bilstein - looking at the manufacturers website it doesnt mention adaptive damping so I suspect they dont have it otherwise they would include it in the specs. .

]

interesting..! Did they tell you this?

Says it on their website . They also do the aftermarket ones but they are a lot cheaper on amazon

Ah, I thought you meant the cheaper ones were Bilstein sans adaptive!