Unfortunately you experienced the results of inadequate training/lack of experience in using proper procedures for “Threadlocking” type products. Don’t let this be your overall view of Euro products for they are most often better then US or Asian products.

 

Clearly somebody on the Jaguar suspension assembly line needs "retraining" (fill in here with your recommendation <................> !). From your description of work so far, you only need a new bolt, plus the air spirng lower bush, which actually is pressed into the lower wishbone arm.

The bush itself costs very little, about £20 here in the UK. I would expect the shop to use a nyloc nut on the other end of the bolt; its not worth rewelding the captive nut back on. Labour charges are going to be your main item, I would think, as the shop has had to do a lot of dismantling work, far more than normal.

 

[quote=Fraser Mitchell;455037]Clearly somebody on the Jaguar suspension assembly line needs "retraining" (fill in here with your recommendation <................> !).

I don't think it is an "Assembly-Line" fault, more of a "Non-Jaguar" repair shop fault. The factory bolts are pretreated with the correct amount of red threadlock (C2CP5886) to prevent such things from happening.


Maybe a highly discontented employee or this could be a “Monday or “Friday” fabrication?

 

Update;

Hi everyone. $1150 later, back on the road again. $399 for a new shock and $750 the cost of removing a bolt. As a bonus, after the shock replacement, the car is now displaying ” Catalytic converter Fault”. I guess all the hammering and grinding to remove the bolt has caused a sensor or cable to become loose. That is what I think and what I hope it is.

And now, a new troubleshooting chapter begins.

 

I wanted to post here and let you know i had the same problem with mine i just finished my repair about a week ago.

I'm not really savvy when it comes to working on cars so i thought this would be simple start.

Well 2 months later i went through a gauntlet to get it done. When i reached the bolt i tried everything heating it drilling it out, I ended with a simple hacksaw weaved in and out of the components down there after 45 minutes of sawing i got through and the bolt just slid out.

Like i said this was a first time for me, im gonna make a guide with pictures and share these experiences. The guides i read before starting didnt really warn me about these bolts. Maybe i can save some people the trouble of sawing the bolts or worse yet what happened to you. Sorry to hear it.

Hope the catalytic converter thing works out easily.

Forgot to mention: as soon as i finished the fronts, i get the air suspension fault error again. Thinking i made a mistake i got really worried until i left the car sitting for 8 hours went out to start it and got a "vehicle too low" error. So i stepped away to look at the car and the back springs were empty. Here we go again.

 

Thank for the advice. Too late for me but helpful information for the next time or the next guy. These bolts are grade 8 or higher. It must have not been easy to cut through and I assume you had to scarify the bushing as well. The rear shock bottom mounting bolts may be easier (crossing fingers) to remove as they are the regular hex bolts and easier to excess. If you end up replacing the back, I suggest the regular spring shocks because the air shocks are not cold weather friendly. Also be aware, a search of the forum brought up an interesting thing. Few others who replaced the air shock and/or messed with suspension arms have ended up with “Cat system fault”. I am interested to know how a “Cat System fault” relates to air suspension.

 

In an effort to find a solution for the "CAT System Fault" error, I came across an individual in Jaguar Forum.co.uk &bull; Index page who just like me experienced having this error after an Air suspension replacement. After his many visits to the dealer, replaceing the Air shock on the opositside of the one he had changed finally got rid of the "CAT System Fault" error even though there was nothing wrong with that shock! I am wondering if that was a coincident or is Jaguar telling us that we must replace shocks in pairs?

 

The message relates to the CAT(S) system, (Computer Active Technology Suspension), which changes the shock absorber settings front-rear and left-right between Soft and Hard based on inputs from various motion sensors.

By fitting the Arnott spring units, the adjustable dampers are lost. As there is a fault message it would seem that there is a CATS checking function on engine start to detect the dampers are all available to the CATS system. So fitting the Arnott units means the CATS system no longer functions. The leads plugged into the damper tops seen in the engine compartment are the CATS leads to change the settings.

At least that is how it seems to me based on reading the Technical Notes, but there is no mention of a check function, only a description of how CATS works.

 

Wow... I was dead wrong and as they say, barking up the wrong tree! All this time I thought CAT is the short for Catalytic converter and going crazy on how an air suspension problem affects the Catalytic converter. Thank you Fraser for the educational note. Forgive me but I am new to air suspension technology. Are dampers part of the shock itself or located elsewere under the hood? Will you be kind to provide the URL (if it is online) to the technical notes on the CATs system that you are speaking of? Thanks.

 

I guess I have to find me a British_English to American_English dictionary. Just found out damper means shock. The CAT wire connector is already fitted into the top of the shock and the battery leads has been disconnected and reconnected (after a wait) to reset the fault code but it won't reset.

 

Just another name for the "Air Shocks". They are shock absorbers and air springs(bags) in one unit.

 

The shocks (aka dampers), are a part of the airspring units and cannot be replaced separately which is a real nuisance as the full spring/shock units are very expensive from Jaguar agents. Vice versa, the air springs cannot be replaced without replacing the shock. On a "normal" car, steel springs and shocks are invariably separately replaceable which makes maintenance a much better proposition for the poor owner who has to spend his own hard-earned money.

On the other hand, there are the Arnott units, now available as air springs too, and also salvaged units, and, of course, internet suppliers of the original items, but still not as cheap as we would all like.

 

Hi everyone. It has been about 9 months since my last post on my air shock replacements. The shocks have been doing OK though the airshock smoothness ride is no longer there. I can feel all the road bumps just like regular spring shocks. My Lexue ES is 10 times smoother. But, that is not the problem. I though that driving a few months after the shock replacement the air pressure balances out and the "Cat System Fault" warning would go away. It is 9 months now and this warning message is permanently stamped on the screen. It is annoying because the only time I can see my millage is when I turn the engine off. As we all know, disconnecting the battery would not reset this message. I assume the rest procedure may involve a combination of holding and pushing some buttons. If anyone has acquired any new information on how to deal with resetting this message, sharing it would be greatly appreciated. Regards,

 

Hadia-I read with interest you problem with the suspension bolt.

Glad you have got it sorted.

WRT the cat fault message there are two small wires to the top of each air suspension unit. Does the Arnott unit have a small socket on the top of the suspension unit?
If it does check that the wires/pins are making proper contact but if not then that is the reason for your fault message.......yes?

These small wires operate a solenoid inside the air unit and this only comes into play when the stability control kicks in, but if they are open circuit then the ECU will know.
I am assuming that you have replaced only one air shock and if you cannot connect the two wires then it may be a matter of connecting a resistor accross the pins to eliminate the fault message.
I am no expert,just trying to work it out.

 

Thanks meirion1. Yes, the shock unit has a small connector in the top and it is connected. I tried to refer you to my previous notes in this thread regarding this connector but for some reason I can not find it. The problem I had with Arnott's connector was that it would not allow the wire connector to fit in Arnott's connector all the way in and as soon as the car moved or vibrated during operation, it would pop out. I had to remove a small plastic from inside the wire connector in order for it to plug in and hear the click indicating it is locked in securely. It hasn't popped out since. Now if these wires are making contact properly or whether they are open or short I can't tell. If the purpose of this connection is to signal CAT warnings, I guess I have to follow the wiring and do some testing.

 

Trying to change a front strut and upper control arm on our early 2004 built VDP, originally a Florida car up until a few years ago. I was able to hit the nut on the lower shock with a micro oxy-MAPP torch (thank you for the advice in this thread) and get the bolt 3/4s of the way out of the nut. The bolt has "jacked" the forward flange of the lower shock mount away from the lower control arm bushing until it hit the "front - front" lower control arm. Does not want to come out the rear lower shock flange. I think its possible that the inner part of the lower shock bushing is just spinning when I turn the bolt. I did try an air rachet as well. Never encountered anything like this, any advice appreciated. Have tried a 10 lb persuader on bolt tip, nut and flange to no avail, and have tried no, light and heavy jack pressure to change the angle of the control arm and pressure/angle on the bolt.

Think I can get a sawzall blade in there and cut the bolt, but then what?

 

I'm not quite sure I understand your problem clearly, but I did that job last week on my 04 XJ8 (I also replaced the shock). The process I followed was to put the car on a lift with all four tires fully extended and then disconnect the battery. Four jack stands could do the same thing. That way you can hopefully avoid any re-calibration issues on the air suspension system when you put it back together. Then I bled the air out of the shock by removing the air tube from the top, slowly. At that point the downward pressure from the shock on the bolt shaft was minimized and I had no trouble removing the bolt. In my case, which should be the same as yours, the bolt only threads into the nut, so when the nut was removed, the bolt slid out easily. So it seem to me that if you "tighten" the bolt back on you will get enough room to use your sawsall to cut off the nut. Once that's done the bolt should slide out. If the shock is still exerting too much pressure to slide it out and you don't have a tool that can compress it, I would drive the bolt through from the nut side with a hammer and 10penny nail or thinner bolt. It could be that there is some rust on the bolt/bushing to deal with, but your favorite spray rust remover should help with that. Be careful to keep away from the shock when you push the bolt through, as it may still spring downward with force. Eye protection is a must.

You may be able to do the same thing without going through the process of bleeding the air out of the shock, but that's what worked for me. Also, I've read from several members' posts that extending just one shock can be problematic for the air suspension system--I would rather take the extra time to avoid the possibility of creating other issues, particularly when they're computer related.

FYI, I am strictly an amateur DIY mechanic and I only did this job the one time, so my actual experience doing it is limited. I suggest you read postings on this forum from Don B. and Frasier and several others you can find by searching on air suspension issues. Their postings were very helpful to me and they have a wealth of knowledge. Good Luck.

 

Seizure of the bolt on the front lower shock mount is very common. The bolt seizes on the steel inner of the shock bush. This is why my local independent will only estimate for replacing a front shock. Sometimes they have had to remove the straight wishbone with the shock still attached and saw through the bolt on the workbench. New bolts are freely available. When reassembling, use some copperslip-type grease on the bolt so the next guy doesn't have to suffer. Of course this guy could well be yourself if you keep the car a long time.

 

Thanks much for the advice Dan - do you know if your front struts were original?

I think the heat I put into the nut softened the metal on the front lower flange of the shock. Going to get some neversieze, air ratchet the bolt back in (I took it out by hand) and then try to use a bar clamp or C clamp to support the bottm of the two flanges, The nut on mine shows no signs of wanting to separate from the front shock lower flange (ear).

 

OK, so that was a bad idea, got the bolt back in a full turn and it stopped, no going in or out.

Dan you ere right the bolt turns more easily with the air pressure relieved.

So 3 new Milwakee metal cutting blades and the bolt is cut between the front ear and the bushing. Turn the bolt head and the inner bushing spins with it, lots of red loctite inside thanks Jag. Prying in the saw cut doesn't seem to do much.