Again, I would strongly suggest the Arnott C-2290 coil/spring conversion kit if you're looking for that perfect ride, and Amazon does stock them. I mean, with a prestigious luxury vehicle that you have, you would want nothing less. Attached is a couple photos of my 2005 Jaguar XJ8L as it appears today after the Arnott C-2290 coil/spring conversion in March of 2014. I mean, it rides and handles just as good today as it did after the conversion.

 

The short life air struts and disappearing rubber suspension are entirely on Jaguar Ford.
We had a 2005 A8, 2006 XJR, and a 2007 335i at the same time. Until this year and we sold the BMW.
The A8 and XJR both have active Bilstein air struts. From the AW forum failures are very rare. Some A8 have over 200,000 miles with originalstruts still working fine. Do not know if anyone has made a 100,000 with all original Jaguar. struts. Some never see 60,000 before strut failures start.
The Lemforder suspension parts used on all also are very different. The original suspension rubbers on the Audi and BMW still look new. No cracks, splits, or disintegration.
I also cried when the frame shop showed me the rubbers on my new to me XJR while on a rack. None were good, and that was early 2015. Had to replace everything. The driver rear lower control arm was past letting go, no bushing left. The toe adjusters were also shot. No ball joints had boots left. Nine years old. Find out this is a common problem on XJ, LS, and Thunderbirds. Dissolving rubber.
Still spot mid 2000 Thunderbirds driving around. The creak and groan as they go down the road. Shot suspension. Most owners will not drop 4 grand replacing all the suspension parts.
Bilstein and Lemforder made solid and reliable parts at the same time as they made these Jaguar parts. It is not their fault. Jaguar/Ford specced junk.

 

i would show you 200k original struts but they're in the dumpster. all of the bilstein air struts are the same and a8s, w211s and x350 etc can always be found slammed on the ground. if you live in a hot climate just convert, it's that simple.

 

We got our 2005 XJ8L with 120k miles and original suspension. Within 1000 miles one of the front bladders popped, just as the wife was coming to the driveway. I replaced the fronts only with the Arnott replacement air units AS-2888 exactly 4 years ago, now with 172k miles. Currently they are all still functioning without issue (though we get yellow Air Suspension Fault frequently, but no functional issue noticed), and the ride is great! The bushings are all in need of replacement, but the Jag still tracks straight and handles fine. Surprised the rear are still original and have no issues.

 

Some major errors in this thread?
The XJ did NOT share the suspension of the Lincoln LS and Thunderbird. The LS/Thunderbird/S-Type also never had air suspension which is what this thread is about?
The S Type does share the LS/Thunderbird stuff especially the 2000-2002 models then Jaguar made significant changes from 2003 on that made the car much less similar.
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the rear suspension is basically the same from the ls/x200 all the way to the f-type. front uppers and tie rods are the same. the guy is complaining about bushing wear and the LS has exactly the same wear points as the x350.

 

Small addition, because of my experience with water and corrosion found in my Florida system.

 

I fitted Arnotts coil overs to my X350 & they were great. I purchased them direct from Arnotts & they shipped them to me in Australia. They were delivered to my door in under two weeks. I now have an X358 & replaced the fronts with Bilstein air struts to keep originality, but I now regret not going for coil overs.

 

Well I am going to order the Arnott new air struts. Cannot make myself to coil overs. The issue is the Jaguar XJ strut. All shocks wear out in time.
The clunk is what has me wanting to replace with another brand. Not many Jaguar struts start to clunk and bang. But that is most likely a death song.

 

Not sure what shipping would cost but this is probably the lowest price I've seen on original Bilstein's. https://www.berkshirejagcomponents.c...47-c2x22660932

 

I went with these because I can adjust height and dampening. Like them car feels firmer and more planted.

 

I bought similar coilovers prior to taking ownership of my 2004 XJ8. They are from MaxSpeedingRod, but they appear to be identical to the ones in your link.


They arrived well packaged and appear to be constructed with decent material


Exploded view

In fact, I was planning to do an installation thread and performance review on this forum, but my plans somehow changed. I was convinced to give these a try by this . They seem to be a legitimate product. 24 way adjustable damper (you can actually detect the differences ex situ), and, of course, adjustable ride height. My main concern was also spring rate. I can't remember what mine are, but they are printed on the coils. I suspect they will be firmer than we would like.

My XJ8 happened to come with Arnott air springs, supposedly with a lifetime parts warranty. The rears were leaking and I was planning to warranty them out and sell the whole set, front and rear, but I couldn't resists first driving around on air. Well, as I said, my plans changed once the rears were replaced with new units and I cannot easily give up on these. I am of the opinion that the system is relatively simple and isn't hard to diagnose, but I get that the parts are profoundly expensive. I was going through the receipts provided by the previous owner and found that they spent almost $7000 on replacing the suspension and fuel pump/sending-unit in one visit to the garage two years ago. Ouch. However, if they truly have a lifetime warranty, I am totally okay with routinely swapping them out every couple of years, as they couldn't be easier to r&r. I may still install the coilovers for a short time out of curiosity.

One thing that needs mentioning is that I currently live in a warm dry climate. Should we move to a place with cold winters, then I will definitely swap them over if I decide to drive the XJ8 in the winters. We used to own a 1997 P38 Range Rover and lived in a place with colder winters, during which the bladders would sometimes empty on particularly cold nights. It was never fun in the mornings to bounce along on the bumpstops in a cold vehicle, on icy streets. I eventually switched over to Arnott coilovers, which I genuinely regretted. The improvement in reliability was superb, but it no longer drove like the same vehicle, and it lost all of the benefits of ride-height adjustability.

Finally, I want to mention something about the longevity of the air bladders. To better preserve them, tt is important to keep the bladders full or extended so as not to allow them to fold. If you are going to store the vehicle for any length of time, I would suggest putting it on jackstands. I think one of the biggest causes of failures of the bladders is allowing them to become creased with low air pressure, which happens as air leaks out of the system over time. At least I know with the Rovers this was the case. The other main problem with the Rovers' system was dry rot, which may also be a concern with these too.

 

I didn’t forget, they company actually doesn’t have an S after X (I guess they figure the X will make an S sound—I don’t know!)

At the time Suncore and Arnott we’re about double the price and were completely out of stock with no known date for resupply. (In all honesty I think they are all made in *China.) But now the pricing is about the same if you order from the company. (Around $500 or so.) But only Suncore and Arnott provide bypass modules so your CATS system doesn’t think that you’re screwed that you have no more air shocks!! And you really can’t find them after market! I think in the three years since it’s been done I’ve seen one (Maybe two.) for sale on eBay. Now you can’t even find ones in an ebay search only showing sold ones!

*Like HID bulbs for the name brand bulb sellers—Those are made in China too! But they slap their name on the box and charge four times more!


‘06 XJ8 with MaXPeeding Rods Coilovers

 

You are correct I accidentally misspelled their name

Your stance looks nice and aggressive!
Did you in the end find the module for your car or are you still driving around with the error message? How do you like the suspension? Or more specifically, how does the ride quality compare to the factory suspension? What damping settings are you using?

 

I have experienced the same situation, Billsteins just not lasting. Bought a complete kit of "Maxpeedingrods" from China for about $450 New Zealand dollars. Found them easy to fit but the coils were a bit hard on the front so had a chat with Matt Whitaker at " Bellamy and East in Christchurch NZ and we agreed on a compromise so he made 2 coils, just for the fronts. End result was a car that was perhaps a bit harder on our rough rural roads but no ride difference on the main road and highways. Having said that, there is a significant reduction in body roll when cornering so most impressed. The new replacement coils cost about $400 nzd so an all up cost of $850 nzd for the conversion plus about $350 nzd freight to NZ. It has improved my X350 out of site. laumary@xtra.co.nz