I manually leveled the headlights to where I like them (using the big white plastic hex in the middle of the top of the assembly), and they still rise/fall as expected.

Does anyone know if the ASM is responsible for the initial rise / fall in the xenons?

No coil complaints whatsoever.

 

Why would you expect them to rise and fall with the coilovers? Seems to me you should be able to set them manually just like any other car with a conventional suspension and forget it.

Eddie 04 VDP

 

Essentially by converting to steel springs what you lose is the car's self levelling capability, so if you are in the habit of loading up the trunk with heavy stuff, you are likely to find your headlights too high and annoying other drivers.

Most steel sprung cars have a headlight adjust on the driver dash panel, (my wife's New Beetle for instance, and also my previous car, a Rover 75). The give the ability for the driver to adjust the lights himself when the load is heavy. The X350s do not have this feature as it is not necessary for the airspring system. Clearly you can still do this by adjusting using the control on the headlight unit, but you have to lift the hood to do so.

 

What I'd like to see Arnott offer is a front coil only conversion. This would retain the rear air suspension which rarely fails and make the front more reliable. Of course, they would need to ensure there are no error lights.

What do you guys think? How many would be interested in this?

 

Maybe in the UK but not in the US. Have never in my life seen a car with a manual headlight leveling means inside the car.

 

Wouldn't have helped me. My 04 VDP blew the left rear hard enough to blow out the dust bellows. I think a hybrid would be asking for trouble.

 

When I spoke to them about a "sport" suspension option, they said they use the same units for both suspensions. For that reason, I went with the remanufactured "sport" tuned units.

 

Great feedback!

 

I strongly discourage this conversation, a conversation like this requires at least 20-30k road test and a couple crash tests to make sure it's safe and reliable, and won't affect the driving, and I'm pretty sure arnott did not test their conversation kit that way, I know that air suspension on our cars fail every 50k but we should keep in mind that they offer a great and safe ride. Some of of guys may think that it's just a simple conversation but I assure you CATS is one of the most important parts of our cars, just my 2 cents.

 

How can you strongly discourage something you have no experience with? This is an excellent concept. Coil suspension is simple and reliable unlike air suspension.

 

that would not be a good idea,
1, i creats 2 differant handling responses on each end of the car, not good in a panic manuver like lane change or at speed and hit a good dip in the road to unsettle the suspension.
2, if the asm tries to level the car by changing what it thinks are still present front shocks and doesnt see the intended response, it would probobly flag a error message.

On the idea of a swap to coils, i dont see issue as long as both front and rear are designed with correct spring rates and shock valving. This is not rocket science and there are plenty of great programs for doing this. It would be no more differant than changing to a tire that jaguar did not design the suspension around. Or using differant brake pad material, etc... No biggy, differant handling yes, unsafe, doubtfull that arguement can be made realisticlly.

 

handling characteristics are very subjective in practice, depending on the operator. But engineers "dial" this stuff into damping rates, spring psi, etc. I come down somewhere between jagmaster's alarm and Brutal's ambivalence. This system, and the other offered by those other guys have ZERO driving impressions in the case of the Arnott unit and almost zero from the other. How does a car react to panic stops, with CATS and then with the Arnott, tested side by side, for instance? Without this kind of review information, from someone with experience with our cars, you could never convince me to sign on to a coil-over conversion.

 

On another note, since Arnott now offers highly affordable alternatives to OEM air shocks :NEW JAGUAR XJ ARNOTT FRONT AIR RIDE SUSPENSION SHOCKS / STRUTS X350, X358 | eBay

Why even consider converting? If their new offering provides OE quality, ride, and exceeds OE durability, as advertised, why convert to coilover? As I see it, the case is effectively closed by the shocks linked above. When one of my fronts fails, I'll buy the pair and I should be able to stop worrying about my air shocks in perpetuity.

 

Trav, I have driven and built and maintained race cars. Ive driven the converted XJ's and thown them around hard to and past the limits of the tires both braking and cornering. For most owners out there, its not ever gonna be an issue and the car behaves normally. Theres alittle firmer ride on the conversion and is very predictable at limits. It doesnt surprise you at all. But then for people that think a car is unsafe to drive without air bags, abs, traction control etc maybe they should just stay as designed...

 

Brutal. There's hope after all. Thank you for shedding light. but to my additional point, that now that Arnott manufacturers new, not reman., air shocks that they claim surpass OE quality, why even bother converting?

 

HUH? I assume you mean conversion?

 

well for 1 coils are alot easier to lower reliably. another tech and I have tried to lie when calibrating, didnt work well. and you could shorten the rods on the height sensors to lower but again this may or may not work correctly. coils, just order shorter or cut a half or full coil depending on your drop wanted.
I like MK's idea of using a aftermarket controller and compessor. you can program them to ride at a diif height when driving, do a change for snow or steep drives. and then when you set the alrm the car drops down flat and when you unlock it goes to ride height. It's all attainable and its only money. you cant take it with you when you die and kids/heirs will spend it faster than Bernie Madoff.

 

Did the car handle tighter with the coil springs? What is your preference (handling wise) coil vs air?

Thanks for offering hands on experience to this discussion. I think it needed balance. There are obviously good reasons to make the change.

 

I know there are lots of people making air suspension controllers. have you looked into any?

The height sensor supplies a voltage which the suspension module interpretes as MM. It is possible.

 

I'm on an iPhone gosh, it was an autocorrect obviously. And I agree with SuperTrav why bother converting when you can have life time warranty air shocks? And he is also right about the behavior of coils versus CATS in an emergency, after all Jaguar engineers took a long while to develop and test CATS on our XJs.