They "recalled" them all, and told you this when you called in. That doesn't sound like a recall to me. That sounds like a reACT, a story to tell you when you have an issue.

Look I'm not a lawyer, but I think like one when I think about issues like this. You could have hired a lawyer, kept the poorly designed struts as evidence and got a BIG settlement out of them. This ain't no foolin' around. Your car was UNSAFE with the parts they sold you. Period. How many customers got the defective shocks? I'd bet not very many at all.

I doubt VERY SERIOUSLY that they proactively called any customers. I smell a fish and a rat. But hey. What do I know? Tell you what I know. I know that me and Jagmaster were questioning this system from the get-go, and we were "shouted down", so to speak. I guess caution and CAVEAT EMPTOR have their place after all, eh?

Jagmaster was a PROPHET, remember?: "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."

The mercurial and bitter MK2 was most vocal and adamant about his assumptions about the efficacy of the coilover conversion kit. I wonder if he's bouncing around on a pair of defective front shocks, still trying to grin and bear it?

Nope. I bought a car with CATS/air-suspension. I am happy about that. Is it the weakest system on the car? Yes. But I knew this going in, and bought my car eyes wide open. The ride of my XJR was engineered with "me" in mind. It is the ideal balance of road isolation/road feel for me. IMO, anyone who bought a Jag and "hates air suspensions", bought a car they shouldn't have bought.

 

I doubt many people bought their Jag for the for the air suspension. And I'll bet that most people would be happy with the system if it worked reliably and didn't cost a fortune to fix. Coil over suspension is relatively simple. To me it sounds like a "small" business that's trying to make necessary changes to make their product right.

It makes me sick when people jump down on new innovative products especially without first hand knowledge or foresight to realize nothing is perfect. It sounds like this company is standing behind their product and doing what is necessary to correct the problems. I don't personally know about this company or their products but do like their initiative to develop new products for the XJ8 and I encourage and support that. It's your choice weather or not to buy the product so don't act like you need to defend the air suspension or talk down to this new concept.

My Toyota Tundra had the "gas pedal" recall. Did Toyota call me? No. Did they mail me "right away"? No. I did get a letter months later but seriously it would have been too late had there been an actual issue. You lawsuit minded people make me want to vomit.

 

I'm not saying someone should have called a lawyer. But they could. If it were me, I would let a bunch of other people be the guinea pigs before even thinking about opting in to such a sea change product. Oh, wait, I did.

When it comes to the latest techie gadget, like a new phone, for instance, I am the quintessential early adopter. When it comes to something as potentially risky as a new suspension system, I'm the opposite.

Arnott has exposed themselves to legal problems by putting a product on the market without testing it. As a small company, they would be wise to consider such outcomes in advance. I had my suspicions about this product, and for sure decided to wait and see what others had to say after making the switch.

I did several months worth of investigating these cars before buying in. To say that people "aren't buying their cars for the air suspensions", then why are they buying them? They are buying them for their own reasons. But if they're buying them, knowing they have a suspension system they "hate", then those folks are just misguided. Go ahead, convert, at your own risk.

 

My suspension works fine so and I wouldn't consider making the conversion until it either fails or the car has over 60k miles. I'm glad some people are making the conversion and helping perfect the product. Thank you!!!! Thank you! I'll be carefully considering it if/when the time comes.

I have a problem with people talking down about a product they have no experience with. I'm sure like anything new it may have bugs and glitches but they can all be resolved.

I bought my Jag because it's a Jag. The most prestigious automobile on the road, buttery smooth leather, exceptional design and fairly solid mechanicals. I would have preferred a Jag with standard coil-over suspension but the XJ8 didn't come that way.

Please keep posting any progress, issues, resolutions and feedback. I'm sure there are many curious people!

 

I certainly did not buy my Jaguar for an air suspension. I do not think air suspensions are amazing works of engineering, by no means. I will say that when I bought my Jag, I was very happy and excited about my car. I still am today. Although, when my suspension started failing I was in over my head. I do not make that much money at all. I am in the military, the pay is not extravagant. Then I found Arnott. They do people a service. People who cannot afford to spend, or do not want to spend thousands of dollars on Jaguars over priced replacement suspension components. I did understand when I bought my new coil over kit from them that there could possibly be bugs in the system. I also do agree that their consumers are their guinea pigs. That's okay to me though. I did not feel that I took a risk when buying their parts. I installed my coil overs myself. When I created my threads about the coil over kit, I did not want people to slander Arnott. They are a very respectable company that does a great service to their consumers and stand behind their products. On another note, I as well want to vomit when people are quick to pull the lawsuit, sue, sue, sue bit. There is no reasonable grounds to sue anyone. If they did not think that their product was safe, beyond reasonable doubt, they would have not released their product for the public to buy and put on their vehicles. I do believe that they do not road test their products, but I do believe they have engineers and all the equipment necessary to create a great, safe product. If someone's car were to crash due to their product, they would back the victim up. It is common sense. They claim they have been in business for over twenty years, it would not be their first rodeo.

 

Let's assume that Arnott didn't road test a complete replacement suspension system for a moment. And then let's consider just how irresponsible that is.

I think it's great they make replacement air suspension components. I'm not criticizing them for that and as a whole. But I am openly questioning the reasoning behind replacing the air suspension with an untested conversion kit. And I am now finding substantiation for that.

Tell you what, if you ended up in a crash as a result of a faulty suspension system, and it ended up ruining your life, if you are telling me you wouldn't lawyer up, then I think you'd be fooling yourself.

 

And I will again say that this is why research and due diligence is so important. Don't buy these cars if the air suspension is untenable to maintain for you. Dump it and get an Accord, or alternatively a Mustang if it's a performance thing for you.

 

conversion kits have been on the market for decades for just about every vehicle that has air suspension. And jag had their own for the imfamous hydraulic rears yrs ago. Engineer it? You just need to know spring rates to support weight and shock valving...my GOD it is not rocket science, you plug in a few numbers to suspension software and thats it. you dont have to do all kinds of rnd. you guys have WAY too much grandios ideas. Its is simple, not hard. Anyone that has and can operate solidworks and a tape measure can get the numbers needed to calcualte shock lengths etc. you dont even need solidworks. Im in the middle of changing the rear suspension design of my 05 Nissan truck. I need to know my suspension travel from axle housing to bump stop or frame contact. then you take this less the total travel between shock mount points and this is you compressed limit. then cycle the suspension out to its limits based on the type load control youre using be it leaf, voil, coil over, panhard, 4 link, 3 link. now for what ide really like to do I want to increase articulation travel from 8" - 14" of travel. To do this I need to move the upper shock attachements up into the bed with hoops(not gonna happen I need the unintruded bed) Or lower the lower mounts, again, not gonna happen cause Ill hit rocks wheeling offroad. I could also move the upper in towards the center to gains this travel. BUT this creats a pendulum. Not a well mannered vehicle. Alternatives. 4 link the rear, and use long travel coil overs ditching the leafs. But then I need to move the gas tank and exhaust to achieve this.
Then you need to know shock valving 60/40/ 70/30 90/10 50/50 etc The first number is the valving the shock control for compression and the second for extension. As an example, on the front of my race car I use a 90/10 10 meens the shock exhibits little control over the down travel of the wheel and suspension to speed weight transfere once I release the trans brake and the front tires lift off the pavement. The 90 is the resistance to compression when the front wheels come back to earth(iff it slams from say me backing off the gas its not gonna help from smashing a oil pan or suspension though).
rears are adjustable 50/50 units I can tune based on 60' numbers on the track

 

Thank you Brutal!!! I completely agree. People act like anything Jaguar did was "manna" from heaven. Come on!! There's a reason why even Jaguar dumped the front air springs in favor of coil-overs on the new XJ8s. This isn't rocket science and some tweaking and tuning will have it perfect. I may talk with them about designing a "sport" or "performance" version for the XJRs and those who want more performance feel.

Many of the Jags designs were poor at best. Like the audio system being in a loop. If any part fails the entire system turns off. Really? Yes. I dealt with that and seriously considered going aftermarket.

Maybe air suspension supporters should make their own thread. This thread is about the coil over conversion kit and real life feedback.

USMC1211 - Please keep posting updates. Many of us are still considering the conversion in the future.

 

Yep. Someone already mentioned Toyota and accelerator pedal assemblies. How easy can it be to design correctly? Then you talk about engineering. It's tough. It takes exhaustive testing. And even then, failure occurs. Yep. Maybe you want an echo chamber. Get the cautionary folks out of here! That's kinda funny, actually.

 

Yes,its a different car, different weight so they could use them.
At an X350 seminar at Jags Castle Bromwich factory last year the question was asked why they didnt use coils on ours and the answer was due to the car being too light affecting rebound rates.
Also, for those who have changed how does this affect your insurance as over here any modifications need to be disclosed to the insurer?
My car has done over 126000 miles on the Jag air suspension, is driven hard on occasions with occasional trackdays and fortunately never had a problem.
Last thing I would change to are coilovers even if they were made here by an aftermarket company so shipping was far cheaper.If coilovers were better after Jags extensive testing Im sure they would have had them from factory....but they dont which says it all to me.

 

Here in the states, disclosure to insurers of aftermarket installations is not required, but one's insurer would fight to deny any claims resulting from the failure of components not installed on the car by the manufacturer if it found out that a claim resulted from the failure or performance, or lack thereof, of aftermarket equipment.

 

Brutal, it's not rocket science, and yet Arnott got it wrong. It's engineering. In many ways, it's tougher than rocket science, because of all the variables, quirks to each individual automobile's design characteristics. And with Jaguars, as you know better than I, they are very unique in many ways. BuckMR2 brings up an excellent point in which the X350 was truly unique: it's low weight, hence the move to air suspension in the first place. Before and after X350, the engineers at Jaguar didn't specify air suspension. They didn't abandon air suspension because it was faulty. They came with a heavier car, unfortunately. And for that reason, and for the hideous face they put on it, I would never buy a new XJ.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Arnott Inc. takes the safety of its products and customers very seriously. Every Arnott product, including the Jaguar Coil Over replacements in question, go through literally years of design and testing before we will release a product to support a new make or model. In the case of the Jag it was over 3 years.

Our designers strive to not only match the performance of the original product but pride themselves in trying to enhance the ride, safety and functionality of the Arnott replacement product. In the case of the Jaguar Coil Spring Conversion Kit, Bilstein Ride Engineers even helped test and valve the shocks produced for the final production design.

Arnott Inc. tests the manufacturing, installation and ride of every new product on cars the company purchases. Typically, Arnott has over 30 test vehicles at our facility at any given time. We test the parts for tens of thousands of miles on highways, city streets, rough roads and on purpose built courses designed to stress the vehicle's suspension and our parts. Throughout the testing phase, and the life of the product, we are constantly monitoring the installation for ware and ride quality.

In the case of the Jag coil conversion a defective part was found to have been delivered to us and used during manufacturing. The problem was a reduced clearance that caused the front shock to bottom out on the bump stop prematurely. Once we learned of the problem we immediately investigated and worked around the clock to identify the problem and find a solution. We were able to come up with a solution to this issue in less than two days and are continuing to test the production kit on cars that are putting in at least 120 miles per day.

We are thankful that our loyal customers immediately notified us of this issue and are proud that we were able to rectify the situation in a timely manner. Our parts are serialized and code dated for quality control and thus we were able to immediately identify those customers and kits affected. Only a handful of these defective units were sold and they did not pose a threat to safety. We have worked openly and honestly with each customer that was affected and believe that this issue is has been resolved to the satisfaction of those valued customers.

If there are any outstanding issues with this or any Arnott part please contact our customer support team at 1-800-251-8993 (1-321-868-3016) or email them info@arnottinc.com

 

CURB WEIGHT(DEPENDING ON OPTIONS ARE ROUGHLY AS FOLLOWS
2011 -4000#
2004-2008- 3700#
1998-2003-3900#
THESE I believe are lowest weights and go higher by a few hundred pounds depending on model and options. I dont see the weight correlation as the overall dominating factor for air sprung suspension. And R's with super charger, bigger brakes, tires and wheels etc puts the weight right there of the later 2011 non front air sprung front. And not considering the HEFT of said driver or passengers which we all know America has a bunch of FAT ASSSES
There is no doubt the air suspension gives a smoother ride. But having driven both, its hard to differantiat which car youre driving without knowing before hand. Only over speed bumps could I tell a differance. Lighter car needing air spring. there are many cars lighter without in the luxury market.
Thanks for clarification Doug

 

One big reason luxury-car mfrs put 'active suspension' systems on their cars is bragging rights. You don't want to be selling a top-line car for $80K or some such without being able to match the competition which is offering an active system. They do perform nicely when new. And sadly true, the companies are run by bean counters who aren't terribly concerned with what happens when the warranty period runs out.

Many of these cars are purchased new by 'run of the mill' professionals and such--not auto enthusiasts--and they're never going to pay attention to the details or be concerned with the longevity of such systems when they trade their car in after three years or turn it in from their lease.

Much of my own experience is with Mercedes cars and their Airmatic and ABC systems (air suspension and electro-hydraulic respectively) are every bit as troublesome as CATS after almost exactly the same length of time. I commend Arnott for stepping up to the plate in the aftermarket and--frankly--preventing a certain number of these cars from being junked before their time.

No company and no product are 100% perfect all the time but I would draw attention to the fact that the factory systems in all of the cars I've mentioned are capable of producing disastrous consequences at speed, possibly far from home. I wish they all had coil-overs from Day One.

 

Here I am again, with updates as requested. I received my new "replacement" struts from Arnott, I did notice one change on the "new" ones. On the first set of struts that came with my conversion, the top end of the unit had a steel block which the top of the spring set in and the four bolt to the top of the shock tower were attached. On the replacement shocks, that "block" is now black, and just a bit thicker than the previous. Like I mentioned on one post, Arnott informed me that they found that some of the struts were not only not ridged enough to hold the weight of the front of the XJ efficiently, but the vehicle was also sitting too low, compared to the stock ride height. I have yet to have installed the replacements yet, tomorrow afternoon is when I am throwing it up on the lift and doing the work. I will be very sure to thoroughly drive the car and post the differences when it comes to bottoming out. It hopefully take care of it. On the other hand, I have had that conversion kit on my vehicle for about a month now. It has made its own changes as I have driven it and broke them in. The ride seems to have improved to me. To me, its great. Its definitely not an air suspension. The main, real noticeable difference is this. If anyone can recall and notice about their air suspensions, when you brake, the air suspension blows off air. Kinda sounds like a blow-off on a turbo. From what I have learned, correct me if I am wrong, that is a feature of the CATS system that keeps the vehicle level upon braking, when the car is naturally going to drop in the front. That is now definitely gone. The car still brakes great, but it does dip in the front. Also, the car, upon acceleration from a stop, would keep the car level with the air suspension. That is also gone. In other words, when ya punch it, the rear drops like every average car would. I am very happy with this system. It still drives great and I do not have to pay a fortune anymore on air suspension repairs. Arnott warranties their equipment, limited lifetime. There is no going wrong with system to me. It is still up to the individuals discretion of coarse. I will continue to post. Good day.

 

So, earlier today, I installed the struts Arnott sent me to replace the previously purchased set. As normal, very easy and simple installation. I do wanna say, if you are mechanically inclined and have a good set of tools, pneumatic tools would be at their best use, the installation of these struts are a breeze. I have it kinda easy since I have unlimited access to a shop with every tool under the sun to help me. Back to the swap. I removed the "recalled" coil overs, and installed the replacements. On my way home, I hit speed bumps and every other bump that was giving me problems with the "recalled" units. The problem with the struts is fixed, at least for mine that is. I could tell right off the bat that Arnott stiffened up the front struts dramatically. There are also larger bump stops for protection. I have to say, my car is driving almost the same as it was as if it still had its air suspension. The suspension is now very responsive to the road and driving conditions. Before I swapped the "recalled" coil overs with the replacements, the car would dip quite a bit in the front while braking as I mentioned on my last post. Now, its great. Everything is great. My opinion now is mostly still the same but hey, why spend BIG BIG money on replacement air struts for the car when you can just buy four coil over units that completely eradicate the whole air suspension failure burden, price wise. There is no loss here. It is a great budget repair for a normally very expensive repair. I am satisfied. I am not trying to sell anyone the conversion. I have noticed, some people are just not as excepting of the coil over conversion as I am. To those of you who are trying to get rid of an expensive issue with these cars, this is the answer. For me, the suspension problems just come down to money. I cannot afford to drop large amounts of cash when I can just fix it a different way. More money in the pocket, and my 04 XJ still has a wonderful drive to it. Thank you Arnott. If anyone has any questions about the installation or anything, hit me up. I am glad to help anyone. Keep in touch

 

Thanks for your updates. If this was available last year when I had all my suspension problems I would have swopped out as well. My experience with the Jag's air-suspension and the feedback that I've been getting about other makes' air suspension have not been promising with respect to long term reliability. from his experience with other makes, my mechanic feels that air suspension on high end cars needs to be treated as a consumable item, especially in the tropical environment. Sigh....

 

shocks are always a consumable items regardless of car. But NO one complains when they need to replace shocks that are $100 a piece