Thank you Doug for your post and for Arnott's support of this forum.

I did receive an email from Jeanie at AM-Autoparts yesterday saying the shocks were under warranty and they would refund my money upon receipt of the shocks because they can't ship replacements at this time due to the part being out of stock currently.

I will contact Arnott on Monday and try to locate two of the AS-2888's.

 

I recently purchased a set of front AS-2888's for $775.

The set I purchased in Feb. 2016 are Arnott AS-2710. They have made the "clunk" sound since I put them on. AM-Autoparts is going to refund my purchase price on these struts upon receipt.

I installed the AS-2888 struts today and was hopefully optimistic that it would solve the clunk noise. In my driveway there are numerous areas where the clunk drives me crazy as I drive over them. Today, there was no clunk. On the secondary road, the usual areas where the clunk occurs with Old Faithful regularity, no clunk! Finally, I was driving slow and hitting every bump I could find and no clunk!

After all of the bushings and parts that I have replaced over the past 2+ years, it turned out to be the struts all along. The factory struts apparently had worn out and starting making the clunking noise, then the replacement AS-2710's made the exact same sound. That is why I started replacing the different bushings, A-arms, parts, etc.... After coming to the end of that rope, I came full circle back to the Arnott struts. Bingo, that was it.

The AS-2888 shocks are solid and the car drives like new again. Thank you to Doug from Arnott for his explanation on the technological progression of the struts and for contributing to this thread and prompting me to try out the AS-2888 Arnott air struts.

If your XJ8 is plagued with the dreaded low speed "clunk", try the AS-2888's.

 

Well... not so fast... i did the same, replaced the front struts with the AS2888's... the issue with it leaking on cold mornings went away, but the low speed clunk is still there. Someone advised me to check the sway bar bushings, so that's what I am doing next when i get some time - for now its just annoying. But at least it isn't sitting on its tires every cold morning! Glad it worked on yours though, I was kinda hoping...

 

The first item I replaced was the sway bar bushings after the first set of struts. Checked them today with both sway bar end links off the lower arm and they were very tight. Tip for doing the sway bar bushings, have a second set of hands to steady the socket at the end of your extensions - makes it much easier. Hope the sway bar bushings take care of your clunk. Let me know what you find.

 

Not trying to hijack the tread but I'm about to order the driver's side front strut (original OEM) and wanted to ask you experts a question before I do.


The right front is an Arnott AS-2710 which is no longer manufactured. I was wondering what is the shelf life of those struts uninstalled since there are some available on Amazon, albeit for a little more than newest version AS-2888.


My reasoning is that I would be matching the front struts (AS-2710) instead of different part numbers. My worry is that the new old stock may have already degraded on the store shelves and/or different part numbers would behave differently.


Thanks,

 

You really do need to have the same struts each side, so if it were me, I'd put on one of these Amazon-sourced struts. When the time comes, maybe put on the original Bilsteins, but hopefully get a few years out of the Arnotts. The time may be coming when you can fit a coil-over Bilstein used in the current XJs as these only have air springs on the rear.

 

Thanks. The older new stock may probably have no warranty. I asked Arnott directly if the AS-2710 was comfort or sport and they replied that it fell right between both but recommended the AS-2888. So if I buy the AS-2888 directly from them I would have warranty but not match the AS-2710.


I'm torn between warranty vs matching pair.


The other option is to buy two new AS-2888's but that sounds pricey considering I just finished restoring a '92 Wrangler YJ.

 

That sounds like an upper control arm. they make the most noise with the slightest of bumps, not with big ones. The lightly applied brake does the same thing a big bump does, it engages the ball part of the ball joint to a closer surface of the joint's cup and they move together, whereas a slight bump allows free movement along the axis with the most play.

 

When dealing with brakes or suspension the best practice is to do like for like, replace one shock without the other is a very bad practice IMHO