Yesterday, European Service Center in Dallas installed four Arnott C-2290 coil overs on my 2008 Jaguar XJ VandenPlas. I am quite pleased with the conversion, however, I am concerned about the appearance of the amber warning light along with both the "Air Suspension Fault" and "CATS Failure" messages.

The manager and technician at European Service Center told me they consulted with Arnott and with Jaguar regarding a potential solution to eliminating the warning light and messages. Unfortunately, I failed to get contact names they made to reference. They told me that models after 2006 cannot have the warnings permanently by-passed. Anyhow, the final solution offered was to manually clear the warning messages. I have to press the Reset button on the left-hand side of my dash each time the car is started. This procedure works, however I wonder if anyone has found a means to eliminate the amber warning light and both warning messages for MY'08 Jaguar XJ VDP with C-2290 Arnott coil over conversions.

I searched JaguarForums.com for potential solutions to no avail. I did find one forum post where another member was waiting to see if Arnott found a fix to the warnings after they purchased a MY'08 XJ to study after conversion (but that was back on January 2014). I checked the new ride height on my car which is 385mm fronts and 380mm rears (this seems to be within tolerance for US models with 19 inch wheels). I also found that a few JaguarForum members advised others to clear the ECU by disconnecting the battery overnight to eliminate the appearance of the amber warning light along with the "Air Suspension Fault" and "CATS Failure" messages. However, that advice seems to be only for cars that are put on a lift without disconnecting the battery first as covered in the 2008 Owner's Manual.

I am not sure whether European Service Center in Dallas used the proper Jaguar software to attempt to reset the ECU suspension settings and thereby possibly prevent the appearance of the amber warning light along with the "Air Suspension Fault" and "CATS Failure" messages. I can tell they did not reset my ECU by disconnecting the battery because my radio settings have not cleared out.

Should I disconnect my battery overnight to reset the ECU and thereby permanently eliminate the fault codes from appearing again since my vehicle's ride height is fine? Do I need to go to an authorized Jaguar Dealership Service Dept. and have them rest my ECU; or would that be an exercise in futility?

Update 05/01/14…I received the following reply from Marvin Noel, Supervisor of the Technical & Warranty Division at Arnott: "For the 2007-2010 Jaguar XJ8 models the bypass instructions that we have included with the kit will not bypass the message.

We are currently researching the problem right now. Hopefully we’ll have a resolve within the next few months.

If we do indeed figure out a way to bypass the message, I’ll be more than happy to get that to you."

So I guess I'll live with pressing the rest button each time I start my car until a permanent bypass is found.

 

The only thing your repair shop wrong was order you the wrong shock kit. You had the XJR kit installed. You have comfort suspension not sport. I spoke with Arnott about the warning light issue today & they claim a fix is coming. It is to bad nobody told you about the warning light.

 

it's a known arnott issue. After 2006 I believe ,Jaguar changed the system and it sets off the light; no known fix as yet...hopefully Arnott is working on something.

 

Another kit option is from Black Dog Manufacturing (also known as Motor Cars Limited, ?) who deals primarily with Jaguars and Land Rovers. As I am considering the conversion for my MY2008 XJ8L, I emailed them and asked about the 2008-09 warning light issue. Although I found the response somewhat unclear, it seemed like there would not be a warning light problem with their kit. I'm in the wait and see mode for now, but with 60,000 miles on the vehicle, I know I may need to make a decision soon.

 

that would be a good find...

if you look at the various options, they list the coil overs for 2004-2006 model years.

Well, blackdog does:
asc.kit.xj8 - Air Suspension Conversion Kit

arnott lists as 2004-2010, but throws in the little tidbit of " Instructions To Bypass 04-06 Dashboard Warning Light" from which you must infer that it will set off the warning light on later models.
https://www.arnottindustries.com/par...ml#prettyPhoto