The front suspension is low on my 2006 X350 - this is the 1st Jag I've had with air suspension. Can anyone tell me the work required and the likely cost? Will it be need to be taken to a specialist or will a decent independent garage be able to repair it? Thanks for your help

 

About 3 years ago i spent about $1300, maybe a bit more, US at an independent to replace both front air shocks. Today I’d just convert the car if i still owned it. I’m in a x308 now but miss my x350.

 

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and I don't even have the car yet. After all of my research and reading the air suspension is the x350 Achilles heel. Even though the car I purchased has lower mileage and seems fine at the moment, its inevitable that there will be an issue down the road. I initially thought when shopping, "No problem, I'll just replace them with coilovers when they go bad", but not sure its that easy of a decision. Not sure ont he ride difference between OEM air & Arnott coils, but the car rides fantastic now and I'd hate to compromise that. That leaves the owner with basically 2 choices, used OEM or Arnot replacement air struts which I've heard have dodgy quality. Either is not ideal since you can still be left stranded. I'd probably just end up doing the conversion since I need the car to be reliable, but have been giving it some thought lately. Even thought about buying used OEMs cheap and just keeping them around for when the time comes.

 

The question is simply too vague. There are so many reasons for the car to sit low, but the most common is a leak in an air line somewhere. The compressor wears out, as well, and if water gets into the system you get rust ruining the valves that are located both in the compressor and in the module on the air tank in the trunk. Replacement air struts are monstrously expensive, so you run up against the cost of repair vs the value of the car.

When I first started working on mine after buying it, I found so much water in the compressor that I simply gave up on the air. I got a set of Arnott coilover struts and never looked back. The price for all four struts, and never having to worry about air suspension maintenance again, was just about what the above post mentions for two air struts. The cars simply aren't worth what it takes to recondition the air suspension and replace what needs to be replaced, and then repeating in a few years...