It does when it won't come up off the bump stop 1200+ miles from home. Something is going to break.

 

Or you'll get yourself killed. A fully deflated or 'blown' air suspension system is worse then a lowrider in that there is no suspension movement available. If it's blown only on one side the other side while still having some suspension available will try to match the height to get a level stance (it won't do it however) so the car lurches down the road like a drunken sailor rowing with one oar.

I had to go and bring my wife's home when hers lost just the right front and the 12-13 mile trip was no fun at all. AI wouldn't dream of being fool enough to attempt a 100 mile drive let alone a 1200 mile one.

In all of this back and forth about air suspensions there have been some really misleading posts made as to usability, costs, etc. The system is a complex one that involves much more than just the air shocks themselves (my apologies to current and former Jaguar techs but that's the commonly used term). Aside from the shocks there are the individual wheel sensors themselves of which there are at least three, there's the air pump itself which runs close to $600 at most parts stores (built by Arnott) and probably twice that through your friendly Jag dealer. Then throw in a few dozen feet of air hoses routed throughout the car with the associated valves etc. the storage tank mounted in the trunk with all of it's assorted distribution fittings, etc, and then to top it all off add the various electronic and computer controlled modules and various circuits that must be connected and you have a very complex and expensive system that after 70-80,000 miles will start to fall apart piece by piece.

I can almost guarantee that you'd be hard pressed to find one in 100 owners who buy those cars new who would bother with replacing more than one air shock before getting rid of them let alone facing being plagued with a continuing stream of replacement parts year after year.

A few purists perhaps but not many.

 

I believe there is another supplier out on eBay. One of the forum members had his rebuilt. Do a search. $250 a pop I think and he kept the eCATS.

 

Speaking of air strut cons and pros. I remember reading that if you drive slow enough on inclines or declines the car will raise itself. This helps to prevent scratching the bumper on inclined driveways.

 

That would be a result of weight transfer more than programming

Cheers
34by151

 

Only your back. The car will be fine.

If you regularly take an 11 year old car across the country , you can expect to get stranded frequently...at least in my experience...and not by the air shocks!

 

The OP and myself make 2. I think most owners prefer to fix their cars. Highly modded cars become our parts cars later...and that's a good thing! I restore cars for a hobby, so I use up lots of parts cars.

 

You made my point since you mention 2 out of how many hundreds, or perhaps thousands of members of this and its British equivalent.

Replacing the air suspension with a coil over set is hardly a 'heavy" modification by anyone's standards.

That said I believe that the choice is best made by those who are faced with having to decide to repair/replace one or more of the major components that has failed and whose cars have accumulated enough miles that it can be expected there will be other failures. To believe that the average XJ or XK will some day be even more than a collectible let alone a collector car is the same as believing in the tooth fairy in my estimation and I attend as well as follow that market pretty well.

That's to our advantage as we get to own these great cars at a fraction of their intrinsic worth while other folks get to drive Kia's and Hyundai's because they don't know any better.

Besides, if the air suspension idea was so great and economical Jaguar wouldn't have abandoned it several years ago along with Lincoln and others.

 

A matter of horses for courses, yes as the system gets older bits will fail and it is very noticeable in the ride of the car. There is also the point of cars with dampers and springs doing 100,000 miles, are those dampers and springs not worn out, and degraded without you knowing. How many springs at that mileage are within the manufacturers spec's very few, how many dampers are, none but nobody thinks of changing them as a matter of course at high mileages. Just a thought. Keith

 

Broadly correct, except the voltage applied to the shock is for switching it to 'Soft'. No volts means it defaults to 'Hard'. I think it is about 7 volts that are applied.

Frankly I would have much preferred if Jaguar had not gone down this air spring path, and, looking at the current model line-up, they have clearly realised that it makes the car far too expensive to build without really giving any benefit at all. I tcertainly makes the car expensive to maintain if new air springs have to be purchased, the Bilstein OEMs are many hundreds of pounds to buy. Only the current XJ has air springs, and then only on the rear wheels, every other Jaguar is now steel coil sprung.

Maybe Doug Arnott should buy Bilstein shocks as the base of the unit with the Hard/Soft kit in them. I'd be interested to see how the price might out-turn.