X350/8 Air suspension unit replacement option.

[J44EAG]

Normal fill and burp technique via the header tank, Dave. You should be able to achieve a good fill by squeezing hoses to get air out of the area of the hoses at the front of the air cooler bricks. Have the ignition on when you fill as this activates the super charger circuit coolant pump. I`ve never had issues filling the XJR/XKR V8. Its straight forward enough.

The 4.2 water pump has a metal impeller which makes replacement a very rare occurrence. I doubt whether that is your issue. More likely you have an early type supercharger belt tensioner fitted. You can tell if this is the case by examining the drive belt. The early type kit has a belt with ribs on one side and a smooth back. The mod kit has ribs on both sides of the belt and a ribbed and shouldered idler pulley (just down and to the right of the waterpump pulley). If you can identify whether you have the double ribbed belt and the ribbed and shouldered (pulley running surface is smooth on early idler pulley) pulley, then you know what you have fitted. The ribbed modification kit was fitted to stop charger belt displacement and alleviate chirping noises. The tensioner also has a stronger spring to stop idler arm oscillation which again leads to noise and also slippage or the belt. So this mod kit is important. Available only through genuine OE Jaguar parts supplies. Cost I recall was around £150.

Belts, pulleys and tensioners have always been a little problematical. Increased noise also occurs in sub zero temperatures when idler arm springs can freeze and have the car engine sounding like a bag of spanners. One just has to "knife and fork" these issues as and when the occur.

Mike

[XJSDave]

Hi Mike, some months ago I did purchase a new water pump (SNG Barrett) along with 2 new belts, one for the pump and thought I'd replace the charger belt while I was there. The new charger belt is the double sided ribbed type which unfortunately requires the updated pulleys etc all at an extra cost with vat about £200. I was going to leave this but again heeding your advice I'll get the new pulleys and change the lot taking into account I've just saved £250 for the door mirror and I want this car to be right. Not sure when I'll start this work, probably next weekend. Kind regards, Dave

[XJSDave]

Hi All, Mike, Having successfully changed the O/S/F shock last weekend it seems as though the suspension has dropped slightly on that corner that was changed. I have yet to check the levelling sensor which i'll do at the weekend.
My new parts for the supercharger belt upgrade have arrived from Guy Salmon. The roller on the tensioner has a smooth finish and no groves as I would have expected, can this be correct ? Had a look through you're previous posts Mike and saw the photo of the 'striped' tensioner pulley which seems to point to this being correct but does seem a bit out of kilter for a ribbed double sided belt to run on this flat surface roller.
One other point, to install this upgrade, does the radiator have to be removed as if not I might leave the water pump change, mainly because this might not be the noisy culprit first suspected. Kind Regards Dave

[J44EAG]

Water pump removal is simple once the header tank has been removed, Dave. See my previous posts in the coolant section and also a recent magazine article about tank removal. Note my heavy references to the bottom tank hose clip which can be difficult to remove. Getting the tank out and back in is much more difficult than the five or so bolts needing removal on the water pump. North East Jaguar Spares and Berkshire Jaguar Spares have some good deals on water pumps. After market components are from £35 with genuine OE parts being rather more expensive.

The moded OE Jaguar supercharger belt tensioner kit with double ribs, ie both sides MUST have the ribbed and shouldered "striped" pulley and the 0.8mm shorter mounting bracket. Don`t run a double ribbed belt on a smooth pulley. It would seem that the parts you have are a mis-match.

Give me a call if you need further advice or drop by for a chat and examine the parts on my car. You know where I hang out!

Mike

[XJSDave]

Hi Mike, will definitely get together soon, good news about ease of replacing water pump etc. I phoned Guy Salmon parts this morning and was told this is the correct tensioner with the smooth pulley. The new idle bracket and groved pulley seem ok, I’ll phone SNG Barret to hear what they say. Has anyone seen a tensioner with a groved pulley?

[J44EAG]

Yes, me!

Grooved and shouldered idler pulley with shortened bracket and uprated spring in the tensioner arm. This is a mod kit fitted from 2006 models. I think the part number is shown or quoted on one of my posts around October 2015 when I tore my car to bits to modify the supercharger.

Mike

[FredS]

Hi guys,

Concerning the possible option of replacing air suspension units without having to reprogramme the height setting, I was given following advice which I tried out with my RR air spring replacement and which worked out fine. I'm shortly replaing two NS units (from air dominance) and will use this advice again, though you might comment on same, Mike ?

"
You can pull off the air spring change without reprogramming the ASM. You have to deviate from the
JTIS though. First, you have to understand the basic operating modes and strategies of the AS system.
To begin, the ASM will need to be calibrated (suspension height set) only if:
Any height sensor is removed, then reinstalled
The ASM is replaced
or a height sensor is replaced.
While the ASM is active and powered up.
So, you don't want to do any of these, even though JTIS says to remove the height sensor. The ASM is
using non-volatile memory to "remember" the inputs of all sensors when it is in certain modes, or
when the battery is disconnected. So, you need to outsmart it and create that situation while you are
R/Ring the air spring and when the ASM wakes back up.
Briefly, there are five modes the ASM takes depending on "activity". The modes are:
Sleep mode
Preliminary mode
Post mode
Stance mode
Drive mode
You'll be focused on one of these - sleep mode. The ASM goes into sleep mode 30 minutes after the
ignition is switched off and the last door or trunk activity is detected. The entire air suspension system
shuts down during this time (enters sleep mode) and, if the car is not used, wakes up on a 24 hour
clock to check height. At 24 hour intervals, the ASM makes adjustments in height by measuring the
lowest sensor and adjusting downward so the suspension is even.
Basically, you want to catch the system before sleep mode. You're going to do that by positioning the
vehicle where you will work on it, get it raised off the ground and suspended, then disconnect the
battery before sleep mode (sooner than 30 minutes after shutting the engine down). By doing this, the
ASM will store its inputs from the height sensors with the suspension fully extended. In essence, you're
going to perform the surgery on the air-springs while the ASM is anesthetized thinking the suspension
is in the full extended position. That is what it is going to remember when it wakes up. If it doesn't see
that, you'll need to recalibrate the ASM.
Follow most of the JTIS steps now - depressurize the springs, you can use a floor jack to take weight
off the air-spring, etc., not removing the height sensors. Replace the air springs, make all connections,
make sure the suspension is sitting precisely the way it was before disconnecting the battery. Put the
wheels back on so you are ready to sit the car back down on its suspension. Connect the battery, lower
the car back on its tires. Start the engine so the ASM moves from preliminary mode to stance mode.
This will activate the compressor which the ASM will be demanding to re-establish the original ride
height. You should get a "ride too low" restriction message as the compressor needs to fill the reservoir
plus the entire suspension. Even If the compressor is strong, this can take a while because the ASM
times out the compressor to preserve it, keep it from overheating. It will cool back down to a pre-set
temperature before coming back on. Give it the time while the engine is idling, and...with luck...the
fault ride too low will extinguish and you'll be on your way...hopefully not to the dealer.
"

[J44EAG]

Hi guys,

Sorry I`ve not be active on the site recently due to my Faters deteriorated health condition and my own complete physical mental and physical exhaustion. Things improving again slightly now so hope to be back on a more even keel again soon.

Yes, I picked up Fred`s email to me on the subject just now and have replied to him. What Fred has posted above is broadly in line with my own experience with these air springs. I`d say that it is not necessary to remove the sensor at all during air spring replacement. The sensor clips to the drop arm which is out of the way of the area of the lower air spring bolts. I`ve had the air springs out and re-fitted without any height issues being encountered having left the sensors in place. Put the whole lot back together again, dumped the car back on the floor, started up, suspension did its stuff and off we went again.

Freds text find posted above is well worth copying and pasting into your document section for future use. It is good material so is worth an owner keeping it handy for the future. Thanks for posting, Fred.

All the best,

Mike

[mikalis56990]

Hello, I am a new recruit at 72. I have an X358. Would you know what the coloured dots on the top of the air suspension represents.
I believed that there were two. Green for comfort and Red for sport. However I needed replace the OSF, so I purchased from a Jaguar
dismantler on eBay. I was asked what colour dot was on the old one. Told them it was Green. They advised that the one advertised would be the
correct strut. However on arrival we found the the strut had a blue Dot. Any information on this would be much appreciated.

Best Regards

[J44EAG]

Green and red classification correct. Red fitted to the XJR.

Blue dot classification is unfamiliar to me. Can anyone else help?

Mike

[tomi834]

Hi.

Hello from Finland.

My X350 2003 XJR has remanufactured front struts by Air Dominance bought 11/2017 so there should still be a few months of warranty. Now the other one got pointed out in the local MOT to be almost nonfunctional. The right hand side had 69% and the left hand side only 31% of the effect left. I have noticed already months ago that it is not as good as it used to be.

Before these struts were fitted, there was a light clang coming from both sides. After these were fitted, the noise was still there, but I am not sure if it was both sides. I then had hoped it would vanish with the old shocks, but because it did not, I had to suspect it was something else. Now in the past few months the clanging noise coming from the left hand side has become a lot stronger. In MOT they have never found a cause for it, other than the possibility of it being the shock.

For the past week I have tried to contact Air Dominance (Air Suspension LTD?) via email and phone with no luck. Their website is under construction, and the phone is answered by a machine that gives one three choices, but eventually none of those is actually answered.

Does anyone know what the situation is? Is is a lost cause to try to reach them?

If it is, that are my options?

Arnott does not have a reliable distributor here in Finland. I have asked for a price, but not received it yet. They no longer remanufacture Jaguar struts, so there is no core deposit.

Bilstein-struts are more than four times as expensive as the Air Dominance-struts were.

RMT as in Rebuilt Master Tech has these quite cheap, although they come from outside of EU, so there would be an additional 24% cost added to the price shipped (770USD/pair), so it would be about a thousand dollars, which would be about a quarter of what Bilsteins would be here in Finland. They do remanufacture, but I did not see any mention about core deposit. They state that the parts have "limited lifetime warranty", which is not explained anywhere on the site. Anyone tried this?
https://rebuildmastertech.com/jaguar/xj ... uspension/

These are the ones I have found so far that are somewhat considerable when it comes to trustworthy, but I would appreciate some better hints about this.

[njepson394]

Hi.

Hello from Finland.

My X350 2003 XJR has remanufactured front struts by Air Dominance bought 11/2017 so there should still be a few months of warranty. Now the other one got pointed out in the local MOT to be almost nonfunctional. The right hand side had 69% and the left hand side only 31% of the effect left. I have noticed already months ago that it is not as good as it used to be.

Hi Tomi834,

Sorry to hear you are having issues with your struts. I have just replaced one of mine with a Bilstein, new part. Not cheap I know.

Could you explain exactly what you mean by "The right hand side had 69% and the left hand side only 31% of the effect left. I have noticed already months ago that it is not as good as it used to be. "? Do you get any error codes related to this?

Normally these units fail through leakage, & hence lose right height. I've not had specific experience of the air dominance ones though.

It could be that Air dominance are on summer shutdown currently. It may be worth contacting them again in September.

Nick

[tomi834]

Hi.

They test the effect of shock absorption on each corner as a part of MOT-procedure here in Finland. In 2017 it failed because the front had 0%/63%, and the struts got replaced by air dominance rebuilt struts, and the MOT was passed. Last year the numbers were 63%/66%, now 31%/69%. The rear has been ok the whole time. The numbers can varie a little depending on the tester, but the difference is bad news, and its clear that it has failed.

The ride has gotten worse, the 31% corner seems to carry not as much weight as the others, and it makes the car act restless on uneven surface. As if a traditional suspension had a broken spring. On even surface the ride is ok.

There are no fault codes that would have anything to do with this I suppose. I do have a diagnostic tool myself.

Is there a website in the UK one can search businesses and get information of the status? Forexample bankruptcy.

[PaulGover]

...
Is there a website in the UK one can search businesses and get information of the status? Forexample bankruptcy.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/

It says beta, but it has done for a year or so !

[tomi834]

Thank you, I could find some info, but still this remains unsolved.

I have a VAT-number GB 181567096, but it does not give any results on that .uk-site, nor does it give anything on European VAT-search - not valid number it says. Does this absolutely mean that the company no longer exists?

There is a company named Air Suspension LTD - as stated win the invoice, but the address is not the same, and the size of the operation does not look right. There is also a couple of companies with a name similarities, but none of them seem to match the address-information atleast. Could not find a way to check their VAT-numbers.

No matches on Air Dominance either. This is starting to look really bad.