Air Spring reseal kit (LR016412)

[Land Rover Joe]

And another perspective for driver's side wheel well after rebuild and re-installation.

 

[DiscoLR4]

I recently changed out all 4 air struts with equipment from BA, OEM by Delphi. An independent shop said springs need changing, no leaks, but at 90k miles, I decided to change the whole assembly as I plan to keep using the rig for many more miles and wanted peace of mind.

The driving feel improved a lot, but there's still a wallowy feel that I was expecting to go away or improve a lot. It didn't. In fact, sometimes a I feel wallowy feel increased going around corners. Will LCA help? I think front lower LCAs are going (beginning to feel the slight bumps at full stops or going through bumps on road).

Is there a hardness calibration or did I just use wrong struts (I hear arnott's are less wallowy)?

 

[powershift]

The newly painted and refurbed struts on newly painted mounts.

A local mechanic quoted me $7k to change all 4 air struts. Swear to god. He had $550 labor for each corner and Land Rover brand air struts all around. I'm so glad I didn't need to service them lol. I'm super easy on it off road. I drive it slow if its bumpy and the air suspension works its best that way. Its more comfortable too. A lot of guys like to drive fast and the LR4 can do it, but it costs money to drive fast off-road.

As an aside, in the first set of pics, the fender showed mud in the lower part. As you may know, if that isn't removed you'll likely have a rust hole there in the distant future.

 

[Land Rover Joe]

I recently changed out all 4 air struts with equipment from BA, OEM by Delphi. An independent shop said springs need changing, no leaks, but at 90k miles, I decided to change the whole assembly as I plan to keep using the rig for many more miles and wanted peace of mind.

The driving feel improved a lot, but there's still a wallowy feel that I was expecting to go away or improve a lot. It didn't. In fact, sometimes a I feel wallowy feel increased going around corners. Will LCA help? I think front lower LCAs are going (beginning to feel the slight bumps at full stops or going through bumps on road).

Is there a hardness calibration or did I just use wrong struts (I hear arnott's are less wallowy)?

There is no hardness calibration or setting like with oil struts. That said, what about the rest of the suspension? There are a lot of other components like links, sway bars, and bushings.

 

[Land Rover Joe]

A local mechanic quoted me $7k to change all 4 air struts. Swear to god. He had $550 labor for each corner and Land Rover brand air struts all around. I'm so glad I didn't need to service them lol. I'm super easy on it off road. I drive it slow if its bumpy and the air suspension works its best that way. Its more comfortable too. A lot of guys like to drive fast and the LR4 can do it, but it costs money to drive fast off-road.

As an aside, in the first set of pics, the fender showed mud in the lower part. As you may know, if that isn't removed you'll likely have a rust hole there in the distant future.

Thanks @powershift -

Yes, (all) the mud is slowly getting removed and things getting cleaned/repainted (give us time!) I was frankly surprised how much stuff has accumulated everywhere in this thing...there are a lot of nooks and crannies which you only see when everything gets torn out. So rust prevention is coming!

That sound like a lot of money to do the struts.... A lot of folks are replacing these by themselves at this point (and you don't even need spring compressors!) You can do that job in a garage with just floor jacks and stands and it makes sense to work on those when you have to do the control arms / bushings - which is what I am doing. And those struts seem pretty tough and reliable so rather than replace, which isn't cheap, I opted to service. Thus the source of my question - are there any issues with serviced struts?

Also - you are 100% right: speed kills. I have wrecked a rear strut driving too fast at night in Africa (into a massive pothole). I bent the strut (fortunately not the frame) and cracked a factory wheel (alloy rim). I didn't know about the strut at the time but suspected something was wrong (the truck wasn't leveling correctly). I ended up back in the states and when I was getting the truck serviced (before the fuel sending unit / tank low pressure pump failed) the mechanics were scratching their heads about the back end...apparently no one there ever saw a bent strut before and couldn't figure out how I did it (just plain stupidity). Fortunately, it was replaced under warranty but to your point: slow and steady wins the race (and saves big money on totally unnecessary repairs).

 

[powershift]

Thanks @powershift -

Yes, (all) the mud is slowly getting removed and things getting cleaned/repainted (give us time!) I was frankly surprised how much stuff has accumulated everywhere in this thing...there are a lot of nooks and crannies which you only see when everything gets torn out. So rust prevention is coming!

That sound like a lot of money to do the struts.... A lot of folks are replacing these by themselves at this point (and you don't even need spring compressors!) You can do that job in a garage with just floor jacks and stands and it makes sense to work on those when you have to do the control arms / bushings - which is what I am doing. And those struts seem pretty tough and reliable so rather than replace, which isn't cheap, I opted to service. Thus the source of my question - are there any issues with serviced struts?

Also - you are 100% right: speed kills. I have wrecked a rear strut driving too fast at night in Africa (into a massive pothole). I bent the strut (fortunately not the frame) and cracked a factory wheel (alloy rim). I didn't know about the strut at the time but suspected something was wrong (the truck wasn't leveling correctly). I ended up back in the states and when I was getting the truck serviced (before the fuel sending unit / tank low pressure pump failed) the mechanics were scratching their heads about the back end...apparently no one there ever saw a bent strut before and couldn't figure out how I did it (just plain stupidity). Fortunately, it was replaced under warranty but to your point: slow and steady wins the race (and saves big money on totally unnecessary repairs).

For the serviced struts, I would expect longevity issues vs new, but they may be fine too. I'd be interested in hearing back on how they do, I don't have first hand experience.

I hear the Land Rover brand struts can last a long time and that is what I'm getting if the time ever comes. They look very strong, well built like they didn't f around and made them to last. I've got 115k mi now and as long as I don't jump it or do something stupid then I'm hoping to get 50-100k more out of them.