Thread: Air Susp Inactive: Strut out. Airbag seems OK. No air from air-line.

Just to let anyone who is interested know, the pricing for my struts from Island 4x4 in the UK is as follows:

- OEM LH Strut GBP 219
- OEM RH Strut GBP 219
- Shipping by FedEx GBP140

Converted to AUD, that totals $887, so call it $900 with a few bank fees etc.

Well cheaper than the dealer quoted price of $1650 for one strut......

Hi Dave glad to see everything sorted nearly. Great price too. Hope it doesn't take to all for new struts to arrive

Gary

Originally Posted by harlie

Basic testing functionality, if used, can save huge amounts of time. In David's case he would not have needed to remove anything other than the strut to water test it, and even that looks like in this case it would have been audible while fitted to the car once pressurised. In hindsight, with a good diog kit from the start, the problem would have been identified within a couple of minutes – with clean hands.

For sure - I am now looking at getting a kit to diagnose before I pull things apart!

Just wish my NanoCom would have an L322 option. It gets expensive having to have different units for the TD5 and the L322.

Well I figure for the times when somethings really wrong with the l322 I will pay a little and have the pro's look at it and read codes/diagnose for me. I have a reasonable relationship with a few places so they don't get too upset at me just getting codes read, buying a few bits and bobs and then doing the spannering myself at home.

but for the occasional use, and especially eas (as I had so much trouble with my p38 in the last few years) I was happy for the smaller price of the allcoms tool versus the more expensive other tools given how often I use them.

In 10 years of P38 owner ship I spent maybe $600 having codes read elsewhere, and I did at one stage seriously look at spending nearly $1400 on BBS gear.

Good to see your getting new struts and all will be well my back ones must be due soon!

Pity the dollars dropped, I was lucky and bought when it was 1.08 would have saved you another 60 odd dollars!

The 2 struts turned up on Tuesday, which I was very impressed with especially as it is just a few days to Xmas. Ordered on the prior Monday, so 8 days from order to receiving the goods.

Fitting the new strut was pretty straightforward. Took about 45 minutes. Cranked everything up (and remembered to close the doors) and up she pumped.

The new strut has an "A" suffix to the original part number, and it has a few design differences, like the airbag looks like it is made of some smooth polymer whereas the original one looks like it was rubber. Fitted straight in no problems.

Many thanks to John (jsp) for loaning me his EAS reset tool. Couldn't have done it without that.

For anyone else that has the same problem, I'd rate it as a 2 out of 10 on the mechanics difficulty scale. 1 hour to pull it out. Less than an hour to re-fit. No special tools needed (apart from the EAS reset electronics side of things). 2 jacks makes it easier, as does 4 jack stands to hold the car up while you are underneath it (if you need to air down the whole system).

That's it!

I'll be fitting the next one over the Xmas break sometime as you can be sure it's not far behind the one that blew.

Here's a few photos. Old Vs New:


And the new strut fitted back again, and aired up:

David, excellent result, well done.

Originally Posted by spudboy

Just wish my NanoCom would have an L322 option. It gets expensive having to have different units for the TD5 and the L322.

Too right, I went through the same thing, Already own a Nonocom. Gapdiognostic were talking about making the IIDToll multi vehicle usage, pretty sure it can do D3/4/RRS now (with purchase of extra license).

Thing that gets me is the kit for our other car (VW Golf) has full functionality for ANY VW Group car built after approx 2003, and forward compatible updates. That's any VW, Audi, Skoda, SEAT, Bugatti, Bentley, Lambo... and it does everything - BBS Faultmate level of coverage, all for $440, no locks, no extras, only extra cables required is if you want to plug into pre 2003 (Pre CANBUS). Vendors harp on about dev cost but I would tip that at $440 (thats from a shop in BNE, cheaper if you buy direct from US) VCDS makes it dev team more profit because every second VW owner has bought one because its very powerful, good value and not going to be obsolete when we trade on.

Fantastic Dave!

I can't believe how fast they got here!

I will be away until Thursday if you have issues and wish to get hold of the reset tool.

I had a spare couple of hours today, so I thought I'd tackle the other strut.

No real complications, except that because there wasn't a hole in it, it was fully pressurised and I had to release this before I could undo the bolts. I found a distribution block for the front behind the driver's side front wheel (under the plastic shrouding) and I cracked the nut on the air line and waited a minute or two for it to deflate. Black lines are passenger side. Yellow lines are Drivers side BTW.

Apart from that it was pretty much a mirror image of the other strut.

One thing to note: there is a gasket on top of the strut (that does not come with the new struts) that you have to remember to peel off and put on the new strut before you fit it.

Did everything up; fired her up; closed the doors, and up she came Whole job took about an hour and a half from wheeling out the trolley jack to putting it back in the shed again.

So now I have a "good" spare passenger side strut if anyone wants one. Happy to give it away for nothing if you want to pay for the postage. Probably doesn't have a huge lifespan in front of it, but should keep going for a while if you are saving up for some new ones.

Cheers
David