Thread: P38 Coil Conversion Kit

It's a very personal choice to swap from EAS to coils. And everyone here has their own argument as to why each is better - myself included, and I suppose it comes to a price for most! At the age our P38's are we are all looking to be replacing some of the EAS components about now if we haven't already!

My argument towards keeping the EAS is also cost related. If you begin to have problems with air springs it's time to replace them - just as you would if you were driving on 10 year old coils! By now coils would be starting to sag, shocks would be due for replacement. At the current price for airbags i'd be replacing four of them for less than four coils and still have about the same expected lifespan out of them as I would coils. We simply need to spend a few bucks more when it comes to the rest of the EAS system. Again, once the little age-related things are fixed you'd expect a decent life out of them.

Nothing against coils though! Defenders and Disco's can flex like crazy! But i've got EAS and that's the way i'm staying!

Cheers
Keithy

I am assuming if you convert a P38 to coil springs you are required to get an engineers certificate for it. I would think you would need a lane change test done as a minimum.

I spoke to Graeme Cooper about this many years ago when he still owned the business.

He told me that it is legal to change Classic airbags to coils as there were coil sprung versions of the same year sold alongside the air ones.

On the other hand there has never been a coil version of the 38A and a type approval was necessary to sell kits in Australia. because of the small volume he was unwilling to undertake type approval.

In individual cases each converted vehicle needs to be engineer certified to be legal.
I do not think this situation has changed.
Regards Philip A

You will never see a heavily loaded P38 with a saggy rear end on the road (unless it has problems).
I dont seem to get more than 5yrs out of my Air bags before thay start to crack and leak.
I use OEMs.

Originally Posted by PhilipA

I spoke to Graeme Cooper about this many years ago when he still owned the business.

He told me that it is legal to change Classic airbags to coils as there were coil sprung versions of the same year sold alongside the air ones.

On the other hand there has never been a coil version of the 38A and a type approval was necessary to sell kits in Australia. because of the small volume he was unwilling to undertake type approval.

In individual cases each converted vehicle needs to be engineer certified to be legal.
I do not think this situation has changed.
Regards Philip A

G'day again all,

I contacted Tonkin's Automotive Engineers in SA to get their point of view on what would be required in terms of certifying the P38 for coils and in their opinion as long as the raised height did not exceed the 50mm allowed in SA and the replacement springs at least equaled the lbf/inch of the original springs there shouldn't be any reason to require an engineer's certification.

They put me onto Regency Park inspectors (SA Transport's vehicle inspection depot) and the inspector I spoke to said the same thing and he didn't see any reason to get the P38 inspected but did recommend notifying my insurance company to let them know.

In short, if you convert your P38 to coils (in SA at least) and stay within the 50mm lift from standard height (not offroad height) they have no issues with the conversion. BTW the use of packers is not allowed in SA so you will need to stipulate DS and PS when ordering your springs as a standard pair of springs will give you a 15mm droop on the driver's side.

I also contacted the Range Rover Club of SA who have members with P38s converted to coils and they said the same thing. No inspections required.

Hope this helps.