Air Springs replaced...Ha, Ha, Ha!!!!!!!!

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Just finished the air springs on the r.h. side-they went in no problem.
Many thanks for the tip Eightinavee about putting some air in the springs before fitting the clips-it worked a treat.
Finished the brake pipes so will now bleed them before moving to the other two on the passenger side.

From the make up of the new springs with plastic end caps, yes I would agree that a chisel and big hammer would shift them, plus the clips are less likely to react with the plastic in the same way as the old ally ones.:clap2::clap2::clap2:
 
I understand that you are still working on it, I am very much interested to know how it feels with steel springs comparing to the air ones.

Many thanks,

Panos.
 
Hey Irishrover,

I replaced my shocks with Konis a few weeks back but still have the old ones out the back (The Konis are brilliant BTW, marginally but noticebaly smoother ride, transformed handling and braking - bitch to fit though, they have positive pressure so are constantly trying to extend to full length:eek:). If you're badly stuck you're welcome to them but I am in Kerry, a handy spin from Edenderry!

BTW there's a LR specialist outside Mallow with full Rovacom so you're not quite the only one in the South:p
 
Hi Spud..thanks for the kind offer of the shocks-appreciated!! however, I have managed to get the old rear spring off without removing the shock. Tend to take the caravan down to the Doolin area once a year so may give you a shout when I am next door in Clare.

Regarding the Rovacom, I have the BECM direct memory module which enables me to write to, and program used and new BECM's. I do not have Rovacom, but Rovacomlite. I have reprogrammed secondhand BECM's, which is something the Main Stealers can't do with Testbook. Living in a country of "Loopholes"-I put "I believe" at the end!!:tea::smokin:
 
At last...finished!!
The lh were easier that the rh-I was expecting them to be a bigger pain in the ass due the fact that the nearside tends to get more muck & ****e thrown up from the gutters etc.
The front bottom clip came straight out, took me longer to remove and refit the wing liner than change the spring. The clip on the bottom of the rear spring was rotten and sheared off easily, the top one broke as I tried to hook it out but a pair of pointed nose vice grips did the trick.
The height at the front lh is a bit high, so it's out with the diagnostics and tweak the settings tomorrow. Make a pleasant change to come back in the house clean!!
Haven't forgot to post pics of the old springs-will do it soon.

Next job....Transfer Box-more dirty hands I suppose....

Thanks Guys for all the advice.:clap2::smokin::beer2::beer2::beer2::beer2:
 
Mine have been on since new-11years. The car has not been used much off road and I was not getting any faults. Only when I looked at them whilst changing brake pipes that I had the fright of my life
 
I found the ideal tool to push out the old rusted retaining pins on the rear airsprings turned out to be a trusted old fashioned square twisted meat skewer, it just went through the hole and with the help of a 4 lb hammer freed the rusty old pins! Youre best off with several skewers as they tend to end up bent by the time the pin is out. Good Luck!
 
Use a thin cold chisel and hammer to chop the ends of the pin off. If you can make a dint in the pin near where it goes into the spring housing you may be able to break it off by bending it down with a large screwdriver - that's what I did.
To do the front springs I had to undo the bottom ends of the shock absorbers and push them up out of the way. Even so it was a job to get the cold chisel to the pin. The other problemn I had was geting the airline out. It took a few minutes pushing and pulling on the pipe with the collett pressed in before they came out.
Hope this helps.
mikeateves
 
Hi Irish Rover,
Have you finished the air springs replacement, and if so did you have any other issues like re-calibrating the heights? I would also be interested in whose air springs you chose to use.
I have just got under my recently purchased year 2000 P38 Diesel and the air springs are all perished. :eek: I have actually ordered Arnott Gen 2 air springs so any comments on quality of product etc would be welcomed.

Just hoping I don't have as much trouble as you did getting the old springs off:praise:
 
I replaced mine with Dunlop (Original spec.) from Island 4x4. I have no personal experience of Arnotts but there is good feedback on here from guys that have fitted them. In theory, as the heights are dictated by the sensors and not the springs, they should be the same. However I decided to check the heights on mine and they were out of spec. after fitting the springs-I didn't check beforehand what they were before the change. I got the Rovacom out and recalibrated them to factory settings.
I would think that you may encounter the same problem as myself regarding removal of the spring clips, especially on the rear springs....but you may be lucky especially if your existing springs have plastic end caps......Good luck.
 
Irishrover said:
I replaced mine with Dunlop (Original spec.) from Island 4x4. I have no personal experience of Arnotts but there is good feedback on here from guys that have fitted them. In theory, as the heights are dictated by the sensors and not the springs, they should be the same. However I decided to check the heights on mine and they were out of spec. after fitting the springs-I didn't check beforehand what they were before the change. I got the Rovacom out and recalibrated them to factory settings.
I would think that you may encounter the same problem as myself regarding removal of the spring clips, especially on the rear springs....but you may be lucky especially if your existing springs have plastic end caps......Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I went for Arnott even though they are a little more expensive because of the lifetime warrenty. Probably worth nothing, hope I won't need it.
I don't off road except to extract my caravan from my field. I need 4wd to get out of my house in winter:D living at the bottom of a valley it's that or a tractor LOL.

I have Storey Wilsons software so I hope I will be able to use that to de-pressurise and then re-calibrate:)

Thanks for the good luck :D
 
It will probably pay you to depressurise by releasing the bung on the end of the air receiver mounted to the chassis. Just slacken it off, there is a groove cut into the threads to release the pressure without removing the plug completely. This will remove any condensation that's present in the receiver. However won't do any harm to replace the "O" ring on the plug whilst you are at it. I found a couple of bits of rust on the receiver and decided to remove the tank and give it a coat of Hammerite black whilst I was at it-only held on by 3 M8 bolts. If you have the EAS software, then you are able to recalibrate...if needed.Suggest you get a set of spring clips with the springs.:tea::smokin:
Good Luck!!!!
 
if your changing just the springs you don,t need to depressurise the whole system,i would remove the big black relay from under the passenger seat,for the eas,support the corner you are doing with a jack/axle stands,and just remove the air pipe from that spring.(wear some sort of saftey glasses to stop any **** been blown into your eyes),then put a bit of air into the new spring from a footpump or commpressor then fit it,once its in start the engine for a minute,switch off then move to the next spring,thats how i did mine,took me a full day but the rear springs were jammed in
 
andy 0352 said:
if your changing just the springs you don,t need to depressurise the whole system,i would remove the big black relay from under the passenger seat,for the eas,support the corner you are doing with a jack/axle stands,and just remove the air pipe from that spring.(wear some sort of saftey glasses to stop any **** been blown into your eyes),then put a bit of air into the new spring from a footpump or commpressor then fit it,once its in start the engine for a minute,switch off then move to the next spring,thats how i did mine,took me a full day but the rear springs were jammed in
Click to expand...

Hi Andy, thanks for the advice, sounds like a good idea to me, at least it will save having to re-presurise the whole system. I have a little experience with air powered systems as I used to design ECU's for industrial control, probably not a lot of use on EAS except I'm familiar with the plastic pipe and fittings.:hijacked:
 
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