ap350

Just wanted to tell the world about my suspension conversion since I felt like I climbed Mt. Everest when It was finished. After the front left air strut failed rendered the car undrivable in my garage, I decided to do the conversion after taking everything into consideration. I went with the Arnott kit over the others in the price range since it came with everything needed to complete the job. It was not an easy job mainly due to the Lock-tight on all the bolts not to mention that they were all different sizes. That being said, I should tell you that I'm not a mechanic but have done a lot of work on my own vehicles over the years and this ranks up there with the harder jobs. I didn't go with the instruction which recommended dropping the exhaust, drive shaft, and rear sub frame because I wasn't concerned with taking all the other parts out. All and all, the fronts were easy with the only hang up being separating the upper control arm to lower the suspension out of the way. After trying for hours with every piece of equipment I had, my friend told me to just beat the **** out of it until it broke free and low and behold it worked by the third blow with the BFH. After I figured that out it was simple. The rear was not so easy, I had to use a jack pushing up on the wrenches to break some of the bolts free. Others required a pipe extension or a 4 foot pry bar. The right tools or a impact gun might have made it easier but it's such a confined space that I'm not sure how much it would help.
When it was all done I have to say the ride and handling were drastically improved. In all fairness the original suspension had 86000 miles on it and was probably due to be replaced. I can't stress enough how pleased I am with the ride quality and handling and would definitely recommend doing it. I'm sure other kits work just as well so good luck to anyone considering a conversion.

TonyE55k

Thank you for doing a write up, I am currently in the same boat, and this made my decision a lot easier. Do you have any pictures of how the car sits after installation? I am curious to see how the ride height is. Really the only thing holding me back at this point.

jaxn5

That's awesome! I'm considering this, how much did it cost to convert?

ap350

ap350

The Arnott kit was @ $1400.00, I installed it myself so I cant say what a shop would charge but if you can find someone to do it for a couple hundred bucks, then I would save yourself some aggravation. Like I stated earlier, the cost is well worth the piece of mind of not having to worry about one of the many components involved failing unexpectedly.

ap350

The first picture taken in daylight is stock air suspension the rest were after the conversion. You can see there is no discernable difference. As I said in the original post, the ride is much much better and and I never have to worry about it again. I dont regret my decision at all.

Tony

TonyE55k

Beautiful man, car looks great.

jaxn5

I'm sure that peace of mind is worth it. Good job and thanks for sharing your experience installing. The Car looks great!

hayseed

iTrader: (2)

I got a note from Arnott and they confirmed the spring size dimensions and spring rate the same from the C-2675 product as the spring in the C-2278 kit -- so that would be another option if you wanted to use adjustable coilovers in the front -- I wanted to use arnott steel springs for the back and airmatic style front but nit sure how to disable 1/2 of the suspension system.

ap350

Thanks a lot.

ap350

Haha, I wanted to do the opposite. Have springs in the front and airbags in the back to level it out but after I installed the front springs, I left everything in place and started it up but the rear springs never inflated. I'm sure one of the gurus here could figure it out.

ap350

Another note, after I did the conversion, I didn't install the bypass module and was getting a strange intermittent tow alarm. The only way I found to disable it was to turn the wheel all the way in both directions a couple of times and all was fine after that.

JoeNobody

Was airmatic working before the conversion? No issues, except for a bunch of miles and years on the prior system?

PSH72

Did you disconected any sam modele só that the compressor wouldnt work?

wpbmed

The arnott system says it comes with a module to fool the computer in to not showing error codes. Did your's come with the module?

PSH72

No that arnott system only comes for the promatic, my van only had air at the rear.

But I resolve the problem by sam and when as said above to the to the dash meno and reset the compressor mod.

And the error did not show any more.

wpbmed

ok thanks for the response

MACEDON

How's it holding up man? My front right wheel is leaning... i'm afraid I'm gonna have to order the kit...

Any tips on saving some $$ on it? I see it's almost $1800 on their site...

E55amg0220

got it on my 03 and love it I have a hook up that g0t me the system for just over 1100. I didnt want to have the headache of worrying about the system going out anymore

MACEDON

I'm in the same boat

Which kit do you have?

Where did you get it? Hook it up?

Lastly, if I bring my parts, will shops install em? Generally they don't install customer's parts, no?

E55amg0220

I have this kit here https://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/-p-...1HYaAmh_8P8HAQ

I got it locally from a friend that ordered it an sold it to me at cost

I did the conversion myself its not an easy one to do it takes some time but its not too bad. If your not good with tools i wouldnt recommend it the shocks are all pretty easy its getting the rear springs in that are a big pain in the butt. I am a tech so it wasnt all that bad and being a bodybuilder im pretty strong so loosening the bolts werent tht bad for me. Air tools and a lift woulda made it easier but i got it all done in bout 6 hours with jacks and hand tools.

Heck too bad u didnt need this done month ago I was out there visiting my father in port st lucie i coulda done it for ya while out there. Thats where im from now im in utah. But heck id do it for ya if i was out there

MACEDON

I'm not completely clueless with tools but I've never done brakes or suspension in my life, oil changes, EGR replace and turbo replace on a Ford f250, alternator replace, stuff like that really... I see arnott has a few videos about it and I see a few DIY threads and youtube vids, so it's becoming not scary.

That's the exact kit I want actually, can your friend hook it up at a slight mark up so its benefitial for him and me? Can you recommend a good amg shop in the tampa bay area then? My suspension is leaning on one side though the car lifts up when I drive it I am pretty sure it's on its last leg lmao

That's really nice of you to say man, we'd be great friends if that's the kind of person you are!

BoostedAero

This is exactly how my car was on my drivers side rear, lasted about 3k miles than one huge 1-2 gear gas pedal mash and it blew out... nursed it home about and swapped to BC coilovers

FWIW they have a good range and are a solid upgrade over Airmatic in my and others opinions

I would go KW>D2>BC (in that order) over Strutmaster/Arnott coil conversion anyday

$2k is too much for what you get in that kit IMHO

MACEDON

I'm more interested in comfort honestly, this car won't be used for doing hard pulls and I'm not very interested in too much handling ability. It pains me that I won't get to experience the beauty of a nicely working airmatic but whatever, I'd rather do this than spend $3k repairing the airmatic knowing it's gonna take a **** again some day. Also, if I do my own install with the Arrnot kit it has all those nice videos online, I wonder how streamlined the other ones are. Will most likely get a shop to do it then.

I'll look into the KW kit then. Thank you.

If you didn't do the install yourself, how much did they charge? I'd imagine they'll say it's 6-7 hours of work

E55amg0220

PMed ya brother