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Front strut blown - Bilstein, Arnott, rebuild, coil overs?
Hey all, my cruel mistress has let me down once more. After just clearing up an A/C issue, and then the fuel pumps/sending unit (shoutout to bbirdwell for help), and then upgrading to a 70amp relay, my front passenger strut blew while driving away from the house this morning. I feel like I can’t catch a ****ing break with this car. I believe it currently has a set of Arnott’s up front but I am debating what to do moving forward. I’ve seen some discussions on Rebuild Master Tech who rebuild the struts (however not sure they would since it has Arnott’s) and then of course the age old argument of keeping air or going to coil overs.
This whole car is going to be new by the time I’m through with it at this rate. Any suggestions one way or another? Obviously pricing varies to a huge degree as well so keep that in mind.
if you ever use your airmatic or damping adjustments or even the raise function...you already know the answer. i use all of those almost daily.
I actually very rarely do but I do live in South TX where the roads are far from perfect. Coil overs might get old quickly. I’m leaning towards airmatic and rebuilding just seems really cheap if possible.
Arnott has been a go-to for a long time, but in recent years there has been some concerning feedback regarding QC issues and failures. RMT is also hit or miss.
For Airmatic struts/shocks, OE Genuine or Bilstein are your top-shelf options.
on my car currently i have front arnott rebuilds...after 1.5 years i feel the fronts are about 40% deteriorated as far as performance as a guess. maybe not and just old valve technology. i'm wondering how new fronts feel like. i may take the plunge on replacing the fronts with new units just to see if i could improve damper performance. then again i drive pretty hard and head to the canyons quite often. also, a friend has been pushing me to join him at laguna seca.
Thanks for the advice so far. Thankfully I took the wheel off and found all that had happened was the level sensor had popped off the upper control arm mount for some reason. Not sure how to get it to stick on there for good but ok for now. Will order a new sensor!
Thanks for the input, all. My rigged up level sensor is working great for the time being. The problem is that the rubber shoulder it sits on is completely dry rotted, so I cut a bolt and welded it to the end of the mounting point on the upper control arm, placed the level sensor arm onto it, and then used a nut and washer to back it up. Can’t find that specific sensor anywhere.
Rockauto has them in stock: ARNOTT RH3501 Ride Height Sensoor.
That sensor, like all the others I’ve found, does not appear to include the linkage from the sensor to the upper control arm - the part I primarily need.
EDIT to include pic from a used sensor on eBay. This is the linkage I am talking about.
EDIT 2: I should clarify I don’t need the linkage as I previously explained it’s the rubber mounting shoulder that the linkage sits in which is the issue. If I could find it I would replace it. I wish people around here would respect the need to simply rig stuff sometimes when you have to.
Last edited by JakeAndBake; Nov 8, 2020 at 08:16 PM.
When people would discuss lowering links I never knew what they meant until now - thanks for the heads up on these. That would be an easy fix! Looks like they have built in fresh rubber grommets as well.
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