Replacing Rear Air Spring

[jeep]

Time to change the rear air springs for the self leveling suspension.

Lot's of good forum posts DIY information etc. available now. I am debating between getting Arnott's for about $300 a pair or getting one from ebay for $70 a pair. Arnott's are also not OE/OEM as far as I know? Looking at all the info. I could find I am leaning towards the Arnott's however I would like to hear experiences from folks on either side of the aisle.

Thanks

[Toothbrush]

I've had cheap ones from ebay that didn't last very long. I actually still have one sitting in the garage never used as a 'seller replacement' for the first one that went bad.

The second one went bad before it arrived, so I went ahead and got both left and right Arnott bags.

I figured the cheap ones were cheap enough to justify 'trying them out hoping to save some cash and replace with quality if they fail'.

[ard]

Buy an Arnotts from FCPeuro and they have a lifetime warranty....

[jeep]

Thanks folks, I will go with Arnotts. Got a good price on Amazon.

[Toothbrush]

Good choice.


If I can remember later tonight I'll take a pic of the cheap bag I have so when you get the Arnott version, you can see there's a big difference.

[Westlotorn]

I just replaced both of my rear air springs with the Arnott bags.
Information on this forum certainly saved me time and energy.

Tips I would pass on.

I jacked up the rear of the car, blocked the front wheels, both sides, used my floor jack under the rear differential being careful not to let the jack hit the diff cover. Raised the car and installed jack stands under both body jack locations in front of the rear wheels.
Now you can put your floor jack under the rear wheel hub support to lower the rear or raise it as needed to change your air bag.

On the bottom of the new and old bags there is a locator bump and there is a recessed area in the air bag support to receive this bump. Take a sharpie and mark this bump location on the bottom of the air bag and mark the air bag support on the differential as to the location of this locator. It keeps the bag from turning once it is installed.
If you know where this is you can quickly install the upper and lower properly.

When popping off the old air bags I used a carpenters crow bar, 24 inch bar. Just slipped the sharp edge of the crow bar under the air bag and pried it up and off.
Did not need to pinch the lock tabs at all. 30 second job each side. Then turn the bag, it will only turn one direction, and lower it out. Remove the air line after you can maneuver the air bag into an easy position to work. Go slow and be careful moving the bag so you don't break the air line. There is a clip on the forward body side of the air bag that holds the air line in place by the top of the bags. Both sides on my car these clips popped open releasing the air line as I worked. The line popped right back in once I had everything else installed. Do this BEFORE bolting the tire in place or you will not have access.

When I went to install the first air supply line to the drivers side air bag I pushed the red air line in but had no idea how deep it actually went into the air bag.
I kept pushing and guessing to see how deep it went in and if I might be done.
On the Pass side I put 4 small marks on the air line, about 1/4 inch apart.
I also wiped a little dawn dish soap on the line where it needed to slip into the air bag.
This side went in smooth and very quick and I could see by my marks that more than 3/4 inch of hose was inside the fitting. It is back on the road and all seems well.
I am still a little nervous about the drivers side air line since it went in unmarked and I have no idea if I got it fully installed. It will not pull off so I hope it is good.

Third item, some on here reported the factory and Arnott springs look different.
The factory Air spring has a cover on it. This cover will pop right off and installs perfectly on the Arnott springs just snap it on the new spring, now the two look nearly identical.

I did un bolt the shocks to gain the extra 1" of space by lowering the axle a little bit more. This made a nice difference, gave room to easily slip the new Air Bag into place. You can do it with the shock in place but it is only one bolt and with an Impact gun this is off in 30 seconds.

Finally, my old air bag had a leak, a very slow leak. I mixed up a strong mix of water and dawn dish soap, maybe 80% water. Squirted this over both air springs with them fully inflated and nothing happened. Having done this before looking for engine leaks over the years I knew to wait and watch, I waited about two hours and came back to inspect the bags. The drivers side bag had a 3/4 inch wide mound of small bubbles in one spot. Leak Found. Now I ordered the new bags. By the time they came in my car had settled all the way down, bags now empty. I did not disconnect the fuse or the battery. I just made sure I did not open a door or touch my key fob until I had the car back on the wheels again. I lowered my jack till the car was a little lower than normal height, opened a door and the air bag pumps turned on and filled them up.
Taking my time on this job and taking time to rotate my tires this was only a 2 hour job with no headaches.

Hope this helps those doing this job in the future as many of your have helped me in the past.

[jeep]

Originally Posted by Westlotorn

I just replaced both of my rear air springs with the Arnott bags.
Information on this forum certainly saved me time and energy.

Tips I would pass on.

I jacked up the rear of the car, blocked the front wheels, both sides, used my floor jack under the rear differential being careful not to let the jack hit the diff cover. Raised the car and installed jack stands under both body jack locations in front of the rear wheels.
Now you can put your floor jack under the rear wheel hub support to lower the rear or raise it as needed to change your air bag.

On the bottom of the new and old bags there is a locator bump and there is a recessed area in the air bag support to receive this bump. Take a sharpie and mark this bump location on the bottom of the air bag and mark the air bag support on the differential as to the location of this locator. It keeps the bag from turning once it is installed.
If you know where this is you can quickly install the upper and lower properly.

........

Awesome writeup, unfortunately it came a bit late for me as I changed the bags 3 weeks back. I did essentially follow the same steps except for using a crowbar, popping off the shock or marking the lines (am a bit nervous as well) and I did remove the fuse and let the bags deflate on their own before starting the job. Took me about the same time (2 hrs). Inserting the bags into the groove was a pain and took the longest.

I did a long road trip after the swap and the bags have held up fine (fingers crossed).

Adding some pics if that helps anyone: